Mauricio Pochettino believes he and his Tottenham players are primed to prove the doubters wrong as they look to sew up a top-four Premier League finish at Bournemouth on Saturday lunchtime.
The club’s progress to the Champions League semi-finals has allowed their supporters to dream; they are 1-0 down against Ajax going into the second leg in Amsterdam on Wednesday. But the basic goal remains to qualify for next season’s competition via their league position and they will do so for the fourth consecutive time if they can win one of their final two matches. They finish at home to Everton on Sunday week.
Pochettino knows there were predictions of disaster for his team in some quarters at the beginning of the season, with Spurs struggling to add players and delays to the construction of their new stadium. They did not sign anyone last summer and they would not do so in January, either. Yet they have pulled together as a squad and are within touching distance of the reward they crave.
“Ten months ago it was difficult to guess [how they would do] and, of course, there were people that were outside who were thinking it’s going to be a terrible season, a difficult season,” Pochettino said. “I always remember the first meeting that we had all together, when the World Cup players arrived, and we said: ‘We all start from zero. It’s going to be a difficult season and we need to be open to improve and to fight.’
“We’ve always built some spirit inside the dressing room to fight against the reality. It was tough but in the end we are in a very good position. We feel very proud. I am disappointed – like the players were – about how we started against Ajax [in the first half] but I still believe they are heroes because the effort was massive from the beginning of the season, with all of the circumstances.”