Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has praised the club’s fans after they supporting him on his return to Southampton at the weekend.
The Argentine coach left the Saints for Spurs last summer and received jeers and boos upon his return to St Marys stadium on Saturday afternoon, but the visiting fans reacted and supported the former Espanyol boss; something he is thankful for.
“I congratulate the players, I congratulate our fans – they touched me because they backed me a lot,” he told BT Sport.
“I appreciate so much because it was a very tough game, an emotional game for me and difficult because I still love Southampton. I have very good memories here.”
Meanwhile, opposing coach Ronald Koeman, who has guided the Saints to an impressive season, heaped praise on his players.
“I think it was a fantastic football game. I enjoyed very much,” said Koeman.
“I’m very proud of the team because we showed our level, we showed our ambition. We were very disappointed about last week [when Southampton lost 2-1 at Stoke City], but the reaction of the team was amazing.
“[But] we need to shoot more on target. If you don’t shoot on target, you don’t score and that’s the quality of Tottenham. They had one big chance of Chadli and they scored [to level at 2-2], and we had two or three big chances.
“Steven Davis, normally he is a good finisher, but today not, but that’s football,” the Saint boss said.
“Sometimes we are missing too much that kind of opportunity. It’s not easy to score, but at least you have to shoot on target.