Roy Hodgson defends Mauricio Pochettino over Tottenham's trophy drought

Roy Hodgson says it is "naive" to describe managers like Mauricio Pochettino who have yet to win trophies with their clubs as failures.

The Argentine's pursuit of a first trophy since his appointment as Spurs boss in 2014 was prolonged when they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage by Chelsea in a penalty shoot-out on Thursday.

For all he has achieved since his arrival - transforming their squad, style of play and consistently taking them into the Champions League - Pochettino continues to divide opinion as some believe he can only be considered a success by winning a trophy.

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Speaking ahead of Crystal Palace's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Spurs on Sunday, Hodgson said: "If the be-all and end-all of your ability is have you got a trophy to your name, I find that hard to understand.

"It's so naive in terms of what the job of being a football coach is all about.

"Unfortunately you are just dooming 97-to-98 per cent of all the people working in football as failures because they may not have a chance of winning a trophy.

"What about the Rotherham manager (Paul Warne)? Is he going to be a hopeless manager all his life who never wins a trophy?

"People should sort of wise up to what football is today and stop talking about trophies.

"They should look at the fact [Pochettino's] taken over a Tottenham team who, really and truly, are having their longest spell as being considered Premiership title contenders, Champions League contenders, bringing through loads and loads of homegrown players.

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"What's a trophy got to do with it?

"He's good. Anyone who watches football and watches Tottenham play would have to be an admirer of the way they play football, and the way they go about their business.

"The manager has an integral part in that. So, as far as I'm concerned, if you're only going to call managers who have won a trophy any good, then basically you have four or five."

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Former England boss Hodgson was such an admirer of Pochettino's team that, at Euro 2016, he regularly started with the Tottenham core of Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Eric Dier, Dele Alli and Harry Kane.

On Sunday his team will not have face Alli and Kane, who are injured, but Palace remain without injured goalkeepers Vicente Guaita and Wayne Hennessey, so the 39-year-old Julian Speroni is expected to start again.

"I still think [the FA Cup] is an important competition," the Palace manager added. "[But] I don't think we can rekindle that magical feeling that it once had because these other competitions which have grown and become more important have, in actual fact, taken away some of the importance."

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