Currently second in the Premier League, just four points off leaders Chelsea with six games to go, Tottenham under Mauricio Pochettino have gone from the team with an outside bet on the top four to one almost guaranteed to be up there come the end of the season.
Collapsing towards the end of the 2015/16 campaign and allowing Arsenal to overtake them is something unlikely to be repeated this year, and the Argentinean manager is determined to turn this team into one capable of battling with the league’s ‘big boys’ in years to come.
Linked with a move away from White Hart Lane by the European media, with jobs in Italy and Spain becoming available at the end of the season, Pochettino’s latest interview, with Sport/Foot in Belgium, suggests he plans on being in London for the long run.
Asked where he felt Tottenham were as a club these days, the Spurs manager explained he was far from done.
He said: “The club and the team are in complete revamp. In a year and a half, we will move into a new stadium that will be a model for England and all Europe. Our team is young, constantly evolving. The final product isn’t ready yet.”
As for what was missing, he explained: “Time. Time is what will allow us to measure up with the more financially powerful entities. A club that built a new stadium needs to make an important financial effort and therefore needs to be creative off the pitch.”
Creative is exactly what the club have been doing, even if it means a few flops such as Georges-Kevin N’Koudou or Moussa Sissoko.
Then again, if you can pick up the likes of Son-Heung Min, Dele Alli and Toby Alderweireld for your team and turn them into some of the better performing players in the league, you’re not doing too badly.
Just imagine what Pochettino will be able to do when money is even more free flowing once the stadium stresses are out of the way.
