Mauricio Pochettino

'It's like a cow that sees the same train for 10 years' - Pochettino invokes Cantona spirit with bizarre pressure metaphor

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino used an esoteric metaphor that would put even seagull king Eric Cantona to shame to explain the pressures of Champions League football. 

Pochettino and Spurs are gearing up for a crunch group stage match against Inter in Milan's famed San Siro stadium on Tuesday. 

Both sides are in need of a boost after indifferent starts to the season, but Tottenham will go into the clash in weakened shape. 

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Hugo Lloris, Dele Alli and Moussa Dembele are out injured, while Pochettino made the decision to leave Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld at home for "technical reasons"

And after that bombshell, he further left reporters scratching their heads with his later musings on pressure at the top level. 

"It’s like a cow that every single day during ten years, sees the train crossing in the front at the same time," he said on Monday.

"And if you ask the cow what time is the train going to come, it’s not going have the right answer. In football it’s the same.

“Experience, yes, of course experience [matters]. But hunger, motivation, circumstance, everything, is so important.

"Many things in football are so important. We use too much talk of, ‘the experience is going to help next season’.

"Yes of course, if you show the same hunger, the same own motivation, if you fight in the same way.

“Many things have to be in the same way. If not, only with experience, you don’t win games.”

Mooving words, indeed; but will Pochettino's charges have what it takes to face this beefy challenge - or will their Italy trip turn out an udder disaster?

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