Poch could Bill Nich it!
DYCHE SAYS GLORY DAYS NOT FAR OFF FOR SPURS
BURNLEY manager Sean Dyche believes Mauricio Pochettino is closing in on Tottenham’s first league title since the glory days of legendary Spurs boss Bill Nicholson.
The famous cockerel last crowed a championship triumph in 1961, Spurs also winning the FA Cup for good measure to land the Double.
Burnley travel to White Hart Lane with Dyche insisting that Pochettino has sprinkled stardust, together with equal measures of sweat, to leave Spurs on the brink of renewed glory.
“Tottenham down the years have always played good football and players who can deliver good performances in their own right,” said Dyche.
“But he has glued that together with a stronger team and work ethic.
“The balance has always been of a team that you would think could win the league. It’s closer now.
“It’s yet to be seen, because they went close last season. But there is a tighter feel among the squad, the bond is closer.
“I enjoy the way his team works, not just on the ball, but off it as well. That has been the biggest change under him, the work they do when they don’t have the ball.”
The only worry is whether Pochettino will have time to complete his renaissance, with some of Europe’s big clubs, including Real Madrid, monitoring Tottenham’s progress under the Argentinian.
Dyche added: “It seems that the project he has undertaken at Tottenham isn’t finished.
“I don’t know his thoughts on where he wants to go, but maybe he wants to see this to the point where he can take it. I’m sure Tottenham feel that.
“He’s on to something there and he will know that. He is doing a really good job and they look a really, really strong side to me.”
Not, then, the time to take a side to North London that has only scored once and collected a single point on their travels so far this season?
It’s part of Burnley’s DNA to be classed as no-hopers. “Don’t forget this team was written off before we had even kicked a ball this season,” treatMent rOOM Tottenham: Burnley:
sUsPenDeD Tottenham: Burnley: ODDs tO WIn Tottenham: Burnley: Draw: added Dyche. The challenge, once the January transfer window opens, will be to hold on to prize assets, keeper Tom Heaton and central defenders Michael Keane and Ben Mee.
He insisted: “Financially, the club is in very good shape. There is no other thought than the players will still be here.
“They are still enjoying what is going on here. They want to build and take the challenge on from two years ago when we were last in the Premier League. They have a desire. Tom Heaton is respected and the captaincy has grown him. He has paid it back with fine performances. Not only that, he has been a proper man around the club. He is a very high- class, professional footballer.”
Dyche, although ambitious – Sunderland had him on their shortlist to replace Dick Advocaat – still enjoys the challenge of taking on the Premier League big boys.
“On paper, there’s a lot of games we shouldn’t win,” he said. “Our job is to make the team that shouldn’t win into one that does. It’s the challenge of being in the Premier League.
“That develops you more as a manager than when you are rolling along and winning every week. If I ever go to another club where there’s a fella worth billions who says the club is healthy for the next 25 years so you can go and spend, I’d do it.
“At Burnley, we haven’t got billionaire backers. They are good people who have worked hard. They haven’t got enough to write off tens of millions each year.”