Mauricio Pochettino predicted a ‘painful rebuild’ at Tottenham following their defeat in last season’s Champions League Final.
Few expected the final punch to land quite this hard.
Pochettino’s position has been a focus of much speculation for 18 months, but the temptations of working with bigger clubs, bigger players and bigger budgets seemed the most likely end.
His sacking after five-and-a-half years in charge seemed farcical in theory, let alone in practice.
Few managers during Daniel Levy’s tenure as Tottenham chairman have publicly challenged the Spurs chief to the degree that Pochettino has.
While their personal relationship remained strong – with Levy outlining his ‘utmost respect’ for the Argentine in his carefully-worded statement – warning signs that business relations were straining were apparent.
Pochettino’s countless, albeit thinly-veiled calls for new signings grew over the past 12 months as their domestic form stuttered, stagnated, then disintegrated.
Ahead of the home match with then rock-bottom Watford last month, with Spurs lying in ninth spot with three wins from their opening eight games, concerns were already setting in.
Despite the summer arrivals of Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso and Ryan Sessegnon, it was evident that further squad replenishment was required.
But Pochettino seemed resigned to the fact that he would not be awarded a January overhaul.
Their 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield United proved the final straw for Levy and the board. Since the start of February, they have only accrued 31 points from 26 League games.
Pochettino himself admitted that ‘we'll see if we have time to build what we want’. As Spurs released their statement to the world at 7.30pm on Tuesday, it was clear he wouldn’t.
The elephant in the room – regardless of who succeeds Pochettino – is the new stadium and what Levy wants to fill it with.
The £850million state-of-the-art arena placed Tottenham in the big leagues in terms of physical assets of bricks, mortar and glass. Now, with Pochettino gone, the buck falls with Levy with regards to what that stadium represents.
Pochettino’s inability to win a trophy during his time at Spurs has been well documented, but to achieve the calibre of trophy that should be associated with a stadium such as theirs, millions and millions must be invested on wages and transfer fees.
History suggests that will not happen, and if it does, why wasn’t that luxury afforded to a man who, in Levy’s own words, ‘will always be part of our history’?
In the past 12 months Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid have each sacked managers for similar slumps. That’s how the big clubs react.
Tottenham have made their big club decision. Time will tell whether conditions will be right for rejuvenation or rot.
