“Don’t look at the boss.”



Tottenham players had become used to saying those words to each other in recent weeks. Don’t catch his eye, don’t give him an excuse to get you in to trouble, just get on with training and surely this will all be over soon.



Mauricio Pochettino had never been overly friendly around the training ground, that just wasn’t his style. He was the boss after all, not the players’ friend. And after becoming Tottenham’s most successful manager in 50 years, who cared how chatty he was anyway? The team had become regulars in the Champions League, they were beating the biggest teams in Europe and had challenged for the Premier League title at their peak. They were scintillating at their best, hunting down the opposition in packs and entertaining their fans with a team full of improving young players.



But then they weren’t. Then the victories dried up, the tough training sessions caught up with...