Pochettino laughs with forced optimism as Spurs face nightmare week
Wake up. Play. Fly. Sleep. Repeat; Tottenham has a busy week ahead.
The London-based outfit didn't have a regular Saturday morning Premier League fixture this week, since their match against West Ham was selected for television coverage. As such, Spurs had to wait until Sunday afternoon to get that match out of the way.
Usually, that single day wouldn't be a problem, but on Thursday, the team will need to be in Azerbaijan to face FK Qarabag in Europa League action, then head back to England for another Sunday afternoon match against local rivals Chelsea.
Three matches in the span of seven days, with six-hour flights to and from Azerbaijan has Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino feeling irritated.
"I laugh. I only smile," Pochettino told reporters. "Again, like it was the week when we played Monday, Thursday, and Sunday, three times in six days. And now it's the same.
"Maybe it's worse because you need to fly nearly six hours and then there is the decision about whether to come straight back or stay, it's very difficult because both decisions are bad."
Should he stay or should he go? That's the question Pochettino is currently pondering.
"Maybe we come back, straight back, and we give the players the day off on Friday," Pochettino said. "Maybe you need to wait two hours at the airport and for us, it's better to go straight after the game and get to England as soon as possible, and give maybe Friday off for recovery."
But, Pochettino isn't necessarily complaining. His hands are tied, as it were, and these sorts of scheduling issues aren't handed to the club without request.
"It's the always the same problem," Pochettino said. "All the clubs in the Premier League at the beginning of the season want to play on TV because it's a business. But when the moment comes to play we complain.
"The balance is difficult but we have to accept it because football is a business. It's true that you give the advantage to the opponent. But it's good for us to be strong in our mind and train more every day to try to do better."