Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged the club to start 'behaving like a big club' ahead of their opening fixture in their new stadium against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night, while admitting this summer's transfer window will be the biggest of his tenure.
While, away from the field, the club are in the healthiest position they've ever been in heading into their new home, the on-field results have not contributed to this feeling of late, with just one point from their last five Premier League games, the last of which being the devastating last-gasp loss to Liverpool at Anfield.
And, speaking to the Independent, the Argentine was eager for the club to change their mentality in tune with their relocation, explaining: “Now, when you arrive here, it looks like a big club. Before you could say: ‘Yeah, but the stadium only holds 36,000’. But now, when you arrive here there is no point in thinking like a small club. You must think like a big club.
“If you want to compare to Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus or Real Madrid, you can’t think you are Tottenham with 36,000. We need to think like a big club and that is the most important step that we need to make. Of course, you say to me: ‘With you? Without you?’ I don’t know. That is about Daniel."
However, he also acknowledged that the club have come along way in a short period, admitting: “My project, when I started five years ago, was to arrive in the new stadium and try to be a competitive team in year two and then be in the Champions League. We are ahead [of schedule] now. In the new stadium we will play in the Champions League.
“Over the next five years in my mind we are going to finish [the chapter] and we need to close the chapters and we need to start thinking we are a club in different dimensions – we are not in Chigwell any more we are not at White Hart Lane with 36,000. The magnitude of the club has grown 10 times, 100 times. We are in another dimension. We cannot operate in the same way as five years ago.
“I was talking with Daniel after the Liverpool game and sometimes people compare us with Liverpool and say the very good action of [Virgil] van Dijk. Van Dijk was £75m 18 months ago. The keeper [Alisson Becker] was £70m. They had two midfielders on the bench who they spent more than £100m on in the summer.
April is a massive month for football! https://t.co/mvYgDpHtcR
— 90min (@90min_Football) April 1, 2019
“The people sometimes say an opinion of Tottenham is like Liverpool. In what? Yes now we are going to be better than Liverpool because we have a better stadium and better training ground. Yes but now is another thing to compete as we need to operate maybe similar to them in the future or not. We will see which is the project.
“Now we need to behave like a big club in every single aspect and every single department. That is only my point when I talk with Daniel."
And, speaking of talks with Levy, when probed on the importance of this summer's transfer window, the 47-year-old proclaimed: “It’s going to be massive.” His response to whether it would be the biggest of his reign was short but sweet: “Yes.”
Source : 90min