Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CHANGE OF HART
Pochettino admits he can’t compete financially with the Manchester giants when recruiting talent to their new home..but his stars need pressure as they start to focus on trophies
MAURICIO POCHETTINO knows he is at a crossroads as he tries to turn Spurs into champions.
And his biggest headache is recruiting players good enough to challenge Tottenham’s established stars and keep them on their toes fearing for their places.
“Our fans know we can’t compete with Manchester United and City for a player,” said Pochettino as he prepares for home games at Wembley. “We can’t fight them.
“We work in a different way. The type of player we’re talking about isn’t easy to find.
“For me, it’s better to play with younger players who come through the academy so you can improve them and after that their motivation is always higher.
“We need quality and players with the facility to fight with our number one, and to try to help them push their level. That is the key.
“If we’re capable of doing this, like we did with Kieran Trippier and Kyle Walker, I’m sure we will have success. We are finding the balance but it’s difficult because now is the moment to maybe refresh the team with new faces – and I’m sure that will happen.”
Pochettino, starting his fourth year in charge, knows this is a crunch season and is desperate to put pressure on his players to win trophies and make sure they stay.
He said: “It’s like the chicken or the egg.
Three years ago I hear,
‘We must play Champions League or it’s difficult to keep our best players’.
“We have achieved in the last two seasons the Champions League. Now I hear, ‘We need to win some trophies’.
“That’s good, the pressure. I think it’s important to understand we need to be clever how we manage the expectation and how we need to put pressure on our own players.
“We understand that Dele Alli, Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Dier, Alderweireld are really good players. They want to win, like us. But they need to feel the pressure a little to improve in every season.
“How have Manchester City, United, Liverpool, Chelsea and other clubs tried to improve? By bringing in players and trying to put more pressure on their star players, their key players. We need to do that too. Every season we need to be clever in how we bring more energy and make sure our main players are not in a comfortable situation.
“If I’m Harry Kane, like Dele Alli or Eriksen, and I look back, if there’s no competition behind me it’s normal to drop motivation. When the players and team start to feel that, it’s difficult to win.
“That is the big risk for the future here. Because to create a winning team and try to win trophies, you need to feel the pressure.
“If we only keep 11 players and they know they will always play then success will be hard.”
The boss denied he struggled to land players because of the reputation of chairman Daniel Levy (below) as a tough negotiator who would rather lose a deal than pay over the odds.
Spurs have yet to sign a player, while City have spent £217million, United £165m and Chelsea £131m.
Pochettino said: “That is a very wrong perception. In three years, my experience with Daniel has always been trying to find a player to improve the squad.
“The difference is were they the right or wrong signing? But I think Daniel is very keen to sign every season in my experience.
“When I first came the transfer discussions were with Franco Baldini and then later
Paul Mitchell.
“Of course the last decision is between Daniel and me if we sign the player. But we are all involved in the process to try to find the right player for us.
“But the thing is Daniel is very keen to sign players, like me.”