DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
Pochettino had less than no resources at Espanyol. His spending at Southampton has been relatively high perhaps, but nothing out of the ordinary. I listed the mid-table and lower-half teams that had spent £20m or more previously, it's not uncommon.
Comparably I think Rafa's spending at Liverpool was considerable. I don't think there were many clubs out of the top 4 that had a higher net spend or a bigger wage budget. Liverpool got themselves into serious financial problems under Benitez didn't they? Benitez has had a solid £25m net spend in his first season at Napoli, a season when they sold Cavani of course, but signed a ton of players. And they finished second the season before he came, not sure how big an achievement it is to then have a bigger net spend than your competitors (I think) and finish third? At the very least the criticism you aim at Pochettino should be valid here too.
And, as said previously, Pochettino's Southampton beat City, Chelsea and Liverpool last season. He clearly qualifies in that last of your criteria.
Pochettino didn't have much to play with at Espanyol, true. Yet he left the club hovering just above the relegation zone at the time of his sacking, while his successor (Javier Aguirre) has them comfortably in mid-table despite having a net transfer spend of minus nine million euros, if I remember correctly. So whatever limitations Pochettino had apply to Aguirre as well, yet the latter seems far more successful than the former.
Yes, Rafa spent quite a bit at Liverpool: if I remember correctly their net spend averaged around 15-20 million pounds every season. Yet, they were also CL participants for all those seasons, which points to where the extra revenue came from: and while they did get into financial trouble when he was at the helm, I believe that had far more to do with Hicks and Gillett's various deals than it did with his spending. And whatever he did spend at Liverpool pales in comparison to his feats with Valencia: breaking the Barca-Madrid duopoly with the resources he had was incredible, more so when he did it twice in a row. Pochettino lacks comparable over-achievement: his spending has been relatively high, and he has finished in an upper mid-table position. There has been nothing spectacular at St.Mary's, merely a conformity to expectations.
As for the last point, hmm, point accepted. Still, I can't shake the feeling that when you lose 3-2 to Tim Sherwood's tactically anarchic Spurs twice in a row, alongside regular 3 goal losses to City, Liverpool and Arsenal (this season), then you're not quite a giant-killer: at least, not on the same level as Rafa Benitez (of Istanbul fame) and LvG (with his 1995 Ajax side).