Pochettino calls on Spurs to plan now for summer dealing
Manager fears delay will mean missing targets English players wanted ahead of foreign talent
Mauricio Pochettino insists that Tottenham Hotspur must learn their lessons from the summer transfer window and start work now to make sure they do not miss out on more targets and fall behind their top-four rivals.
Rather than just concentrating on who Spurs could sign next month, Pochettino wants chairman Daniel Levy to begin negotiations over players who could join at the end of the season.
He believes his club’s slow business this summer has impacted on their Premier League position, with Spurs in sixth place ahead of today’s visit of Stoke City.
Asked whether Tottenham needed to finish in the top four to land their primary targets, Pochet- tino replied: “But you have the very good example. Last season, how did we finish? Second. And we attract? We attract a 21-year-old [Davinson Sanchez]. Yes or no?
“We tried to sign players earlier last summer but, for different reasons, we could not. Now, we are going to try again to do [transfer business] early. Next summer is so difficult because it’s the World Cup. That is why we cannot wait because you need to do business before, no?
“Before the World Cup, some players are maybe down here and after a good World Cup, they are up here, and then you say [waves goodbye], forget it. We are at a club that needs to anticipate. We cannot be reactive because, if we are, we are going to lose.”
Pochettino believes Spurs cannot afford to wait on player sales before they make signings of their own. They agreed to the £50million sale of Kyle Walker to Manchester City on July 13, but did not make their first signing until more than a month later.
“We signed good players, but it was so late and with no pre-season,” said Pochettino. “You need six or seven months for the player to be fit, to adapt. That is always against us. The most important thing is to identify our targets and on July 3, when we start our pre-season, they are here. If that does not happen, then during the season you are going to pay.”
With his Champions League foreign-player quota already full, Pochettino confirmed Tottenham were looking at Englishmen. Fulham teenager Ryan Sessegnon is the preferred replacement if leftback Danny Rose, as expected, leaves, while Everton midfielder Ross Barkley remains a target for either January or next summer.
“We are so focused to bring more English players through the academy,” said Pochettino. “Or, if we don’t have the profile of player, try to take advantage of the English market and add an English player.”