Vertonghen says spending is crazy
Jan Vertonghen has claimed the “crazy” spending of Tottenham Hotspur’s rivals will make beating them next season even more satisfying.
Spurs have yet to complete a signing in this transfer window, whereas title rivals Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool have spent a combined £570million on new players.
Mauricio Pochettino has reassured Tottenham fans that the club will make their move in the transfer market before the close of the window on Aug 31. But Vertonghen is confident Spurs are well equipped to challenge for the championship and that the exorbitant expenditure by other clubs has increased the pressure on them.
Asked if he expected the most competitive Premier League title race yet, the Belgium defender said: “Yeah, definitely. With their spending, a lot of pressure comes on teams. You’ve seen how much money has been spent in the window and there’s a month still to go, it’s crazy.
“With spending, there’s a lot of pressure on the teams. There are four, five teams maybe who have to become champions now and that will put great pressure on them and that makes the Premier League the best in the world to watch. It’s a great thing to play in. I’m happy everyone has strengthened their teams because that makes it so much better when you beat them.”
Pochettino has scoffed at claims by Antonio Conte that Spurs will be under less pressure than Chelsea and the other big clubs and Vertonghen is adamant they have the highest expectations.
“No, we have got a lot of pressure on our team as well,” he said. “We want to do better than second. We had a great season and now we have to make sure we beat those top teams away from home like we did at the Lane.
“We have a great team, a young team, we have improved a lot. This looks like a pre-season where we finally have everyone together, or almost everyone, and can work on things the manager wants and I think we’ve seen lots of improvements already.” Pochettino has reassured fans that Tottenham will enter the transfer market and said: “Our moment will arrive. We have a plan. We are calm because our squad is competitive. “If we compare the last two seasons, we were the best. We have a very clear idea of what we want and what we need to do to try to achieve our target. I want to tell our fans, ‘Do not be worried’, because there are a lot of rumours about the big sides spending and it looks like Tottenham is not ambitious. We will move in the market.” Tottenham sold rightback Kyle Walker for £50 million to City while Manchester United have had one bid for Eric Dier rejected and Pochettino said he had no plans to sell the England midfielder.