A penny for the thoughts of Maurico Pochettino when he sits down to watch the season’s two major European finals.
First up, Manchester United, a club who recently and very seriously sized up Pochettino as their potential manager, will be taking on Villarreal, the small-town club guided to their historic Europa League showdown by Unai Emery, the coach who used to be where Pochettino is now, at Paris Saint-Germain.
Three nights later, Pochettino will view the latest all-English final of the Champions League. He was one of the managers, Tottenham's, for the last all-Premier League version two years ago. On Chelsea's touchline on May 29 will be Thomas Tuchel, who was until December in the job Pochettino has now.
The closed merry-go-round of elite coaches can often produce these sorts of coincidences and crossovers and, at PSG, there is a regular churn of managers. A coach’s typical duration in the job is around two seasons. The experiences of Emery – two seasons – and Tuchel – nearly two and a half – provide a fairly clear template of what terminates a manager’s stay.
Emery failed to win the French league in his first campaign – a rarity at modern PSG. He survived that mishap, but was bid 'au revoir' after falling short twice in Europe. Tuchel, who won successive Ligue 1 titles, took PSG to the club's first Champions League final last August. He finished second-best there, and, once the following league campaign hit some bumps, he was sacked.
PSG sat third when Tuchel left. They had suffered four defeats and drawn twice in their first 17 matches. Pochettino has since elevated them one place. In his 19 matches in charge he has suffered four defeats and drawn twice.
Not much change, then, from old boss to new boss, but time is running out to recuperate the points dropped by both Tuchel and Pochettino. Lille, who beat PSG in Paris last month, are top of the table, three points clear with two matches to go.
"It's not over yet," insisted Pochettino after PSG conceded a 70th minute equaliser at Rennes in Sunday's 1-1 draw. "In football so many things can happen." For PSG in the last two weeks, not many of those things have gone right.
After being outthought and outbattled by Manchester City, Pochettino will not be confronting Tuchel's Chelsea with the European Cup at stake on May 29. PSG, as against Rennes at the weekend, went ahead in their semi-final tie against City but finished up 4-1 losers on aggregate.
They finished both legs with ten men, Idrissa Gueye and Angel Di Maria shown red cards, a habit followed at Rennes by Presnel Kimpembe, who, like Neymar after his red card against Lille, was involved in hot-tempered altercations in the players’ tunnel afterwards.
Gallery: PSG 0 Lille 1
There is a stubborn Parisian pattern here. Seven times this season PSG players have been sent off after the 80th minute of matches, which puts them at the top of at least one European table. No other club in any of the top five leagues can match PSG’s record of so many shortened fuses whenever the odds against winning a contest start to lengthen.
“You could see there’s been frustration in certain moments because of results,” said Pochettino of Kimpembe joining the list of suspensions and ruling himself out of tonight’s French Cup semi-final at Montpellier.
The domestic Cup now looks like PSG’s best shot at retaining any title this season, but Pochettino will have to reach the final without Kimpembe, or the suspended Ander Herrera or Marco Verratti, who is both suspended and has a knee problem diagnosed as grave enough to keep out him out of action for the whole of May.
“There have been ups and downs,” admitted Pochettino. “We [he and his coaching staff] came in four months ago, and the aim was to help the players and the club. Everything we have seen and the information we have gathered will allow us to move forward in the future.”
It sounded like a subtle reminder that on-field indiscipline will become a topic to address in the summer, that ownership of this season at PSG is only partially Pochettino’s, that some of the responsibility for where PSG are in the league table still belongs to Tuchel.
Not that Tuchel will be gazing back. He has his second Champions League final in two seasons to focus on. As for Emery, his PSG chapter seems a long time ago, although his repeated warnings that the French league title should never be taken for granted by the country’s most powerful club once again look rather relevant.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
More on Quran memorisation:
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
ELECTION%20RESULTS
%3Cp%3EMacron%E2%80%99s%20Ensemble%20group%20won%20245%20seats.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20second-largest%20group%20in%20parliament%20is%20Nupes%2C%20a%20leftist%20coalition%20led%20by%20Jean-Luc%20Melenchon%2C%20which%20gets%20131%20lawmakers.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20far-right%20National%20Rally%20fared%20much%20better%20than%20expected%20with%2089%20seats.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20centre-right%20Republicans%20and%20their%20allies%20took%2061.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
