Darren Bent has hailed Mikel Arteta for the job that he has done at Arsenal in the short time that he has been at the club and he claims the Spaniard is better than Mauricio Pochettino.
Pochettino was a guest on Monday Night Football and his time at Tottenham came up for debate once again.
The former Southampton manager has been classed as a top manager by some individuals, but he was trophyless at Tottenham.
He helped them to reach the final of the Champions League in 2019, an achievement that is still considered to be the best of his managerial career.
However, Bent thinks that isn’t good enough and he claimed that in just a few months, one can see the changes that Arteta has brought at the Emirates.
Arteta has helped Arsenal win the FA Cup and Community Shield this year and the Spaniard is set to achieve even more with a stronger squad at his disposal.
Bent hailed Arteta for identifying the problems at Arsenal and sorting them out.
When asked if he thought the Argentinian manager was world-class, Bent told Talksport: ‘I don’t think he is.
‘When I look at elite managers, I obviously look at people like Klopp, Guardiola and even [Carlo] Ancelotti from what he’s done.
‘I can’t put Pochettino in that bracket. Not yet, I know he’s been at Spurs and he’s not won anything at Spurs. [You can’t] elevate him all of a sudden because he got a team to a Champions League final and a League Cup final.
‘That’s not world [class] level management, for me. I think he’s good but I just don’t think he’s in that bracket. I’d put Brendan Rodgers ahead of him. I think Brendan Rodgers as a coach and a manager is absolutely superb.
‘For me, Arteta’s a better coach than Pochettino as well. You look at Spurs and what Pochettino did at Spurs and he took them to a level.
‘Daniel Levy, at the end of the day, after all that great work that Poch had done, developing these players and turning Dele Alli and Harry Kane into what he did, he [Levy] still needed someone to come in and win them trophies.
‘He felt like Pochettino could not do that.
‘When I say Pochettino’s greatest achievement at Spurs, people will say “He got them to a Champions League final” but is that enough? Does that automatically catapult you into that elite bracket because you took a team to a Champions League final? For me, it doesn’t.
‘Arteta has gone in at Arsenal, it’s not even been a year, and look what he’s done there. He’s identified the players that he’s got, defensively they’ve not been great and he’s completely changed that around.
‘[He’s] gone in there and won an FA Cup, won a Community Shield and beat some of the biggest teams out there. He’s managed to find a way of getting it done.’
What about the glory years at Tottenham? Oh yeah what glory years 😂😂 still I would have kept Pochettino over Mourinho who’s just a hateful, and disrespectful and completely unlikeable man! But I suppose Tottenham and Mourinho go hand in hand!
Oh come on Kev, be fair to the poor downtrodden Spuds! Of course they have had glory years, 1901, 1921, 1961, 1991. Not BC but AD too. I know this because I read it in a book on ancient history, PRINTED ON PARCHMENT!
Haha
Jon Fox, you’re mistaken. The history books that I read said that Tottenham last won the league when dinosaurs roamed the earth and Fred Flinstone was alive. You must’ve read the revised version that Tottenham fans edited. Jon let me ask you this – you’ve been watching football for many decades now. How comes none of us can remember Spuds winning anything?
Of course hes better, hes won infinitely more trophies than pochettiNONE.