I remember exactly how I felt when Southampton sacked Nigel Adkins.

Confused.

Adkins had taken Southampton from League One to the Premier League with back-to-back promotions. We were finally back where I felt the club belonged and, although the first few months in the Premier League had been difficult, things appeared to be moving in the right direction.

Then Southampton went to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea led 2-0. Southampton fought back to draw 2-2.

Two days later, on January 18, 2013, Adkins was gone. 

His replacement?

Mauricio Pochettino.

I knew Pochettino as a former player, but I certainly wasn’t sitting there thinking Southampton had just appointed one of the most interesting young coaches in European football.

But I trusted Nicola Cortese, Southampton’s chairman at the time. Cortese’s whole period at the club is probably a story for another day, but he had an incredibly ambitious vision for Southampton.

And it didn’t take long to understand what he saw in Pochettino.

One thing became obvious very quickly.

Pochettino trusted young players.

Not just putting them on the bench when a game was already won. He trusted them in meaningful Premier League matches.

Luke Shaw was 17 when Pochettino arrived. James Ward-Prowse was 18. Calum Chambers was another teenager coming through Southampton’s academy.

By the 2013/14 season, Shaw and Ward-Prowse were established members of the first-team squad and Chambers had broken through at right-back.

Pochettino himself spoke at the time about Southampton’s academy players pushing for first-team opportunities rather than the club simply buying replacements. 

Years later, Ward-Prowse described what that felt like from a player’s perspective.

He remembered Pochettino putting him into important situations — including bringing him on with Southampton protecting a 1-0 lead at Anfield — and said of the manager: “He trusted me.” 

That, to me, is the key to understanding Pochettino.

Lots of managers talk about developing young players.

Pochettino actually gives them responsibility.

There is a difference.

He doesn’t necessarily discover these players. Southampton’s academy deserves enormous credit for producing Shaw, Ward-Prowse and Chambers long before Pochettino arrived.

What Pochettino did was show that their age wasn’t going to prevent them from playing.

If he thought you were ready, you played.

I was gutted when Pochettino left Southampton for Tottenham in 2014.

But what happened next made his reputation for developing young players impossible to ignore.

Harry Kane is probably the most famous example.

Again, Pochettino didn’t discover Harry Kane. Kane had been in Tottenham’s academy, had gone through several loan spells and had already made Premier League appearances before Pochettino arrived.

But look at what happened in Pochettino’s first season.

Kane went from a promising academy striker fighting for minutes to one of the most talked-about forwards in English football.

In 2014/15 he scored 31 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions, including 21 Premier League goals. 

From there, his career exploded.

I’ve always felt Pochettino was one of the key figures who helped turn Harry Kane from promising Tottenham academy striker into Harry Kane.

And Kane wasn’t the only one.

Dele Alli arrived from MK Dons as a teenager and became one of the most exciting young midfielders in England. He won the PFA Young Player of the Year award twice during Pochettino’s time at Spurs. By the age of 23, he’d already scored 54 goals in 191 Tottenham appearances and had 37 England caps. 

There were others too.

Ryan Mason became a genuine first-team player under Pochettino. Eric Dier developed enormously. Harry Winks came through. Young players weren’t an accessory to what Pochettino was building.

They were part of the plan.

And that Tottenham side became excellent.

For me, Spurs played some of their best football of the modern era under Pochettino. They challenged for the Premier League and eventually reached the 2019 Champions League final.

He hadn’t simply developed a few youngsters.

He had built a team around players who grew with him.

After Tottenham came a very different challenge at Paris Saint-Germain.

Then, in 2023, Pochettino returned to England with Chelsea.

And once again, we saw something familiar.

Chelsea signed Cole Palmer from Manchester City on deadline day.

Palmer was 21 years old. He was clearly talented and had already shown flashes of what he could do for City, but he hadn’t established himself as a regular Premier League starter.

Pochettino immediately recognised what Chelsea had.

When Palmer signed, Pochettino described him as a “young, talented player” who wanted an opportunity to play more and become more important. 

Then Pochettino gave him responsibility.

A lot of responsibility.

Palmer didn’t just become part of Chelsea’s team. He became central to it.

By the end of that first season he had produced 22 Premier League goals and 11 assists, becoming only the third Chelsea player to record at least 20 goals and 10 assists in a Premier League season. 

Palmer himself later spoke about Pochettino’s reputation with young players and said the manager had given him the confidence and freedom to play his natural game. 

Again, Pochettino didn’t create Cole Palmer.

The talent was already there.

But he trusted him.

That distinction matters.

Which brings us to the United States.

After leading the USMNT at the 2026 World Cup, Pochettino signed a new contract that keeps him in charge through the 2030 World Cup cycle.

And when describing what came next, he couldn’t have been much clearer:

“A fresh start.” 

Then I saw his first roster of the new cycle.

And immediately thought:

I’ve seen this Pochettino before.

The 28-player squad contained 13 uncapped players.

