Manuel Pellegrini and Mauricio Pochettino come face to face at the London Stadium this Saturday. At the start of the season, both managers will have been looking to the top half of the table at rather than sitting just above the drop zone.
West Ham United have flattered to deceive whilst Tottenham Hotspur have gone from Champions League runners up to a team with no cohesion or urgency. Come Saturday afternoon, the end of the road may arrive for one or even both of these managers.
The End is Nigh for Manuel Pellegrini or Mauricio Pochettino
Manuel Pellegrini
The Chilean coach became the first manager from outside of Europe to win the League title in England. When he bowed out of Manchester City in the summer of 2016, he left with the fifth highest win ratio of any EPL manager.
His start with West Ham United was solid, securing top ten finish for the first time in two years. Pellegrini was accepted by the West Ham fans, no easy task as Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and David Moyes, to name but a few, will attest to.
The start to the 2019/20 league season was tough with a home tie against defending Champions Manchester City. West Ham were brushed aside 5-0 but subsequently went on to beat Norwich City and Manchester United. Signs were looking positive.
Defeats to Newcastle United at home and a 3-0 horror-show at Burnley saw the Hammers drop down the table. They now sit just five points above the bottom three with no win in six games. West Ham United spent over £100 million last season and broke their transfer record for a third time with the acquisition of Sebastian Haller from Eintracht Frankfurt. Consequently, Pellegrini is staring down the barrel.
Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino has talked about how a new story needs to develop at Tottenham. More risks need to be taken, but he also contradicts himself by saying he is happy with his team and contract rebels such as Christian Eriksen.
Tottenham cannot win in 2019 away from home. Their record in 2019 is poor overall, despite that Champions League final just six months ago. Pochettino put pressure on himself by suggesting that if Spurs had won that final, he may well have left. Where else would there be for him to take a squad that has little investment yet could achieve such glory?
That decision was ultimately not needed to be taken. An opening day win over Aston Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium failed to quell the feeling of fans that something isn’t quite right at Tottenham any longer. A sense of lethargy is being felt. An insipid loss at home to Newcastle started to reveal issues. The pressing and fluid football that had become the norm under the Argentine was gone, replaced by slow and leggy efforts.
A 7-2 capitulation at home in the Champions League against Bayern Munich added further pressure before defeat at Liverpool and a dire performance, in which Spurs were lucky to get a point against Sheffield United, have left Spurs languishing in the bottom half of the table with the top four already seemingly gone.
After the international break, where Harry Kane and Harry Winks have shown for England what they haven’t yet for Spurs this season, an away game is not ideal.
Rumours spread like wildfire over the past week that Pochettino had walked out on Spurs after a bust up with chairman Daniel Levy. The club have made no comment but those rumours seem wide of the mark, for now at least.
Manuel Pellegrini and Mauricio Pochettino: Who Will Survive?
What any chairman is thinking is a lottery. At West Ham and Spurs, both boards have remained tight lipped on any rumours of sackings or resignations. No dreaded votes of confidence forthcoming. Both managers, no matter how bullish they may sound, will know that they are not far from the exit door.
If Pellegrini goes then it will be another manager in the West Ham merry-go-round. Should the axe fall on Mauricio Pochettino, it will be a fall from grace that would raise questions against Daniel Levy, Joe Lewis and ENIC.
Saturday lunchtime could decide the fate of one if not both managers. Neither can afford to lose. In fact, neither can afford to do anything but win.
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