The club cannot expect to be challenging for trophies under their current business model, the manager says. Mauricio Pochettino said Tottenham will need to “find another magic guy” if he is expected to challenge for major honours in the context of the vast resources available to the club’s major rivals. Damaging defeats at Burnley and Chelsea have seen Spurs’ Premier League challenge unravel, while last month they were knocked out of the EFL and FA Cups.
Pochettino believes it is unfair that he is regularly beaten with the stick that he has yet to win a trophy with Tottenham, who did not sign a player in either of the past two transfer windows and argued he should not be judged in comparison to his big-spending rivals. “Maybe, if [Tottenham chairman] Daniel Levy said to me next season ‘we need to win a title, we need to win the Champions League or Premier League’ maybe I say to Daniel you need to find another magic guy that can do this because we are not going to change how we operate,” the Spurs boss said ahead of Saturday’s north London derby with Arsenal.
“We can be there? Yes. Are we going to fight? Yes. Are we going to be competitive? Of course. But you can’t say we need to win if we don’t fight with the same tools. But you cannot put a gun [to my head] and say, ‘we need to win’ if we’re not fighting with the same tools as another team. I hear people say, ‘Pochettino is there for five years and didn’t win.’ Of course, I didn’t win but, for me, what we are doing here is more than win a title.” Pochettino acknowledges there are parallels with the situation he is in and that of Arsenal when they moved to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, with Spurs still yet to move to their new White Hart Lane.
And the Argentine manager believes taking the club into their new stadium in a position of strength is as important as delivering silverware.”I think it’s a similar situation [to Arsenal],” he added. “The problem is, I don’t have all the answers. I am not the owner of the club, I am not the right person to explain the business plan for the future. You know, to be in the top four, to play Champions League, that was a dream five years ago. Arrive at the new stadium in very good condition – I think that is more than winning a title, more than winning a Carabao Cup.
“We are talking about bigger things than winning a trophy. Of course, we’d like to win a trophy. We like to feel, to lift a trophy the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup, the Premier League, the Champions League. But the responsibility of the club is massive. You need to be sure you survive.”