Mauricio Pochettino spread his arms wide in mock exasperation and smiled. He had just been asked if failure to get the best from Lionel Messi could cost him his job at Paris Saint-Germain.
Pochettino — once manager of Tottenham — could have responded by placing the French league standings on the table. PSG have won every game and are nine points clear already.
But Pochettino knows that will never be enough, not in Paris. At PSG results will only shield him in part from what Kevin Keegan once described as ‘the circus parked outside’.