Mauricio Pochettino needs to unite Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe as talent isn’t enough

Only when an English voice dared to ask about Harry Kane and Tottenham did Mauricio Pochettino reach for his bottle of water and fan his face amid the stifling heat.

That apart, he was a picture of cool. This was happy Poch, the version we enjoyed for most of his time in the Premier League, save for the last few months at Spurs.

It is little wonder, given his gold-standard squad was gilded further by the arrival of Lionel Messi this week — wouldn’t you be smiling?

Messi will form a dream trio consisting of former teammate Neymar and Kylian Mbappe

As each question was asked of him here at PSG’s training ground in the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on the outskirts of Paris, you could see Pochettino formulating a jaunty retort.

‘It has been like the Big Brother house the past few days, with the cameras and everything shown live,’ he said, to the amusement of the room. They like him here.

He made fun of a reporter who asked five questions in one breath — ‘Which is the most important for me to answer?’ — and there was also room for a little self-deprecation.

‘My English is not perfect, my French is not perfect, and even now my Spanish is not perfect!’ said the Argentine, whose interpreter was made redundant for the jokes but employed for the serious stuff.

And Pochettino was the master diplomat. Messi, he said, was ‘one of the best players in the world’. Just ‘one of’? When you have a rather precious Neymar and often sullen Kylian Mbappe to manage, it pays to employ such smart tactics off the pitch, as well as on it.

That is now the challenge: aligning his stars to illuminate Parisian skies. Maybe it was that Poch’s punchlines were an attempt to conceal the pressure he is feeling. Don’t forget, they finished second to Lille in Ligue 1 last season.

Mauricio Pochettino’s task will be to unite his star players to get the best out of them

‘The objective is to make these top players a top team,’ he said. ‘We have to make a team that shines. This is the main challenge; to create a dynamic to achieve our goals at the end of the season.’

Those goals are the reclaiming of the domestic title and the club’s first Champions League crown. Pochettino did not say that, he does not have to. With this team, you win the lot or you lose.

Sportsmail watched Friday morning’s training session beneath a blistering sun, in which Messi was never far from Neymar, his former Barcelona team-mate something of a comfort blanket for the new boy in town.

There was one rondo keep-ball drill involving Messi, Neymar and Mbappe during which you felt sorry for those in the middle, much like toddlers and their vain pursuit of pigeons.

Pochettino, like the rest us, looked on in awe. But he did have a warning for his players when he met with the press after lunch: ‘Talent isn’t enough if you don’t play as a team. PSG always has the talent, but the challenge is to be a united squad — not just on social media, but in reality.’

Messi looked sharp in training though is likely to miss their next game against Strasbourg

The hoopla soon returned when asked what formation he would play this year.

‘Woah, let’s go slow — I have lots of ideas!’

For now, it seems, accommodating Messi won’t be an issue, for he is likely to miss Saturday’s Ligue 1 clash with Strasbourg as he builds fitness. Still, he looked pretty sharp to us on Friday.

But not as sharp as his manager, who will need all of his wits about him to survive and thrive here in the coming months.

Oh, and by the way, he said nothing of note about Kane. He has enough on his plate in Paris.