Nabil Bentaleb is another to feel the effects of Pochettino’s wrath, with the 21-year-old now banished to the under-21s while he looks for a new club.
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The England winger has since move on to Crystal Palace, who visit White Hart Lane in the Premier League this weekend.
Townsend made only seven appearances for Pochettino during the first half of last season and also hit the headlines following a heated altercation with fitness coach Nathan Gardiner in November.
“Football is full of hard decisions”, Pochettino explained in a news conference.
“It is not about personal things or issues”, Pochettino said. “We have spent almost two years together here and had a good relationship”. We took a professional decision – we split our ways. It’s not an issue.
“Christian, we are happy with him, he’s very happy here and we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks”. I think a lot of managers still use typical wingers like in the past.
“If a player is not happy because they want to play more, then they try and find another way to play”. This is the hard thing with football. Post-Villa, Tottenham had 17 games before Townsend’s departure to Newcastle and he did not play for a single minute. He plays wider but it is not about his qualities.
It’s a straight-forward and commendable approach from the Argentine tactician, as ultimately the 21-year-old is getting the chance to stay fit ahead of a possible move elsewhere, while simultaneously he’s being prevented from potentially having a negative impact on the first-team with his lack of commitment in the long-term. Here it was hard, competing with Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela, Dele Alli and Nacer Chadli. “If you wanted to play more, you can wait or find another place to play”.
“There was not too much opportunity to play him [after Villa],’ Pochettino said”. I don’t remember well, but there was not too much possibility to rotate.
What was more interesting and of greater resonance, particularly in light of the situation with Bentaleb, were Pochettino’s comments about discipline. I think it’s about balance.
The 24-year-old Danish global, who joined Spurs from Ajax in 2013, has been one of the club’s most influential players in recent seasons.
‘We use full-backs inside like midfielders, we use wingers like full-backs, we play with midfielders that can play like centre-backs, and centre-backs that can play like midfielders, or offensive midfielders that can play like strikers.
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“It’s hard to defend against his style”, Walker said.
