Former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino is leaving club football and has become the United States national team manager. However, one pundit believes that taking this job is a step down for the Argentine.
Pochettino has coached in the best leagues, high-profile European jobs, and coaching top talents. Nonetheless, after parting ways with Chelsea this past summer, the 52-year-old was out of a job.
Rather than wait for another high-profile job to emerge at the club level, Pochettino is trying his luck managing a national team. It will be the first time that the former PSG boss has tried his luck at the international level.
Despite taking the U.S. job, understanding that the country will be hosting the FIFA World Cup in less than two years, talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan believes Pochettino is taking a step down in this managerial role.
“I can see it in some respects and not in others,” Jordan said Wednesday on talkSPORT. “From a footballing decision, the beneficiaries primarily of this are the brand association of Pochettino, this elite, not in my view, but in lots of people’s view, European manager, going to the US national side, taking over from Gregg Berhalter.
“They’ve got recognizable players in their players that are playing in the UK, that have played in the UK like [Christian] Pulisic and [Tim] Ream, and you’ve got the kid at Fulham [Antonee] Robinson and a few other players that will be recognizable…
“Given that I’ve been over there recently and seen the scale of opportunity… I’m not surprised that the project could be sold to him. But as a footballing project for Mauricio Pochettino as an elite manager, it’s a step backwards.”
Coaching a national team is a different beast than managing at the club level, so it will be interesting to see if the former Chelsea gaffer can adapt to his new environment.