Their average age?

Just 19 years and six months.

The entire squad averaged 22 years and nine months, more than four years younger than the American squad that had represented the country at the World Cup only months earlier. 

That isn’t bringing one teenager along to experience a national-team camp.

That’s opening the door.

Wide.

Then came Peru on September 26.

The USA won 4-1.

But the scoreline wasn’t what really caught my attention.

Eleven players made their senior international debuts.

Eight were teenagers.

And every single US goal involved a debutant. 

Think about that for a second.

This wasn’t Pochettino talking about building toward 2030 while continuing to rely entirely on the established names.

He was actually doing it.

At the same time, he wasn’t simply throwing a group of kids onto the field and hoping for the best.

That’s another important part of his approach.

The youngsters were mixed with established internationals who could help set the standards around them.

After the Peru victory, Pochettino went out of his way to recognise the contribution of the experienced players in helping the new arrivals settle into the senior environment. U.S. Soccer described veterans encouraging the youngsters throughout camp and maintaining the standards expected from the national team. 

That’s development.

Give them the opportunity, but give them the environment as well.

Three days later came Chile.

Pochettino rotated his team heavily.

It didn’t matter.

The USA won again, this time 4-2, with the youngest starting lineup Pochettino has fielded during his time as USMNT coach. 

Julian Hall scored again, becoming the youngest player in USMNT history to score in each of his first two appearances.

Mathis Albert scored too, becoming the youngest goalscorer in USMNT history.

And Sebastian Berhalter recorded a goal and an assist for the second consecutive match. 

Two games.

Two wins.

Eight goals.

And suddenly Pochettino has dramatically widened the pool of players he knows he can call upon.

Obviously, Peru and Chile friendlies in September are not the same thing as knockout football at a World Cup.

Nobody should get carried away after two matches.

Mexico and Canada are still to come in this window, and there will be much bigger tests over the next four years.

But that’s almost beside the point.

What interests me is the process.

Because I recognise it.

Luke Shaw.

James Ward-Prowse.

Calum Chambers.

Harry Kane.

Dele Alli.

Cole Palmer.

Different clubs. Different circumstances. Different levels of talent.

But there has been a recurring theme throughout Pochettino’s managerial career.

If you’re good enough, he doesn’t seem particularly interested in your birth certificate.

He gives young players responsibility.

He lets them make mistakes.

He puts them alongside experienced players.

And, importantly, he makes them feel as though they genuinely belong there rather than making them feel like academy players who have temporarily been invited to train with the adults.

That’s why what I’m watching with the USMNT feels so familiar.

Pochettino isn’t going to discover every player who eventually represents the USA in 2030.

That’s not his job.

What he can do is create an environment where a 17, 18 or 19-year-old knows that if he’s good enough, there is a path into the team.

And four years before the next World Cup, that’s potentially hugely important.

There are going to be players on the USA’s 2030 World Cup roster who most American fans barely know today.

Pochettino appears determined to start finding out who they are now.

I’ve told friends since he took the job that appointing Mauricio Pochettino was one of the best decisions U.S. Soccer had made in years.

And I don’t think what we’re seeing now suddenly appeared after the World Cup.

We were already beginning to see his ideas taking shape during the tournament itself.

The USA topped their group and then won a knockout match at a World Cup for the first time since 2002, beating Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32. For a manager who had been given less than two years to prepare for a home World Cup, there were signs that the team was beginning to understand exactly what he wanted from them.

Then came Belgium.

And personally, I still wonder how different that game and perhaps the USA’s tournament might have been without everything that happened beforehand.

Folarin Balogun had been sent off against Bosnia and was initially due to miss the Belgium match through suspension. President Donald Trump then publicly said he had contacted FIFA president Gianni Infantino about the situation, and Balogun was ultimately cleared to play.

Pochettino later admitted that the whole episode changed the energy around the team and said he wished he had been more involved in how the situation was handled.

We’ll obviously never know whether any of that changed the result. Belgium won 4-1, and they deserved their place in the next round.

But watching it at the time, I couldn’t help feeling that the build-up had become about everything except football.

And that’s why I wanted Pochettino to stay.

Because beneath all of that noise, I thought we were already seeing the beginnings of something.

Now, a few months later, we’re seeing the next stage.

A younger squad. New players. More freedom. More responsibility.

And to me, it feels very familiar.

I’ve seen young players respond to Pochettino’s trust before.

I saw it at Southampton.

I saw it at Spurs.

We saw another version of it with Cole Palmer at Chelsea.

We even began seeing his ideas come together with the USA during the World Cup.

And now, with four full years to prepare rather than less than two, Pochettino finally has the time to build the national team properly.

There will be setbacks. Not every teenager we’re watching now will make it to 2030. Established players will come back into the squad and entirely new names will emerge over the next four years.

But Pochettino has already sent one very clear message to every young American player:

If you’re good enough, the door is open.

And knowing his history, that’s exactly where I think he wants it.