Barcelona star Paulinho has accused Mauricio Pochettino for not using him in his natural midfield position – which cumulated in his failure at North London.
Paulinho joined Tottenham in 2013 and went on to spend two years in White Hart Lane during which time he failed to make an impact.
Due to his disappointing performances, Tottenham decided to sell the Brazilian to Guangzhou Evergrande in 2016 and the transfer has turned out to be a change of fortune for the physical midfielder.
Paulinho went on to impress for the Chinese side and surprisingly earned a move to Barcelona this summer, with the Brazilian already having made a mark for the Catalan giants.
This turn of fortune has led Paulinho to reflect on his time at Spurs, when everything looked bleak for the midfielder, and the 29-year-old revealed that the main reasons for his failure in England was due to manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Paulinho told reporters: “My first game [under Pochettino] is in my position but after that I played in every position apart from my own. He had a different system, and if you’re not in your position in a football as competitive as England it’s difficult.
“I was playing on the left wing: the míster put me there and I had to play there, because I wanted to play. I had no problem with Pochettino.
“I told him: ‘This position is not mine but if you want I can play there.’ But in the long term you’re not going to be at your best and over the last six months I wasn’t playing regularly.”