Mauricio Pochettino claims Tottenham should operate differently in the transfer window
Mauricio Pochettino has reiterated that Tottenham Hotspur need to take more risks in the transfer window and that the club’s net expenditure has to increase significantly if they are to challenge their rivals for major silverware.
The club’s net spend is roughly £30million in the four-and-a-half years since Pochettino’s arrival – some £500m less than League champions Manchester City and £250m short of Chelsea, who spent £58m on Christian Pulisic last week.
At the end of last season, Pochettino called on the club to “be brave, take risks and work in a different way”, only for them to spend nothing in the summer and on Monday he reiterated that the strategy must change if they want to consistently challenge for major honours.
“I need to be honest,” Pochettino said. “I want to win the Premier League. The players and Jesus [Perez, assistant manager] want to win the Premier League or Champions League or a trophy.
“But if we want to win titles we need to operate in a different way. At the moment we operate in the same way as we operated five years ago when we arrived. Of course, maybe we can win some titles but it’s going to be a tough job because in that situation every club in the last five years was improving a lot.
“The other day I saw a stat about how teams were spending in Europe in the last 10 years and I think we were on the bottom – in England and Europe! Of course, we’re doing a fantastic job but if we want to be real contenders we need to operate in a different way in the future.
“At the moment it’s fantastic – so far so good – but we’ll see if it’s enough to challenge and be consistent in the next five years operating in this way, if we’re capable to fight with the big sides in the same way that we’ve fought in the last four or five years.”
