Pretty much this.
Thank you Mauricio
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...o-pochettino-making-spurs-fans-dream-reality/
I have to keep pinching myself. I still can't really believe Tottenham are in a Champions League final. I'm still not entirely used to Spurs being in the Champions League at all.
On the road that now leads to Madrid there have been many helping hands. Daniel Levy has run the club well. Harry Kane's emergence coincided nicely with Mauricio Pochettino's arrival. But it is Pochettino himself to whom we owe the greatest thanks.
Monday marked five years to the day since Pochettino was appointed manager of Tottenham, moving from Southampton to relatively little fanfare. He was Spurs' seventh full-time manager in 10 years. The supporters needed convincing that this appointment would be any different from the last.
His impact was immediate, and stark. There was a playing style that brought visible differences to the team unlike his predecessor, Tim Sherwood, and fewer mistakes than the suicidal high line of Andre Villas-Boas. And in Kane there was a local hero to get behind, too.
The success since has snowballed to such an extent that some fans have forgotten what Spurs had been for the majority of the Premier League era. Let me be clear, most of us have not.
We still remember the flirtations with relegation. We still remember the Stephen Carr own goal that ended our foray back into Europe in 1999. We remember Sergei Rebrov, Gregor Rasiak and Darren Bent. We remember Lasagne-gate. We remember Juande Ramos banning ketchup. And Michael Dawson celebrating
that Saudi Sportswashing Machine goal that wasn't. And finishing fourth before being denied a route into the Champions League by Chelsea winning the thing. The list goes on.
That is all in the past now, though, thanks to Pochettino.
Poch has changed the way the club thinks. No longer are we consumed by the fear of failure. No longer are Arsenal the main concern. Pochettino's insistence on focusing on bigger things has finally got through.
Which brings us onto this season. There were horrible mistakes, and plenty of them. There were real low points, and the second half of the campaign saw
the kind of capitulation that might even be a concern for next term.
But any negatives can be forgotten for now. A Champion League final awaits and, for that, we will forever be grateful to Pochettino.
Even after the marked improvement of the last few years, including a second-placed finish and some truly memorable European nights, I still truly believed I would never see Tottenham in such a major final as this. That was still the case as recently as a month ago. There were points late on against each of PSV, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Emirates Marketing Project and (very late on) in the semi-final against Ajax - that's five of our six Champions League opponents this season - when I was fully convinced of it. But Pochettino has given us hope.
After taking only one point from the first three group stage matches, crucial nervy victories over PSV Eindhoven and Inter Milan were followed by an epic draw at the Nou Camp, each time Spurs looking down and out before vital late goals. After the mauling of Borussia Dortmund, there was
the VAR-induced bedlam at the Etihad and Lucas Moura's sensational second-half hat-trick in Amsterdam. This has been a season like no other. And now onto the final.
The nerves are all-consuming. Last week I woke up in a sweat at three in the morning, having dreamed I was an old man in poor health waiting for this final, fretting whether I'd be around to see the game because of the dastardly three-week wait. I awoke distressed, but also immediately clear what my subconscious was trying to tell me: I might not get this opportunity again. This could be a once in a lifetime match. Enjoy it.
Obviously we want to win it. Of course there is hope that this dream can go even further and become the greatest triumph in the club's history. The fact there is any hope at all is an indication of the incredible effect Pochettino has had.
But whatever happens, this journey, the dramatic late wins, the insanity at the Etihad, Lucas Moura's hat-trick in Amsterdam, all of it, will live with me forever.
I'm so grateful for those memories, and will cherish the spectacle of seeing my team in a Champions League final. Being there at all is down to our wonderful manager so, Mauricio Pochettino, thank you.