Mauricio Pochettino has said he would not hesitate to call his Tottenham players off the field if any of them were subjected to racist abuse – a stance echoed by Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool. Pochettino was appalled when one of his players – Danny Rose – had monkey chants directed at him during England’s Euro 2020 qualifying win in Montenegro on Monday night.
“If I feel the abuse and I hear it, then out – stop,” Pochettino said. “There is nothing more important than to stop that. You can win or you can lose a game but we cannot be hypocrites with this.
“There is nothing more important in this life than to protect the values and principles. When this type of situation happens, football is not important. If that happens and I am conscious about it, I am the first to say: ‘Stop, we are not going to play. Come on inside.’”
The City forward Raheem Sterling was another England player on the pitch in Montenegro and, having been told about the abuse suffered by Rose, he celebrated his goal by cupping his ears towards the fans.
Guardiola said: “We could do that [leave the field]. Football is a strong weapon to defend the principles of humanity. People say you cannot mix politics and football but that is not true. Politics are everywhere, human rights are everywhere.
“A long time ago in Valencia, Guus Hiddink didn’t play because there was a Nazi flag behind the goal. When the club or the players or the organisation decide to do it – of course, for myself, we are going to follow them. The situation changes when you do something.”
Klopp added his voice to the call for action. “Whatever I could do, I would do,” he said. “We have to stop games, we have to do everything. If it’s the whole stand, then I would do it 100% [call the players off].”
Pochettino goes to Liverpool on Sunday, hoping to end his worst run of Premier League form during a single season at Spurs. Five weeks ago, his team were being spoken about as title contenders but since then they have lost at Burnley and Chelsea, drawn at home to Arsenal and lost at Southampton. Pochettino said the 10-day break before Burnley, with his team having normally played every three or four days before that, upset their rhythm. Now, they face a first game in 22 days at a ground where they have not won since May 2011.
“It was like we disconnected [before Burnley],” Pochettino said. “Everyone believed we needed to breathe and rest but I think it [the 10-day break] affected us a lot in our brain. It is not about the energy, the legs, it is about the mental connection in the team and maybe we were affected by that disconnection. Now it makes it more difficult to connect again and perform in the way we want to perform. Our job is to try and reconnect.”
Pochettino was typically evasive when asked whether he could guarantee he would remain at Spurs next season. Manchester United and Real Madrid, who have considered moves for him, have now appointed Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Zinedine Zidane respectively, on long-term contracts.
“It’s difficult to say I am now happy and sure I will be here next season,” Pochettino said. “If I said that and something wrong happened [such as being sacked] and I’m not here, then you say: ‘Oh, Pochettino said he will be here and now he’s not here.’
“You must respect football because everything that today is white, tomorrow is black and then white again.”