Mauricio Pochettino and Michael Laudrup meet this weekend for the first time in the Premier League, less than two years after they last crossed swords.
The pair previously went head-to-head in August 2011, when Pochettino’s Espanyol team visited Laudrup’s Mallorca for a match in Spain’s La Liga.
Just 20 months on, they will pit their wits against each other once more, but in very different circumstances, as Pochettino takes his Saints side to the Liberty Stadium for a clash with Laudrup’s Swansea.
The Argentinian will be hoping for a different result to his last encounter with the Dane.
That day, it was Mallorca who prevailed as 1-0 winners and, coincidentally, the man who scored the decisive goal, Jonathan de Guzman, is now on loan at Swansea.
Pochettino and Laudrup have faced each other three times as managers, all during their time at Espanyol and Mallorca respectively. Laudrup won twice and Pochettino once.
As players they also met three times, while Pochettino was a defender at Espanyol and Laudrup was a playmaker with Real Madrid. Pochettino had the better of those meetings, savouring victory twice and losing once.
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