Right. So I've just finished reading Andy Keys' latest piece about Pochettino and the USMNT and I'm going to be honest with you: I came into this absolutely determined to disagree with every single word. That's my job. That's what I do. Andy says the sky is blue, I say it's more of a teal. Andy says it's raining, I say it's aggressive condensation. We have a system and it works.

But then I read the bit where he says "conceding two goals and failing to score is not a small detail, Mauricio. That's quite a large detail. That's the whole detail. That IS the detail" and I had to put my phone down and stare at the wall for about forty seconds because the man has, against all odds, made a reasonable point.

Now look. LOOK. I am not saying Andy Keys is right. I am saying he is not entirely wrong, which is a completely different thing and I will die on that hill. There is a difference between being correct and simply not being incorrect, and if you can't see that difference then you've clearly never worked in transfer journalism where that distinction is basically our entire business model.

Here's where I'll push back though. Pochettino is a manager. That's what managers do. They manage. They manage expectations, they manage morale, they manage the press conference so that nobody in the dressing room reads a headline and decides to pack it in before the World Cup even starts. What's he supposed to say? "Yeah, we're absolutely dreadful, see you all in 2026 when we get bounced in the group stage in our own country"? That's not management, that's a resignation letter with extra steps.

I've heard from sources (and by sources I mean a bloke on Twitter with an egg avatar who seems quite confident) that the mood inside the U.S. camp is actually positive. Apparently the players genuinely believe they're building something. Whether what they're building is a competitive international team or the world's most expensive disappointment remains to be seen, but the belief is reportedly there, and who am I to argue with an egg?

The thing is, and this is where it gets painful for me, Andy's central thesis is basically sound. You cannot lose 2-0 at home to Portugal and call it "small details." Portugal weren't even at full tilt. They were doing that thing where a really good team plays at about 60% and still wins comfortably while looking vaguely bored. That's not a gap measured in small details. That's a gap measured in years of development, tactical sophistication, and players who've been playing competitive football since before they could legally drive.

But here's my grudging, teeth-gritted, deeply reluctant counter: it's not 2026 yet. The tournament is at home. Weird things happen at home World Cups. South Korea made the semi-finals in 2002 and nobody can fully explain that to this day. So maybe Pochettino is lying, as Andy suggests, but maybe he's doing the kind of lying that eventually wills itself into something resembling truth. Stranger things have happened.

Not much stranger, mind. But stranger.

I'll be keeping my ear to the ground for any transfer rumours coming out of the USMNT camp because that is technically my actual job and I've been neglecting it terribly. More on that never.