Burnley effectively ended Tottenham Hotspur’s faint Premier League title hopes with a 2-1 win at Turf Moor on Saturday.
Liverpool and Manchester City will continue to slug it out for the title but Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that it could be a decade before his team can win the league.
Pochettino, who continues to be linked with the permanent manager role at Old Trafford, questioned whether Spurs have the long-term winning mentality to succeed.
“If you want to be a real contender, playing well or not, it’s (the game against Burnley) a must-win,” he said. “You need to show you are fighting for big things and I am frustrated because we didn’t show the same energy as Burnley, the same attitude as Burnley, the same ambition as Burnley.
“We have to look at ourselves and maybe assess ourselves in different ways – we are not looking for excuses. It is holding us back and it might take five years’ work, 10 years’ work to change that. To go away and play the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal – that is easy. You don’t need a manager to motivate you for those games, that is normal.
“But if we don’t have the will to show that (against Burnley), then you don’t deserve anything. What we showed on Saturday was that we are a good team, have good quality but not enough to win a Premier League title – that is the reality.
“If you are not able to beat Burnley it is impossible to think you will win the title – if you do it’s because others have lost the opportunity themselves.
“The reality is that it will be tough to win the Premier League because of us, not because Liverpool or Manchester City are any better.”