Football: No trophy pressure at Spurs

Mauricio Pochettino has lost a final and two semifinals in four full seasons at Tottenham. Photo / AP

Just minutes after Maurizio Sarri had told reporters at Chelsea's Cobham training ground that Mauricio Pochettino must win a trophy, the Tottenham Hotspur manager was insisting such claims were laughable.

Pochettino reasoned his work at Spurs could only be judged against silverware if chairman Daniel Levy had given him £300 million to spend.

Tottenham face Chelsea in the first leg of their League Cup semifinal tie at Wembley this morning, with Pochettino and Sarri still looking to win their first trophies.

Sarri, who took over Chelsea six months ago, argued managers such as Pochettino, Manchester City's Pep Guardiola and Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp, had all worked with their players for far longer, while Pochettino pointed to his club's financial disadvantage.

Agreeing both he and Pochettino needed a trophy to be considered among the world's best managers, Sarri suggested the pressure on the Spurs man was more immediate.

"He is a very good coach, one of the best at the moment," said Sarri. "I agree that he has to win a trophy, I hope not this [the League Cup]." Asked if he must also secure silverware, Sarri added: "Yes, it is the same. Of course, Pochettino is in Tottenham four years and I am here six months.

"Here, in the first season, it is really difficult - for everybody, for Pochettino, four years, for Klopp, four years. It was really hard in the first season also for Guardiola."

But, without knowing about Sarri's claim, Pochettino later said: "When you build a stadium and you have limitations, people demand you win, but you don't have the same tools as other clubs. When Daniel Levy and Joe Lewis called me, they said 'Mauricio, we need to prepare the club, so when we arrive in the new stadium, we have a team that can finish in the top four'. We are in advance, no? That's why I laugh when people say we need to win a trophy."

This is Pochettino's fifth season in charge of Spurs and the club have lost one final, the League Cup to Chelsea in 2015, and two FA Cup semifinals during that period.

But they have qualified for the Champions League for three successive seasons while spending markedly less than all their major rivals, which is why Pochettino is adamant he is ahead of schedule.

"If I arrive at Tottenham and Daniel says you have £300 million to spend, it is my responsibility to win," added Pochettino. "At some clubs, if they sign a manager, it's about titles and the top four.

"For us, the objective was different. After nearly five years, the club has reached another level. But how we operate doesn't change. That's the point. One thing is to reduce the gap and fight with the big sides. But if we want to win titles, we have to operate in a different way. At the moment, we operate in the same way as five years ago. Maybe we can win titles but it's going to be tough."

Pochettino used Manchester City's goalkeeping situation as an example of how his rivals operate differently.

"The first season, when Guardiola arrived, who was the keeper of Manchester City? Joe Hart. Then he says 'I need a keeper to play with their feet. Who is the best? [Claudio] Bravo'. After one year, it is Ederson. With money, that is how you build a team. But when people put us in the same level of expectation, it's so unfair."

Pochettino even drew a parallel between his challenge and the one Arsene Wenger faced at Arsenal, when Tottenham's fierce rivals moved into the Emirates Stadium and could not compete financially.

Despite FA Cup success, Arsenal fans eventually lost patience and Wenger left at the end of last season.

Pochettino said: "All that Arsene gave for Arsenal, to finish in the way it finished was a little bit unfair. If I have the opportunity to talk with him, I would like to ask 'was it worth it?' I don't know what he would say."