Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino is certainly starting to convey his frustration with all the issues he has to deal with right now. Ahead of his side’s fourth round FA Cup clash at Crystal Palace, Pochettino vented about the pressure he’s currently under, in an attempt to better manage the high expectations that currently surround his club. Pochettino hit out at those who expect Tottenham to win and compete for major trophies on a level on par with Europe’s biggest clubs.
Right now, Poch has a full blown injury crisis to get through as his top two players, Harry Kane and Dele Alli, are going to be out of action for awhile.
It’s times like these that show
a.) just what an amazing manager he really is and
b.) how much Chairman Daniel Levy has utterly failed him.
This past summer, Spurs became the first team in the history or the transfer window not to buy a single player. There are no indications they’ll do anything at all this January transfer window either.
Due to the expenses of building the new stadium, Levy and the rest of Pochettino’s higher-ups won’t allocate any funding for reinforcing the player roster. And that new stadium, which was set to open in September, has seen several construction delays and it remains to be seen when it will actually open.
At this point, Spurs will be lucky if it even opens at all this season. Additionally, the club hasn’t won a trophy of any sort since the 2008 League Cup, and another chance was blown in midweek as Chelsea ousted them from the EFL Cup in the semifinals.
“Tottenham, with no history of winning… our glory, I watch the video about the glory, it’s with [Bill] Nicholson. It’s black and white,” the Argentine said at a news conference Friday, in reference to the club’s most recent league title; way back in 1960-61.
“And I watch it nearly every week and to create again that feeling you need time. Four years, five years, that’s nothing in the history of the club.”
Pochettino has guided Spurs to three straight top three finishes, and during his five seasons in charge, the club have appeared in the League Cup final and semifinal, to go along with two FA Cup semifinals.
Coming very close, but still leaving the trophy cabinet empty has raised the expectations for him to deliver silverware. Pochettino is certainly in the right when he asked observers and supporters to relax those expectations somewhat.
“Sometimes we forget where we came from four and a half years ago,” Pochettino added.
“That is the first mistake people make. Tottenham will be in the same level as Manchester united, Manchester City, this type of club, Chelsea. In the future, I hope, yes, but we sometimes forget from where we came.”
“Four and a half years ago, when we arrived here the people begged to be competitive. Begged to have the possibility, in five years, once to be in the Champions League, to attract good players.”
“Be regular competing in the cups in the semi-finals. If you looked at the record of the last four and a half years, we always when we lose, lose against big teams. Semi-finals, finals, and I think we were regular in the top four, in some seasons we were contenders – in a different way that the teams that we are talking about.”
“And that is completely unfair, to charge the club like you are going to charge Manchester City, Liverpool or Chelsea.
“In the last 10 years who was the team that won the most titles? Chelsea, no? And after losing on penalties what are we going to say? Only to describe that Tottenham was so competitive, Chelsea was so competitive. It’s not changed the reality.”
In addition to making a plea to fans to remember the place the club is coming from, Pochettino also brought up the stadium issue.
“Remember, we were unbeaten in the Premier League at White Hart Lane in our last season there,” he added.
“Nobody said what it meant to move to Wembley to create another project and not only this – we were going to play only one season at Wembley and now it’s nearly two seasons and no one says nothing.”
Tottenham Hotspur at Crystal Palace FA Cup 4th Round FYIs
Kickoff: Sunday, January 27, 4pm local, Selhurst Park
Injury Report for both teams: go to this link
Odds via Odds Checker: Crystal Palace win 9/5, Draw 12/15, Tottenham Hotspur win 17/10
Tottenham Hotspur to win the whole tournament 17/2
Tottenham Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Prediction: Crystal Palace 2, Tottenham Hotspur 1
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.