Mauricio Pochettino Says Spurs Are On Right Track

Head coach Mauricio Pochettino accepts Tottenham are going through a “very tough period”, but believes something special is in the offing – with silverware not too far away.

The past few seasons have been turbulent at White Hart Lane, thanks in no small part to the club’s frantic search for a return to the Champions League. Harry Redknapp departed little more than a year on from taking Spurs to the quarter-final stage of the competition, while successors Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood paid for their inability to secure qualification.

Pochettino, though, is not under the same pressure to secure immediate Champions League football, with the five-year deal handed to him in the summer by chairman Daniel Levy highlighting a longer-term focus.

“I have enjoyed my four months at Tottenham,” Pochettino said, despite Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Manchester City. “We knew when we signed for Tottenham that we expected a tough period.

“We are in a very tough period in the club, but when you arrive to a club with big potential like Tottenham, a big club, and have the possibility to build something important, this is a very good challenge for us.

“I enjoy, but I try to enjoy it more than I am. I am aware of the results.”

Pochettino is confident that the players’ mentality is slowly coming into line with his philosophy, while they are also beginning to reach the fitness levels expected of them.

It took up to six months to achieve that at former club Southampton – a side he led to their best-ever Barclays Premier League finish last term – and the Argentinian reckons the “club have moved on a lot” since his summer arrival.

“It’s impossible for me to speak about previous managers, the previous philosophies, previous ideas,” Pochettino said. “Two seasons ago, Gareth Bale was here and the club sold him for £100million – now he is not here, there’s no Luka Modric and I don’t know. You have a different challenge or different target or objective.

“Now it is different. The club is different – the club takes another way. I have a clear idea from the club, from the board, and I agree and we need to build something special and Tottenham want to build something special.

“No better, no worse than before – different. We need time and to work hard and it is for that I am here.”

It is work Pochettino is convinced will bring with it trophies. The 2008 League Cup was Spurs’ most recent success, but they are fighting it out on four fronts this season, including the Europa League – a competition they continue on Thursday evening with a Group C encounter at home to Asteras Tripolis.

“I am sure that in the end we achieve something important,” Pochettino said.

“Maybe in six months, maybe in one year, or maybe in two years.

“But I am sure that the club, in the end, will achieve a very important trophy.”