Armando Broja has just done a really interesting and in depth interview with the Athletic where he spoke about his painful couple of years, and how excited he is to play for Albania at the Euros this summer.
The striker missed a whole year injured, and then was barely used by Mauricio Pochettino from the start of last season. By January he’d been allowed to go on loan to Fulham, where he also barely played. This has meant 2 consecutive campaigns with just a handful of starts, and a lot to prove this summer.
Given how much praise Mauricio Pochettino got, almost universally, from players, it was interesting to hear Broja be a little critical of the Argentine’s famous man management skills. Without going overboard, the 22 year old admitted he hadn’t felt as supported as he might have been during his tough period:
Pochettino’s comments about Broja’s “body language” surprised him:
“I have been through so much with the injury and he was saying something about me needing to be more happy. I did feel like I could have had more trust and belief [from Pochettino],” the striker said.
“I basically just got thrown into the Premier League straight away — which is tough to deal with anyway, but I had no build-up… there was a lot of speculation around me at the time, whether I would go on loan. I just wanted answers from the club, a bit of reassurance, and I didn’t get that. In the end, I decided to go on loan because I wanted to get more minutes.”
A bright future still ahead
It shouldn’t be overplayed that Broja would make these comments – he’s just being honest, and even as outsiders, we would be inclined to agree a little. Even when Nicolas Jackson was really struggling early on in the season, Pochettino showed very little interest in working Broja back to fitness and giving him chances.
When January came around, the coach also didn’t seem to put up much of a fight over letting him go on loan – although we will never actually know what was said behind closed doors on that matter.
Everything Broja says here makes sense. I get that the manager can’t always keep everyone in a big squad happy, but Poch never really came close to getting the best out of Broja.
That’s true what broja is saying I don’t like pochettino