TOTTENHAM IN THE NO MAUR PLAYERS PLEASE
Eriksen: Spurs don’t need to buy title
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN has insisted that Tottenham do not need to spend a penny to win the title this season.
And the Denmark star has pointed to Spurs’ disastrous spending spree triggered by Gareth Bale’s £85million exit to Real Madrid in 2013 as evidence that money cannot buy success.
Tottenham spent the Bale cash on seven stars – including playmaker Eriksen – but finished sixth the following season.
And the 25-year-old reckons it is an English obsession to spend huge amounts of money in the summer transfer window trying to chase glory – with Spurs fans feeling anxious at a lack of new signings.
“I don’t think you need to spend to win anything. It’s just a matter of how you see a team, how the players are,” said Eriksen.
“Only Kyle Walker has left from our team and we know what we did last season so I can’t see why we shouldn’t be able to do hopefully even better than last season. Of course, it might be different, but hopefully we will.
“It’s an English thing isn’t it? It’s an English thing where you have to spend money to win something, apparently.
“But also I read something from our boss Mauricio Pochettino where he said our club is just different compared to other clubs in that we don’t spend as much money as them. When I first came here there were seven new players at the same time coming to Spurs and you saw how that all ended up.
“Now, the last few seasons we haven’t bought as many players and it’s changed around. Of course, you have to have a philosophy, a plan, and it looks like we have one.
“Maybe we are unique in that, but also we as a team are very young and everyone has a long contract so no one has to go away – they are happy where they are.
“Our belief is strong and I think everyone felt that last season – that we were on the right road. But Chelsea just kept winning all those games 1-0 to lift the title.”
Brewing
Eriksen believes an influx of new faces could be more of a hindrance than a help, and added: “We have the feeling that something special is on the way. Everyone knows we have been very close the last two seasons, so I think in that time something has been brewing.
“This will be the fourth season with the boss to become even better than we were. It’s the same lads trying to become better and help each other – and that’s easier when you have known your team-mates from day one.
“If you buy a lot of players everyone needs to know what is going on straight away and be a bit lucky. Hopefully, we can turn it around from last year and keep the same feeling, but we must be in a good shape straight away.”
“Every time I pull the shirt on I want to do my best for Tottenham and hopefully my performances are good enough to get picked again. There’s the World Cup next year and I believe that’s a viable target. I just need to do well for Tottenham.”