The Argentine coach has publicly spoken out about the challenges that are unique to the Parc des Princes role and has isolated him at the club.
PSG dressing room has been compared to a labyrinth
Mauricio Pochettino is finding the exact same problem which Thomas Tuchel and Unai Emery did at Paris Saint-Germain, with the job proving a constant hot-seat and the French club now eyeing Zinedine Zidane. The Argentine coach has publicly spoken out about the challenges that are unique to the Parc des Princes role and has isolated him at the club. Those in power behind the scenes, especially the director of football, Leonardo, maintain that Zinedine Zidane should be the club’s next coach. Paris Saint-Germain’s dressing room has been compared to a labyrinth, and the situation is only made more challenging because the club is governed from Qatar. This leads to problems that are difficult to understand for a football team, as we saw a month ago when the Manchester United job became available.
Pochettino is in an impossible situation
Zidane was linked with an immediate switch to Paris if the club allowed Pochettino to speak to those in power at Old Trafford. The problem wasn’t the latter; the move actually fell through because the former Real Madrid coach considered that the timing wasn’t right to jump into such a complicated position. Success in all competitions remains very much on the cards in the French capital, so why is there so much speculation regarding the coaching position? The club makes a lot of decisions about player movement and transfers, as well as certain privileges the star names receive. This puts the coach in an impossible situation, and sometimes putting together a matchday squad with a balance isn’t easy. One prime example of this came on the day following the Ballon d’Or ceremony, in which Lionel Messi was handed the award yet again.
Mbappe is desperate to sign for Real Madrid
The training was not a complete session the day after, with several players absent, which Pochettino was left furious at. However, the club ignored the problem, as it has done in other moments of tension and indiscipline from players. Ironically, Kylian Mbappe is desperate to sign for Real Madrid, yet he has remained one of the most consistently professional players at the Parc des Princes. Tuchel was sacked a year ago under similar circumstances to what Pochettino is currently living through. He went on to win the Champions League with Chelsea when he had a team he could actually coach and shape. Pochettino will survive the remainder of this campaign, with the window for change having now passed, but he is aware that Manchester United could well be his next destination.
Meanwhile, Zidane remains a spectator from afar regarding developments at PSG; meetings and contacts between him and the club have been denied, but there is a desire from both parties to begin a new project together next season.