Mauricio Pochettino hits back at Tottenham critics after quiet transfer window

Fighting talk | Mauricio Pochettino
AFP/Getty Images
Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP17 August 2018

Mauricio Pochettino has taken aim at Tottenham’s armchair critics, insisting it is easy to give opinion on their lack of transfer spending unless you are the one making the decisions.

Spurs are the first Premier League club not to make a summer signing since the introduction of the transfer windows in 2003, and Pochettino and his players have adopted something of a siege mentality since last Thursday’s English deadline.

Eric Dier has said Spurs want to “shut up” their doubters, while Pochettino has described himself as “fighting on the frontline” and says this season will be his toughest at the club.

And in another dig at Spurs’ critics, Pochettino mocked the pundits for changing their tune depending on results.

“If I am a person that gives my opinion from outside of Tottenham, I can give both sides,” the Spurs manager said ahead of Saturday’s London derby against Fulham. “Then I can always be right!

“Maybe one day I can say, ‘Yes, that’s going to be a big mistake, he is going to pay’. But then after two wins against Newcastle and Fulham, I’ll say, ‘No, keeping the squad together is a massive advantage over a team that signed 10 players!’

“If we win then they’ll say, ‘Tottenham was clever to keep all the players together’. If we don’t have success they will say, ‘They made a mistake. They didn’t have a deep enough squad.’ But that is football.”

Spurs host the Cottagers at Wembley, where they will play at least the next three home matches, hoping to start a campaign with back-to-back wins for the first time since Pochettino’s maiden season in charge in 2014-15.

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