Pochettino: Keep your noses out of Spurs’ business
MAURICIO POCHETTINO has been getting pretty hacked off with other managers poking their noses into Tottenham’s transfer business.
First Antonio Conte suggested that there was no pressure on Spurs to buy players because “if they don’t win the title, it’s not a tragedy.
“For Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, it is a tragedy. You must understand the status of the team.”
Then Jose Mourinho, master of the mind games, tried a bit of reverse psychology and declared that not buying any players gives Spurs an advantage in the title race.
“I feel the dimension of their investment is phenomenal,” he said. “Until now they spent zero pounds and they keep everybody they want to keep.”
Poch’s predictable response was to demand more respect from his rivals.
“It made me laugh because I don’t know why other people are so focused on my players and our club,” he said.
“It’s true for different clubs when they spend a lot of money the expectation and pressure is massive. But it’s the same for us because it’s our own pressure and our own ambition. It doesn’t mean because, so far, we haven’t invested money or signed players, that our ambition is not the same as clubs that have signed a lot of players and spent a lot of money.”
You can understand the Argentinian’s frustration. He feels his club is being ridiculed for adopting some financial responsibility and not entering the feeding frenzy which has seen fees spiral out of control.
Pochettino has had great success in developing cheap buys and improving homegrown players. And isn’t that the true measure of a coach?
Anyone can win the title if they’re
given expensive, ready-made stars. Spurs’ record signing stands at £30m for Moussa Sissoko, a modest total when you consider that Manchester City’s squad contains 12 players who cost £30m-plus, while Manchester United and Chelsea each have eight.
So far that restraint has made Tottenham the second-best team in each of the last two seasons, though tellingly not the best in either.
That would suggest that with one or two quality additions this summer, they could improve from No.2 to No.1.
That hasn’t happened. In fact, the sale of full-back Kyle Walker to Manchester City indicated that they could be heading in the opposite direction.
It may have been good money but the sale strengthened the team that finished just behind them and obviously weakened Spurs.
Chairman Daniel Levy likes to leave it late in the window in the hope of getting some cut-price deals, so Pochettino may yet be given the reinforcements he says he needs to put his first-choice players under pressure.
Beyond a very strong first XI, there’s little in reserve and, with the prospect of a campaign in rented accommodation at Wembley, away from their White Hart Lane fortress, that’s a worry.