Ryan Mason praises former coach Pochettino

Mason was forced into early retirement from professional football after a skull fracture in January of last year. He spent 13 months recovering before medical advice caused him to retire altogether from the pitch.  

The former Tottenham midfielder has credited Pochettino with altering his entire outlook on life. Mason heaped praise onto his former coach, he said ''you love playing for him, you'd run through a brick wall for him because he's a lovely man and a lovely human being.''

Despite the show of support, Mason also admitted that he ''would never, ever cross him because his morals and values are so strong that if you went away from that it would be hard for him to forget it. But at the same time if you work hard, do what he says right and enjoy your football then he is unbelievable.''

Mason joined 'Spurs' academy in 1999 at the tender age of eight, he went on to make 70 appearances at professional level for Tottenham with all except four occurring under Pochettino. The 26-year-old also noted Pochettino's record of sourcing young talent from clubs in lieu of buying players from overseas. He said ''you could see how he develops players from day one. I was playing for Swindon in League One six months before he came in but he didn't care about that, he said to me ''you're a Premier League player, if you get fit and train hard you'll play for me.''

Finally, Mason believes that his former coach was instrumental in aiding his recovery. ''Also when I say he changed my way of life, that way of stressing your brain I believe helped me recover from my injury because rather than feeling sorry for myself that experience of being strong mentally with him helped me to change my outlook,'' he added.