Tottenham cannot match Arsenal's spending power, admits Mauricio Pochettino
Saturday 5 November 2016 17:28, UK
Mauricio Pochettino admits Tottenham cannot compete financially with north London rivals Arsenal while their new stadium is being built.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger spent liberally this summer to improve his squad, paying big fees for Granit Xhaka (£34m), Shkodran Mustafi (£35m) and Lucas Perez (£17.1m).
Pochettino had to finance expensive signings like Moussa Sissoko (£30m) and Vincent Janssen (£18.6m) by selling the likes of Ryan Mason (£13m), Nacer Chadli (£13m) and Alex Pritchard (£9m) and he accepts Tottenham must be more creative in the market in order to compete with the Premier League's top clubs.
"Today the project is completely different to Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea," Pochettino said.
"Sometimes it is difficult to speak about that because you or our fans can take it in a bad way, a negative way.
"But I think we need to take it in a positive way. We know we are building a new stadium and you know what can happen when you spend a lot of money.
"But we are in a different process, maybe when we finish the stadium we must change the project and maybe it is a moment to sign a player and spend a lot of money."
Tottenham are set to play their home games at Wembley next season before moving into their new stadium in August 2018 and Pochettino believes, then, the club's financial muscle will be far greater.
"I think we are expecting to finish in one year and a half the new stadium and we start to compete with different tools and resources," Pochettino said.
After seven weeks on the sidelines, Harry Kane is set to make a welcome return against Arsenal to a Spurs side that has not scored from open play in five matches.
Pochettino is pleased to have the England international back fit but he knows his team's dip in form has not been solely down to Kane's absence and hopes to see a more energetic performance on Sunday.
"We were talking before about Dele Alli who has maybe dropped a little bit and is not scoring in the same way that he did last season - maybe in the last month he has been ill, he has had a cold and had problems," Pochettino said.
"Maybe we have some injured players that we can't rotate and maybe some players are tired. That happens sometimes in football.
"Mixed together, maybe we have dropped our performance. But in my opinion there are many things that happen sometimes in football that are too difficult to explain."
