There’s been a sense for quite some time that something wasn’t quite right between the players and Poch. This article in The Athletic seems to confirm it:
Tottenham appoint Mourinho after Pochettino ‘sulked his way to the sack’
https://theathletic.com/1388073/201...ed-his-way-to-the-sack/?source=shared-article
“Don’t look at the boss.”
Tottenham players had become used to saying those words to each other in recent weeks. Don’t catch his eye, don’t give him an excuse to get you in to trouble, just get on with training and surely this will all be over soon.
Mauricio Pochettino had never been overly friendly around the training ground, that just wasn’t his style. He was the boss after all, not the players’ friend. And after becoming Tottenham’s most successful manager in 50 years, who cared how chatty he was anyway? The team had become regulars in the Champions League, they were beating the biggest teams in Europe and had challenged for the Premier League title at their peak. They were scintillating at their best, hunting down the opposition in packs and entertaining their fans with a team full of improving young players.
But then they weren’t. Then the victories dried up, the tough training sessions caught up with the players’ minds and legs and the manager became surly and distant.
As one dressing room source told
The Athletic: “It was the only decision that made sense.” With the team currently 14th in the Premier League, without a win in five, and with no away victory in the league since January, the players really had lost faith. From their last 24 league games, a run dating back to late February, they have taken just 25 points.
On Tuesday evening the club sacked Pochettino and 12 hours later replaced him with Jose Mourinho. This is why.
After a week of talks over Pochettino’s future, in which he had resolutely refused to resign, Levy was eventually left with no choice on Tuesday but to dismiss the 47-year-old and his backroom staff, triggering what is understood to be a £12 million pay-out to the Argentine coach. Pochettino’s assistant Jesus Perez, and coaches Miguel d’Agostino and Antoni Jimenez have also left the club.
Talks started last Wednesday as Levy hoped to use the international break to find a solution to Spurs’ bad start.
There was a growing sense of unease throughout the week as speculation about Pochettino’s future grew. Some first-team players — but by no means all — got wind on Monday night that their manager was on his way out. But with some players still on international duty, and no public statement until Tuesday evening, there was still a sense of confusion throughout the club.
What eventually did for Pochettino was losing the support of the dressing room over the course of this season. The players sensed that he did not have the same relish for the job as in his early years at Spurs. They had once been willing participants in his demanding hard-running style, but their physical and mental energy did not last forever. The players have got older, and recently they have found themselves with less to give. The Pochettino regime of double sessions, very few days off and hard running started to drag. “The old effect of the double sessions had gone, and it was mentally important to regenerate,” said one dressing-room source. “So the moment of the sacking is a bit surprising, but the fuel tank got empty much earlier. At a certain moment, it is just over.”