With a 1-0 win over West Ham United today, Tottenham Hotspur are off to their best start in Premier League history. They temporarily moved back into the top four, pending the result of Leicester City at Arsenal on Monday night. And Spurs are doing it despite the fact that they didn’t make a single addition in the summer transfer window.
Until this August, no club in Premier League history held such a dubious distinction. Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino hopes that bit of history does not repeat in January. He said the club will try to make some additions in the January transfer window.
“In football you always need to think you can improve, and you need to try to improve your squad,” said Pochettino after the game.
“I’ve tried to explain before what happened in the summer, the circumstances, but if you say to me ‘we were so clever and are geniuses’ because we didn’t sign [anyone], and now after nine games it’s the best ever start in the Premier League, I’m not going to be the kind of person to say ‘yes, we are geniuses.’ We couldn’t sign for different circumstances, but we wanted to sign.”
“I think it’s maybe a coincidence, or we worked a lot, or because we’re clever, but to be honest always you try to sign. Now January will come and we’re going to try to sign. I think it’s not only us — all the clubs and managers want to sign players, must refresh the squad.”
Pochettino, of course, did not want to present himself as being unhappy with the current squad, or to look like he’s calling out his bosses for not giving him help in the transfer market. He simply stated what’s logical and rational- sure, they’re looking good now, but over time, attrition hits everybody, and if you’re standing still you’re actually falling behind.
Over the course of a very long season, Spurs, just like everybody else, will need reinforcements.
“If you ask me, I’m happy, I’m happy with the result but I think you cannot play with the destiny and you need to do the things properly,” the Argentine added.
“I don’t want to say that it’s not doing things properly to not sign, but we need to try again in January or the summer if we want to move on the team and the club.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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