Mauricio Pochettino has told Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger to not speak about Tottenham Hotspur and instead focus on his own club.
Before Arsenal’s Carabao Cup semi-final victory over Chelsea on Wednesday, Wenger took a cheeky dig on the teams that haven’t won any silverware for many years, stating that the media “celebrate some teams who have not been in a final for 25 years”.
“You celebrate some teams who have not been in a final for 25 years and yet you kill us even though we have won the FA Cup three times in the last four years,” the Frenchman was quoted by Sky Sports.
“It’s like that, we have to live with that. I have no illusions at all. The mood is decided by you (the press).”
Wenger didn’t mention any club’s name but apparently aimed a dig at Tottenham and Liverpool, who together have won only two trophies since 2008.
Pochettino responded to his counterpart’s jibes by suggesting (quoted by Sky Sports):
“I’m so young and (have) only (been) five years in the Premier League, in two clubs Southampton and Tottenham, but there’s no point to talk about another team.”
“Praise? Of course we receive praise. Football is not only to win trophies, it’s the circumstances of different clubs.
“He is and will always be one of the best managers in the world, I respect him, but I think he needs to talk for himself and for Arsenal.
“He is a special manager, but everyone sometimes makes a mistake and for me he made a mistake to talk about us or a different team.”
Tottenham travel to League Two promotion hopefuls Newport on Saturday to play in the 4th round of the FA Cup, which realistically presents our gaffer the best chance of winning a trophy this season.
Pochettino, who is yet to win a trophy since joining Spurs in the summer of 2014, added:
“It’s always massive and very important thing to win trophies with your club. We wish and we hope that one day we can provide to the club one, two or many trophies.
“It’s true that we need to work hard on that but it’s not easy when you compete in a league like in England, when you compete with massive clubs; it always makes winning a trophy more difficult.
“We need to create our own history and our own history is very young because it’s only about the three-and-a-half years I’ve had here.”
I wish Poch prioritises winning the FA Cup this season and shuts up some of our critics.
