Tottenham might have hit a sticky patch in the last couple of weeks but overall, Mauricio Pochettino has excelled as manager.
The club has finished third and second in consecutive seasons, their best showing in the Premier League era, and also topped their Champions League group this campaign, finishing above reigning champions Real Madrid, who they defeated 3-1 earlier this month, and Borussia Dortmund.
Pochettino's rise from a playing career as an Argentina international to elite coach is the subject of a book Brave New World: Inside Pochettino's Spurs by Sky Sports' La Liga expert Guillem Balague, who gave us an insight into the former Southampton and Espanyol boss that he got to know during the project.
"You know the thing is he's the same person. That's perhaps for many the biggest surprise. What you see is what you get," said Balague on what the real Pochettino is like in comparison to the calm and resolute person we see in press conferences and on the touchline.
"So often - I won't mention names - [there are] managers who sell one thing in front of the media but are completely different when they are in private. Completely different."
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino (left) with Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris after his is substituted off during the Premier League match at Goodison Park, Liverpool. Peter Byrne/PA Archive/PA Images
He added that "with Mauricio, it's the same person" in and out of the spotlight. But there is a difference in the man depending on the language he is employing.
"Having said that, there is two Mauricio's. The one in Spanish and the one in English. But that's a language problem, not so much a personality problem. With Spanish, it's a beautiful Spanish he uses. With English, as you know, he's got more difficulties."
Balague gave us an anecdote or two about the man behind the scenes and one was when he was privy to a conversation in Pochettino's office with Hugo Lloris, Spurs and France goalkeeper.
"I kind of tried to be invisible, didn't want to participate at all in the conversations. They tried to make me part of it and it was nothing about football, not one word. It was a whole hour in which Mauricio is mostly listening to Hugo talking about his family, himself, him as a kid and a lot of things that I thought, 'Wow!' To be allowed into this world is a privilege, No 1, and that's his magic and that's how he gets the best out of people. He listens."
He added that Lloris had told him that Pochettino had changed his life and made him "think differently".
But as Balague also explained, Pochettino can also create a distance between himself and the players in training which can also be a message sent them to in a sense.
He also discussed the influence of cult manager Marcelo Bielsa on Pochettino.
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