BANK OF TOTTENHAM...1 BANK OF CHELSEA... Not great buys... but he still spent less in five years at Spurs than five months at Blues

SIMON MULLOCK ON MAURICIO’S TRANSFER RECORD IN NORTH AND WEST LONDON

CHELSEA announced Mauricio Pochettino as their next boss just five months ago – and he has already spent more money on players than in five years at Tottenham.

Pochettino returns to his old north London stomping ground armed with a squad strengthened by a record £405million summer splurge thanks to the largesse of Blues owner Todd Boehly.

Despite the obvious complications of bedding 12 new faces into a group that has been in a constant state of flux since Boehly struck a £4.2billion deal to buy-out Roman Abramovich in May 2022, the pressure on Pochettino to prove he is the right man for the job is starting to increase as a result.

The Argentine coach has won six of his 13 games at the helm. Three of those victories have been in the Carabao Cup. Chelsea are closer to the relegation zone than the top four.

Graham Potter lasted 31 games last season having won only 12 times in his six months in charge after Boehly sacked Champions League-winner Thomas Tuchel a few weeks after a summer spend worth close to £250m.

And just to give the Blues’ journey across the capital even more intrigue, Tottenham have installed themselves as shock early title contenders under new boss Ange Postecoglou by winning eight and drawing two of their opening 10 Premier League games.

Postecoglou inherited a team that was also in crisis, even though Spurs finished four places and 16 points better off than 12th-placed Chelsea last May.

If the loss of record goalscorer Harry Kane to Bayern Munich was a body blow to the Athensborn 58-year-old, there have been no signs that it weakened his resolve to meet the challenge on the front foot.

Postecoglou currently boasts the best win percentage of any manager in Spurs’ history.

Pochettino is fifth on that list, having won 159 of his 293 games in charge.

One of his defeats came in the 2019 Champions League Final, when a knockout odyssey that took Spurs past Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax was ended by Liverpool in Madrid.

Within six months he was sacked, after a power struggle with chairman Daniel Levy that Pochettino was never going to win.

Spurs spent £367m in the transfer market during his five years. Big-money signings such as Tanguy Ndombele (above), Davinson Sanchez, Moussa Sissoko and Vincent Janssen notably failed to deliver any real value.

Pochettino’s argument was that his input into recruitment was just not as significant as it should have been. It wasn’t all flops – Heung-min Son has led from the front since Kane’s departure, while Ben Davies and Ryan Sessegnon were also bought during the Argentine’s Spurs reign.