If Paris St-Germain win this season’s Champions League – which is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility – then Mauricio Pochettino will once again become flavour of the month.

A few years ago, the Argentine looked like he was well on the way to becoming a bit of a managerial messiah, the new Pep Guardiola if you like. Rarely a top vacancy opened up without his name being linked with it.

But a sour ending to his time at Tottenham Hotspur, a club where he won nothing despite building a very tidy team, put a dent in his reputation.

Now, having landed on his feet in Paris, he once again seems destined to become football’s most-wanted manager.

But has he really earned that adulation? For me, the jury is still out.

Let’s be brutally honest, there aren’t many managers who could take over a team including Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ángel Di María and not do reasonably well. Unless you were to play the three of them in defence, you are going to win a lot of football matches.

Has he tightened the team up at the back and made them harder to beat? Probably. But Sam Allardyce could have done that, yet nobody would ever think of putting Big Sam in the same category as Pep.

My point is that Pochettino is not doing anything that any other reasonably talented manager wouldn’t do with that level of human resources at his disposal. He hasn’t revolutionised the team, just tweaked it. And while he is making good progress in Europe, PSG are not dominating the league the way they have in recent years.

And that’s why I am going to reserve judgement on just how good a manager he actually is. At least at this stage.

One thing for certain, though, is that the move to PSG was just what the career doctor ordered.

After his failure to convert Spurs into a trophy-winning side, the last thing he needed was to take over another team and have the same problem.

But by being at PSG – irrespective of whether they win the Champions League – he is going to be adding a number of domestic trophies to a CV that had previously been untroubled by silverware.

So, while there may be doubts about whether he can possibly match up to Pep in terms of managerial skill and talent, in one area he is certainly his equal – picking a perfect career path.

The return of the fans

There will, this afternoon, be something unusual about the FA Cup semi-final between Leicester City and Southampton – there will be actual, real people in the ground watching it.

Sure, there will only be 4,000 of them rattling around in a stadium that can hold 90,000 and that is going to make it rather surreal. And those that do get in will be subject to tests and more tests.

The move to PSG was just what the career doctor ordered

But none of that should detract from the symbolism of a football match in England finally being played in front of fans.

It still feels like we are a long way off from a return to full grounds and spectator normality.

But epic journeys all start with a first, but significant, step. Let’s hope this is it.

A club that needs putting to sleep

I’ve been a Sheffield United supporter for roughly 45 years now, and over that time there have been a few highs and a lot of lows.

But I don’t think I have ever endured a more depressing, disappointing and miserable season than this which, considering I was around when they were relegated to the old Fourth Division, is quite an achievement.

Injuries to key players at key times; losing games week-in, week-out; parting company with the manager when it was too late to make a difference; appointing a new manager who is just a poor man’s version of the old one; spending all the transfer budget on a striker who can’t score and a keeper who can’t save.

It’s been a non-stop descent into football hell, set against the backdrop of empty stadia and a global pandemic.

The worst part, however, is that it seems to be never-ending. It just won’t finish.

At the time of writing there are still seven games to go, which is an awful lot of football to endure when hope packed his bags and rode out of town many weeks ago.

Which got me thinking: there should be some sort of football euthanasia for teams like ours. A point where all the interested parties sit down and decide the only humane thing left to do is to put a club out of its misery.

Under this plan, terminally disastrous teams like the Blades would not need to complete their fixtures and opponents would be awarded 3-0 victories for all the remaining games. 5-0 if you like. 7, who cares?

The players could take a break from football (some may suggest they have been doing that all season), the board could work out where everything went wrong, and the fans would be spared the inhumanity of another ten-and-a-half hours of torture.

Ole’s cover story

There may be all sorts of differences between Sir Alex Ferguson and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, not least in terms of experience and achievements.

But they do share one thing in common – the ability to find interesting explanations for bad results.

Many of you remember, I am sure, how Sir Alex got his Manchester United players to change their shirts at half time during a match with Southampton with his team 3-0 down.

He thought the grey kit they were playing in, combined with the sunshine, was making it hard for his players to pick each other out. The reality was that Southampton were the better team, but at least the move stopped the rot, with the game ending 3-1.

Well, fast forward 25 years and Solskjaer seems to be having similar strange thoughts – this time regarding the banners covering the empty seats at Old Trafford.

United have, this season, been far more successful away than at home. And it would appear that is all down to the red seat covers.

“Some of the players have mentioned that split-second decision you have to make where you look over your shoulder to see if your team-mate is there or not and the red shirt is on a red background with red seats,” Ole explained.

Sounds a bit far-fetched, but the covers have been changed from red to black and United have won their two home games since that happened.

If they keep up that form, expect United to make an announcement banning all supporters from wearing red to home games next season…

e-mail: james@quizando.com
twitter: @maltablade