DAILY STAR
When Chelsea hired Mauricio Pochettino it came as a result of a lengthy, calculated recruitment plan – but that wasn’t the case when he initially arrived in the Premier League.
The Argentine first appeared on English shores after being snapped up by Southampton in 2013, but the Saints basically discovered him by accident after sending their scouts to Spain to watch a young Philippe Coutinho in action.
The Brazilian was one of the highest-rated youngsters in the world after joining Inter Milan as a teenager, and was loaned out to Espanyol in 2012 to get some much-needed first team minutes under his belt.
Coutinho ended up joining Liverpool a year later, but Southampton’s scouting trip wasn’t in vain as someone else had caught their eye too: Espanyol’s young manager.
“I was attracted by this young man on the touchline. I just liked his body language, I felt he had good impact,” Southampton executive chairman Nicola Cortese, who had led the scouting mission, told talkSPORT back in 2017.
“I didn’t know his name at the time, but from that moment I started following his career. I started doing due diligence on him, calling agents who had players there and asking about their training regime.”
That young man was, of course, Pochettino, who began his coaching career at Espanyol in 2009, having finished his playing career there three years earlier, and quickly earned rave reviews for his high-pressing playing style and ability to develop young players.
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