Poch is at crossroads ..signpost well hidden

TOTTENHAM’S season is already at a crossroads – and I’m not sure they know which way to turn.

On the one hand, they need to win a trophy: It’s coming up to 11 years since Juande Ramos delivered the League Cup.

But on the other hand, chairman Daniel Levy (below) wants to christen Spurs’ new stadium with Champions League football next season – and that’s going to be easier said than done.

To do that they will either have to finish in the top four or win the Europa League because they have just about burned their bridges in this season’s Champions League.

At what point, you have to ask, will Tottenham’s big-name players decide to look elsewhere for the chance to win trophies?

Realistically, the best they can hope for is third place in the group and dropping down into the Europa League. But Spurs have been there before, and head coach Mauricio Pochettino (top) looked as if it was the last place on earth he wanted to be.

If that is their fate this

season, it’s a long haul to the final in May – when they could end up in a London derby, with Arsenal or Chelsea, staged in Azerbaijan

The League Cup is an achievable target but there are no guarantees they will come through next week’s fourth-round derby at West Ham. And although they are only two points off Manchester City, I don’t see Spurs winning the Premier League.

So the biggest prizes look out of reach again. Sadly, the chickens may be coming home to roost about the club’s failure to invest in the squad over the summer.

For me, Spurs’ best-case scenario is to win a trophy, finish in the top four, and everybody’s happy in the new stadium – chairman, manager, big players and supporters.

Worst case scenario? No trophies and no top-four finish – while Champions League football in London returns to Arsenal and Chelsea next season.

That’s an unthinkable scenario for Tottenham fans. But it’s not out of the question.