Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I MUST KNOW BEFORE MOSCOW
Poch tells the Spurs money men.. don’t wait until after the World Cup before we do our transfer business next summer
MAURICIO POCHETTINO has sent Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy a coded warning to line up transfer targets for next season right now... instead of playing catch-up in the summer.
Spurs are 18 points off the pace in the title race with leaders Manchester
City a distant speck disappearing over the horizon.
In fact, Tottenham are three points closer to the drop zone than they are to the summit.
And one win in six Premier League games has left Poch Spice sweating on a top-four finish – and delivering Tottenham to their shiny new 60,000-seater stadium at White Hart Lane with Champions League football on the roster.
Head coach Pochettino does not expect to land any marquee signings in January, when value for money is harder to find than waterholes in the desert.
But he wants Spurs to be proactive in the market and “anticipate” major targets to steal a march on their top-four rivals – just as they snapped up Dele Alli for a bargain £5million in 2015.
Although Tottenham’s business last summer included record £42m purchase Davinson Sanchez from Ajax, £23m Serge Aurier from PSG and stealing Fernando Llorente from under Chelsea’s noses, Pochettino was disappointed all three deals were concluded after the season had started. Asked if the club was in a stronger position to bring in players for 2018-19 sooner after restructuring the recruitment department, he said: “We tried to do that last summer. Now we are going to try again to do it early. “You cannot wait until after the World Cup to do business. “You need to be clever because maybe some players’ value is down here but after a good World Cup it is up here, and then you can forget all about it. When we signed Dele that is a very good example of why you need to anticipate – and we are a club that needs to anticipate. If we wait, we are going to lose.”
Pochettino would have preferred to give his new signings a full preseason programme to help them adapt to his high-intensity style.
He is not under boardroom pressure to deliver Champions League football next season despite the financial burden of the new stadium.
Despite finishing runners-up, the incentive of playing against Europe’s elite did not automatically increase Tottenham’s appeal and Pochettino said: “Last season, where did we finish? Second – and we attracted? We attracted a 21-year-old (Sanchez).”
It’s clear Poch’s words were designed to give Levy (below, with rock star Rod Stewart) a prod.
Ahead of today’s home game with Stoke, Pochettino has placed a heavy emphasis on making a fast start after Spurs dropped points against West Brom, Leicester and Watford after conceding early goals.
He revealed: “We had a 45-minute meeting where we spoke about how to start better – we need to reduce the gap to the top four.”