Eric Dier has taken a look back at his time under Mauricio Pochettino, which saw Tottenham reach the Champions League final and revealed what it was like. Dier has been part of the north London side since 2014, so has been involved in finals and seen players come and go in N17.
Eric Dier said: “I’m really, really excited looking forward, working under the calibre of manager he is and how much he improves not only his teams but also the players in it. It’s exciting going into training every day where there is such intensity to the work, such attention to detail and where the manager and coaching staff demand a lot of you. Working along those lines is enjoyable and a stimulant. When he talks to you, you can tell straight away his passion for football and intensity. The way he feels, you can’t help but feed off it, it’s energising. Every time he speaks, there’s such intent in it. It’s a lot more enjoyable to go into training every day working in that environment, where you really are working hard and pushing yourself with a manager that demands a lot of you.”
Throwing it back to the start of Dier’s Tottenham chapter, he was brought to the club just a few months after Pochettino had begun his reign in the capital. That means the English international was part of the tough training under the Argentine, which took Spurs all the way to the Champions League final in 2019 and Dier has already seem similarities between the Lilywhites former and current managers.
Eric Dier admitted: “I have a sense of lot of similarities between that time [the Pochettino years] and what I’m feeling now, in terms of the work ethic, intensity, the discipline. Looking back, getting to the Champions League final probably painted over a lot of the cracks from that season itself and getting to the Champions League final and then losing it, it was a lot for all of us to take. That group had been together, pretty much everyone, for four or five years and it was something we’d been working towards. But football doesn’t stop, it doesn’t give us a breather. So after the final, before you know it, you’re going into the new season and it’s pre-season again. I don’t think everyone had got over it by then. I don’t think emotionally that everyone was back. And you saw that going into that season [2019-20]. We felt it in the building that the comedown from that was still happening. Which is completely normal.”
However, Dier did look back on the time and reminisce on the fond memories he had with the former Spurs boss and the players around him at the time.
Eric Dier said: “I don’t know how you fight it but we had five-and-a-half years incredible years, we didn’t win a trophy and that’s going to haunt us all forever. But it was still a great, great time at the club and I look back on it with amazing memories. They were a special group.”
