Mauricio Pochettino is unsure if Tottenham will end their transfer market impasse to make any signings ahead of the new Premier League season.
Back in the Champions League after finishing third last term, Spurs have seen fellow top-four side Liverpool spend heavily but are yet to complete any deals of their own.
The lack of activity comes as a surprise given Pochettino has previously urged the club’s hierarchy to be “brave” and “take risks” in order to keep pace with their rivals.
Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale, Aston Villa star Jack Grealish and disgruntled Manchester United forward Anthony Martial are among the players to have been linked, but Pochettino is unable to predict whether any moves will come to fruition.
“Last season I told you some numbers, but this season we don’t know,” he told reporters.
The former Argentina defender, who signed a new five-year contract in May, said he would leave others to obtain their own “perception” from his comments earlier in the off-season, adding: “I think I am working and focused on trying to deliver my job, our job. I try to prepare the team.
“That’s the focus and we’re concentrating on that.”
Tottenham commence their Premier League campaign away to Newcastle United on August 11.
Pochettino favours a very high-pressing, attacking style of football. He often employs a 4–2–3–1 formation at the clubs he manages. While doing so, he instructs his team to build from the back, intimidate and unsettle opponents with a quick-press system and work the ball into the box.
Pochettino is hailed by many pundits for his focus on developing local players from the clubs’ youth academies, get local government and references’ support, and a willingness to promote young players in general. It was also noted that many young players under his tutelage went on to play for the English national team, while the manager himself felt that it was his duty to develop English talent.
Players coached by Pochettino also praised his man-management approach and guidance with his willingness to advise, encouraging the players to take charge of their own development as well as helping them to improve physically, technically and mentally.
In October 2008, the club announced a plan to build a new stadium immediately to the north of the existing White Hart Lane stadium, with the southern half of the new stadium’s pitch overlapping the northern part of the Lane. This proposal would become the Northumberland Development Project.
The club submitted a planning application in October 2009 but, following critical reactions to the plan, it was withdrawn in favour of a substantially revised planning application for the stadium and other associated developments. The new plan was resubmitted and approved by Haringey Council in September 2010, and an agreement for the Northumberland Development Project was signed 20 September 2011.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60610279/GettyImages_1002481422.0.jpg)
After a long delay over the compulsory purchase order of local businesses located on land to the north of the stadium and a legal challenge against the order, resolved in early 2015, planning application for another new design was approved by Haringey Council on 17 December 2015. Construction started in 2016, and the new stadium is scheduled to open during the 2018–19 season. While it is under construction, all Tottenham home games in the 2017–18 season and the first in 2018–19 would be played at Wembley Stadium.The new stadium would be called Tottenham Hotspur Stadium until a naming-rights agreement is reached