Shearer Says: “Pochettino is wrong to disregard cup competitions”

Legendary striker shares his insight

When you haven’t won anything for so long, you have to take every competition seriously, whether it’s the League Cup, FA Cup, Champions League or Premier League.

It was only last season that Spurs were in the Champions League and Mauricio Pochettino played a weakened team against Monaco that meant they went out at the group stage.

If you’re Spurs or Liverpool, for example, you have to take these competitions seriously, these clubs desperately need to win some silverware.

The Mourinho effect

Jose Mourinho proved last season that winning a trophy is so important.

Man United may have been a bit fortunate in the League Cup Final against Southampton, but they got the win, and from there, kicked on for the rest of the season, that helped them go on to win the Europa League.

Mourinho is a serial winner, he’s always taken Cup competitions seriously, his record proves that.

It’s not just about creating a winning habit at a club either; the fans want to see trophies won, the big days out are why fans are in it, and again, if those fans haven’t seen that success for so long, clubs should not be disregarding any competition.

It was all well and good Pochettino using Wigan as an example, but Wigan are in the record books for winning the FA Cup, and it’s the same with Porstmouth.

Of course both those clubs would like to be in the Premier League now, but they will still go down in history for being FA Cup winners, no one can take that away from them.