We almost didn't get Mauricio Pochettino in the Premier League. One English lesson was all it took for him to reject the chance to move to England outright.
Last week, sitting on a sofa with his assistant Jesus Perez at Totteham's Enfield training ground, he was reflecting on his six-year anniversary of managing in England, and laughing. Indeed there is a lot of laughter.
Of that English lesson, which Pochettino took in Barcelona in 2012, he said: 'I was 40 years old and a few days before I decided to come here, I said: "OK, I want to start to learn English." After my first lesson, I said: "It's impossible!" English was like Chinese would be for me now. I said: "I'm going to stop. A disaster!"
Mauricio Pochettino's arrival as a manager in England six years ago almost never happened
The Spurs boss is still the favourite to take over as permanent Manchester United manager
Perez, though, who was fluent and had a vested interest in getting to England, was persuasive, as was Pochettino's wife Karina. 'When they said: "We need to go", I said: "Come on! No way!" Six years after, look where we are.'
He didn't add the moniker now applied to him - most-wanted manager in world football - but for the man who came to Southampton having left Espanyol in a relegation battle, life has changed somewhat, with both Real Madrid and Manchester United weighing up their offers for him, and Tottenham's Daniel Levy jealously guarding him and enthusing him about the project he is building at Spurs, more of which later.
It turns out he does still need Perez for some linguistic difficulties. Such as the time he told Sean Dyche to 'F*** off!' Merely a cultural misunderstanding, of course.
'It was very funny a few years ago with Sean on the touchline,' says Pochettino. He compares the English expletives to 'hijo de puta', which means son of a whore, an expression so common in Latin countries it has almost lost capacity to offend.
'If you said in Spanish: "hijo de puta", it doesn't mean "F*** off!" It's different. Because Sean Dyche was on the touchline saying "F***ing this, f***ing that", in one moment I turned to him and said: "Hey, Sean: F*** off! F*** off, Sean!"
His grasp of English, or lack of, once led Pochettino to tell Burnley boss Sean Dyche to 'F*** off'
Perez and the English staff on his bench were aghast. 'They said: "Mauricio! F*** off? No!" So I said: "Sorry Sean, I apologise." I didn't want to disrespect him, I thought I was saying "Shut up". If we say hijo de puta, it doesn't have the same impact as an English person saying it.'
It is worth recalling just how much hostility there was to Pochettino when he arrived. He played out a 0-0 draw against David Moyes' Everton on January 21, 2013, with the Southampton fans hailing his predecessor with chants of: 'There's only one Nigel Adkins.'
Adkins was seemingly in the diminishing vanguard of young English coaches, having taken Southampton from League One to the Premier League. Pochettino was an outsider and an unheralded one at that, unlike Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp, and so not trusted. Yet it is Pochettino who has arguably done more for English football than any other Premier League coach in the past six years.
The Argentinean was met with much hostility at Southampton when he replaced Nigel Adkins
It is hard to believe that Harry Kane and Dele Alli would be at the level they are now without him. When Harry Winks made his England debut in 2017, 15 of the last 30 England debutants had been coached by Pochettino. At Spurs he has given 13 academy graduates a debut.
Indeed, in the week in which his mentor Marcelo Bielsa inadvertently opened up a debate as to whether it was foreign coaches who brought detailed analysis and tactical dynamism to
