Hootnow
Jermaine Jenas
I remember going to the pub with my house mate and there being Italians at the next table. He would be earwigging and understand what they were saying even though he had never had an Italian lesson in his life.
I've got a Portuguese friend now and she has told me that the Spanish struggle with Portuguese but they do not have the same problem with Spanish. I wonder whether this is cultural and be because Portuguese is not as widely spoken as Spanish so there is more need for them to speak other languages. I would imagine that Spain is a bigger cultural power in the region and that could have a big impact too.
My Colombian work colleague obviously speaks Colombian Spanish but also understands Brazilian Portuguese really well, but doesn't understand Italian well at all.
So perhaps South American Spanish speakers like MoPo with Brazil on their border, understand Brazilian Portuguese more than they understand Italian.
I was going to ask whether in South America because they seem quite linked whether some of the Spanish speaking countries teach Portugese at school and vica versa (and whether they watch each others' shows?).
The real point anyway is that I doubt Pochettino will be having to pull out all of his languages to converse with our players.