Victor Wanyama Explains Why Mauricio Pochettino’s Players Fear His Assistant More than Him

‎Former Harambee Stars captain Victor Wanyama has given an insight into how it feels like to work under Mauricio Pochettino.

‎Pochettino is the coach who Wanyama worked with the most during his time in the English Premier League.

‎The Argentine coach signed Wanyama at Southampton in the summer of 2013 and worked with him for one year before he moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 2014.

‎Two years later, Wanyama and Pochettino would reunite at the North London club and had a great time as Spurs challenged for the Premier League title in 2017 and 2018 before reaching the 2019 UEFA Champions League final.

‎Wanyama says the highly rated Pochettino is a very easy man to work with as he makes his players comfortable around him but unlike many coaches, his longtime assistant Jesus Perez is the most ruthless one.

‎"Pochettino is a good guy, he was good with everyone, always patting players on the back but his assistant was the hard one," Wanyama said on the Obi One podcast.

‎"When things went bad, the assistant was really mad and people were scared of the assistant more than the manager.

‎"The assistant would come and get angry at everyone, giving us the hairdryer, and Pochettino would come and give everyone encouragement and say; 'Do not worry everything will be fine.'"

‎Pochettino left Tottenham in November 2019 to be replaced by Jose Mourinho, who Wanyama worked under until March 2020, before departing Spurs for MLS side CF Montreal.

‎Pochettino has since coached Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and is now the boss of the US national team with Perez still serving as his right-hand man.

‎