Mauricio Pochettino's managerial career has prepared him for taking over at Chelsea. The work with a tight-knit but dysfunctional group at Espanyol to start, the surprise of moving to Southampton and then embedding himself into London, the top four fight in the Premier League at Tottenham and the attention that comes with it.
Then there's Paris Saint-Germain. An experience like no other but perhaps also a simulation of the craziness that he needs to survive at Chelsea. The Blues are closer to the French giants in terms of expectation and spending than they are to Spurs and Pochettino has been aware of the importance of learning along the way.
It is hard, though, as a manager to be prepared for the week that comes ahead. By the time Pochettino sits down to speak to the press on Friday ahead of the return of domestic football it will have been a week and around 45 minutes since it was revealed that Everton were being punished by the Premier League for breaching profit and sustainability rules.
As a manager of a team that is required to face the Toffees twice this season still it will be undoubtedly put to him just what this sanction means, whether it is right, wrong, fair, unfair, justified, unjustified and the rest. The Argentine will have his moral compass pressed and evaluated by his answers.
Luckily for Pochettino and Chelsea there will have been seven days to prepare for this event. By the media's general attention to this subject, though, it won't have died down. Everton's punishment is the talk of the international break, because everyone knows the football really isn't, and it is only natural to grill those without inner knowledge of the situation about the situation.
Pochettino, as well, is in a peculiar position. He went from a self-sustaining Southampton side that worked on a low budget but improved players vastly. He arrived in Tottenham and worked for nearly five years under Daniel Levy's watchful eye, operating during a stadium move and a severe lack of funds.
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He was open on knowing the landscape when taking on the role but it didn't make things much easier. When it came to wages and transfer spend Tottenham were huge overachievers as they got to second and third in the league, a Champions League and Carabao Cup final and several cup semi-finals along the way too.
He never blamed the finances at Tottenham, opening up on the demands of the job in 2020. "I think this is the answer. The most important thing always is how you appreciate the culture of the clubs," he said on Monday Night Football before he went on to manage PSG.
"When you are in a club you need to understand the philosophy of the club, the culture of the club and what the club expects from you. That is the most important thing you need to understand.
"You cannot accept the offer from Tottenham knowing, being very realistic in the project, that is the priority is to build in five years the new stadium and spend maybe £1bn or £1.2bn, that is going to demand a big effort from everyone."
He added: "To sign this type of player that you are talking, without the support that you now already have. The club cannot be in the market with the income that can produce and build the club like it is today. It's something you need to accept.
"We cannot act like our neighbours and other clubs. There is always this temptation, the devil that is touching you. I knew very well we had this aspect that we needed to follow, the priority was one. Always trying to win. Football is about the glory, trying to win, lifting trophies.
"It's not about the money. I understand that today, more than before, companies need to be sustainable. There's a lot of people involved in football. This industry, you need to care for the industry, you are responsible as a coach and a manager and coach to manage the life of people in this way, acting with consequences that people expect from you."
That is the way that Tottenham were run and still is. Levy himself has been honest about the club's methods, especially in a world dominated by nation-state clubs and hedge fund American owners. As a British businessman and chairman of the club, Tottenham were the outliers at the time.
"The landscape of the Premier League has changed significantly in the last decade," he said in February 2023. "It is understandable that some fans call for more spending, much of which is unsustainable for many clubs.
"We are competing in a league in which we have seen increased sovereign wealth ownership and consortia finance; and in a league where the spending power is now vested in the hands of a few who dominate and have the ability to distort the market.
"We welcome the changes to the governance of the game which will compel greater financial sustainability and financial fair play (FFP). Major changes have been introduced in Europe around FFP regulations, including the newly launched UEFA financial sustainability rules, the full impact of which will be felt from season 2025/26.
"They are based on three pillars: solvency, stability and cost control and clubs will have three seasons to adjust to them. Many expect that these new rules will be a game changer for the sport. Even tighter regulations may follow."
Tottenham have no current risk of being charged by the league for any financial misdeeds whereas Chelsea very much do. They aren't currently under investigation, unlike Manchester City and Everton, but have some murky background allegations to bypass after further reports of shady documents from the Roman Abramovich era were revealed last week.
It's not the first time that this has been the case at Stamford Bridge either and for Pochettino it won't be the only moment he is quizzed on. At PSG he was working under one of the most inefficient and high-spending sporting models in the world. Backed by wealth from Qatar and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, PSG's ability to bring in star names after star names has landed them in big trouble before.
Only last year they were fined £8.76million (€10m) by UEFA for breaking financial rules with breaches going back to 2018. It is a period that covered Pochettino's time in charge and indicates that even with the club failing to hit the heights of winning the Champions League - they lost the 2020 final under Thomas Tuchel - they can still be found guilty of overstepping the mark.
Pochettino arrived in the year that Lionel Messi was signed by the club, adding him to Kylian Mbappe and Neymar as well as a sizeable group of other stars on huge wages. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the sanctions that were administered with that in mind, PSG were still found to have gone over the threshold for spending.
PSG, before Pochettino, have already had to pay out huge fines in the first round of FFP cases in the early 2010s and Chelsea themselves were also punished earlier this year for incomplete reporting, the club announced. Manchester City have also been ruled as breaching regulations and were initially handed a two-year ban from UEFA competitions before that was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Chelsea in the past were also given a transfer ban for their signing of youth players under Abramovich. None of this has gone away even if punishments have already been made and it creates a mucky backdrop for the current regime to work in.
Pochettino was seen as the right man for the job at Stamford Bridge for a number of reasons though and his experiences in a variety of backgrounds, from the madhouse in Paris to the calmer seas of Tottenham seem to prepare him for the worst of Chelsea and their shadow as well as the best of the plans for the future. If he can strike a balance and utilise the current financial loopholes that have been explored by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital then it shouldn't be much to worry about.
What can be said is this won't be the first time Pochettino is at the centre of a club surrounded by money-related questions and if he stays at Chelsea for the long run it won't be the last.
