Mauricio Pochettino backs Tottenham signing Davinson Sanchez to become 'one of the best in the world'

Mauricio Pochettino knows how it feels, being the new young centre-back, fresh from your first club in South America, arriving at a big side in Europe and not knowing what to expect. You have to stand up for yourself.

That is what Pochettino found back in 1994, when he left Newell’s Old Boys for Espanyol in Spain. He was only 22 and was thrown into a new environment. What made it even harder was the ruling that each Spanish team could only field three players from outside the EU at any one time. Espanyol had five: Pochettino, one midfielder and three strikers.

“It was difficult at the beginning,” Pochettino remembered. “It is true that I started every game. And in the moment that we conceded a goal, the first goal, it was me out, and another foreign player in. That was the problem.”

Pochettino was tired of always been hooked for another Argentinean striker just because Espanyol had conceded. So he told Jose Antonio Camacho how he felt. “One day, I said to the gaffer, ‘what is the problem? Every time that we concede a goal, bang, off the pitch.’ I was so, so upset. It was so frustrating for me.”

But Camacho was impressed. “He was in love with me,” Pochettino said. “He said ‘you are challenging me? Ok.’ And after that, he tried to keep me on the pitch. I showed character to him from the beginning.”

Why does this little vignette matter, 20 years on? Because Pochettino is now the manager and he has his own young, raw South American centre-back to push and improve. Spurs completed the signing of Davinson Sanchez this week for a fee that could reach £42m. He is 21, with one year of European experience under his belt, having starred at Ajax last season. The comparison between the two is not perfect but it is clear, and who better than Pochettino to make Sanchez into the player he can become?

open image in gallery

Pochettino does not always talk up his players in public but he had no qualms on Friday in saying just what he expects from Sanchez. “It is a massive opportunity,” he said, “because we believe he will be one of the best centre-backs in the world in the future. That is why we made the effort to sign him.” Tottenham had to wait until the richest clubs spent their money, but when they did, without signing Sanchez, they could pounce.

Sanchez has come very far already. The season before last he was playing for Atletico Nacional, Colombia’s biggest team, where he was a teenage prodigy. They won plenty of titles while Sanchez was still coming through but in his last act as an Atletico Nacional player last July, he won the Copa Libertadores, as his team beat Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle over two legs. In doing so he went further than Pochettino ever did. His Newell’s side lost the final in 1992.

Europe’s biggest teams all knew about Sanchez but it was Ajax who signed him, seeing his natural bravery and aggression as skills they could develop. They only paid €5m for him but that now looks like a very clever investment.

open image in gallery

Marc Overmars, Ajax director of football, oversaw the signing and he explained to The Independent in May how Sanchez’s physicality perfectly complimented the players he already had. “You don’t win games only with good football, we have to always find a mix,” Overmars said. “If I see how Sanchez has fitted into this team, and what a big influence he has here. But he is maybe not a typical Ajax player.”

Sanchez learned quickly and was Ajax’s best player last season, in the team that pushed Feyenoord all the way in the Eredivisie and then lost the Europa League final to Manchester United. He fitted perfectly into the high-pressing Johan Cruyff-inspired football of coach Peter Bosz. Not every defender is comfortable defending on the half-way line, but Sanchez is. And that is why he is so attractive to Pochettino, whose teams defend the same way.

“I like his personality how aggressive he is, how fast, and he will fit us very well,” Pochettino said. “He loves to play with risk at his back.” That is Pochettino’s way of saying he is happy to defend high up the pitch, leaving space in behind, which is what Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld do so well.

open image in gallery

It was the speed of Sanchez’s adjustment, from Colombia to the Eredivisie, that sold him to Pochettino, and that gave Tottenham confidence he could do the same here. “That is what caught our attention with him,” Pochettino said, “because when he arrived at Ajax from the beginning he showed his quality, started to show his character and personality. I think he was the best player at Ajax in his first season. That showed he is a player with big character and personality, and with a lot of potential.”

Pochettino still remembers leaving Argentina for Barcelona with his wife Karina 23 years ago. “The first challenge is to adapt yourself,” he remembered. “I moved with my wife, we were not scared, but you are waiting, because you don’t know what you will find here, when you come from South America to Europe. But Davinson, he is unbelievable. He speaks English very well. From day one when he arrived, I think he is like all the players here. He is very welcome with his team-mates, he is one of us.”

Now Sanchez has to do what Pochettino did to Camacho 20 years ago, and stand up to his manager. Pochettino recalled with a grin how he started to test him out on Thursday, in Sanchez’s first training session in Enfield. “I challenged him yesterday,” Pochettino said. “We were playing in a box, he was inside and the ball was in the air. Me, bang. He fell, I got the ball.” Pochettino believes that they share the same mentality – to adapt, to improve and win – which will make Spurs’ big investment look very clever: “He has all the characteristics for success here.”