Pochettino compares managing Spurs to House of Cards

Pochettino is a Netflix binge-watcher just like the rest of us

It appears that Mauricio Pochettino, the Premier League's golden boy, blue-sky manager seemingly shackled by Tottenham Hotspur's net spend, if you're on Jamie Carragher's side of the endless Monday Night Football opinion war that is, has had his mood lifted by the arrival of the new series of House of Cards, which he compares to the trials and tribulations of football management. Poch was down in the dumps only a week ago, when he claimed that he had never felt worse during his four-and-a-half years at the club. It appears that all he needed to lift him out of his slump and make him appreciate the finer things in life was the return of a mildly-engrossing political drama on Netflix. In a press conference ahead of Tuesday's Champions League encounter with Dutch champions PSV, Pochettino said: "It's a weird season but I am so happy now because the new season of House of Cards has started again. And yesterday I watched three episodes. I learnt a lot from this series – I recommend it." You'd hope that, when he says he has learned a lot, he isn't referring to some of the darker plot points in the show - including how to cover up a murder, an affair, or even, stage an elaborate political coup. Perhaps aware of the jokes that would come his way, Poch refused to admit which character he likens himself to in the series. "I think it represents very well sometimes how we are. Sometimes football is so political. It's going in this direction. I don't know which character I am. It's dangerous to say. It's a fiction," he said. Let's be honest though, he isn't learning anything about a high press or how to get the best out of Kieran Trippier whilst maintaining four across the back from House of Cards, is he? Whatever dark melodrama Pochettino has in store, it is reassuring that one of the finest managers in the world is as committed to putting their feet up and bingeing a TV series just like the rest of us.