Tottenham Hotspur will face Liverpool in the Champions League final in Madrid this weekend.
Spurs made it to the last two of Europe’s elite club competition for the first time ever, doing so off the back of another piece of (less impressive) history.
Mauricio Pochettino saw his side fail to make any new additions to the squad over the last two transfers windows, their last signing being their hero against Ajax, Lucas Moura, who arrived at the club from Paris Saint-Germain in January 2018.
The former Southampton manager sat down for an interview with Spanish newspaper Marca ahead of the game, and during the course of the lengthy interview, the Premier League club’s boss was asked about Tottenham’s achievements, despite making any additions to the squad for the entire season.
Pochettino said: “The issue of the signings has not been the only one. The merit of this project is even greater.”
“We started the season thinking we would already be playing in our stadium, which wasn’t the case until mid-April. We had to play on a Monday against City or a Wednesday against West Ham because the Wembley’s priorities were concerts or NFL games.”
“That is why we have suffered significant injuries and despite all these setbacks, we have finished in a Champions League spot in the Premier League and we are in the competition’s final at the Wanda Metropolitano.”
Tottenham made it to the final of the European competition, courtesy of Moura’s stoppage time goal against Ajax in the second leg.
Pochettino was seen in tears after the final whistle in Amsterdam and Marca asked when he stopped crying.
“It was like a kind of release of energy, of tension. Stress was accumulating inside and it came out through tears,” the Argentine explained.
“The same in Madrid, I cry, I laugh. Those tears represent all the work that goes on here.”
