Spurs must loosen the purse strings now or they will lose Poch ... and sooner than they think

AS the corporate fridges are stocked up at Spurs’ new ground, Daniel Levy must be tempted to sneak out a bottle of the finest bubbly.

To toast his fellow suits at Real Madrid and Manchester United for closing off the summer exit routes for the man who’s been keeping his big-time dream alive, Mauricio Pochettino.

Zinedine Zidane is returning to the club that sounded out Pochettino, after his departure last summer.

And Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s coronation is almost sure to happen at the club prepared to ask the Argentine to name his price to come to them.

So Levy looks to have bought some much-needed breathing space at the end of a highstakes, high-pressure year.

But how much is difficult to guess because the noises coming from Pochettino are that he’s growing tired of devoting his considerable talent to keeping Spurs in the top four and banging his head against a glass ceiling.

And, had either United or Madrid come knocking this summer (and history may judge both of them foolish not to), it’s highly likely he could have been off.

After defeat at Burnley last month, the man who usually defends his players, questioned their mentality and said Spurs could be a decade away from winning the title.

Following Saturday’s defeat at Southampton, where he served a touchline ban for uncharacteristically losing his rag with a

referee, he questioned the entire model of modern Spurs.

He argued his side may be perceived as title challengers, but that is not the reality as currently the top four is “the limit” of their ambitions.

It felt like a shot across Levy’s bows when he said: “You need to increase everything if you want to play in the last level and be one of the best clubs in the world.”

It’s been a constant theme as Pochettino has repeatedly referenced the “circumstances” he finds himself in, with no new signings and a home he was supposed to have moved into six months ago still not open.

In January, he called criticism of Arsene Wenger, for not winning big trophies in his last decade at Arsenal, “sad” and “unfair” due to the financial restrictions he was working under.

He was echoing Alisher Usmanov, who had said the Emirates move left Wenger crippled in the transfer market and thus “he lost the best years of his career without a trophy”. Pochettino brought it up in a discussion about how long he thinks he’ll be in charge of Spurs and, cryptically, said he’d like to ask Wenger in private if staying on under such conditions had been worth it.

It clearly showed he was pondering if, after five years under Levy in which he’s had to operate on a net spend of £29million, his own groundhog day position is worth it.

If you believe in your own talent and want it tested to the max, you can only work for so long on such a tight budget when clubs around you pay £50million-plus for players. Especially when no trophies end up on your CV.

Spurs will soon move into that stadium, but that alone won’t keep Pochettino happy.

If Levy (left) has to keep the purse strings tight, as Arsenal did, will the Argentine simply accept being a martyr to his boss’ stadium legacy?

Spurs should view the filling of those jobs in Madrid and Manchester as a lucky break – but realise luck doesn’t last and find the means to properly bankroll Pochettino this summer.

He needs to go into the next transfer window knowing he can compete with the top clubs, freeing any doubts about why he should stick around.

Because these big jobs come along when you least expect them – and there will be another one along soon.