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Ronald Koeman believes Southampton could finish in the top four this season and heads for Tottenham on Sunday crowing: “Nothing is impossible.”

This weekend's reunion with Mauricio Pochettino, who quit the Saints in the summer to manage Spurs, would be the perfect place for Koeman to prove their current second place is no flash in the pan.

Full-back Nathaniel Clyne’s England call-up, and skipper Jose Fonte winning his first summons to international duty with Portugal, have put the tin lid on ‘TinTin’ Koeman’s dream maiden voyage in the Premier League.

And as the Dutchman relished the chance to put one over his predecessor, claiming: “If we continue like this, we can finish in the top four.

“Normally, teams like Tottenham and Manchester United will be up there because they have enough good players – maybe too many for most clubs to compete. But if we keep the belief, spirit and ambition, nothing is impossible.”

Heaping the pressure on Pochettino, Koeman dredged his memory after being asked whether the pair had ever crossed paths as players.

“I think I played against him when he was at Espanyol,” said the Dutchman, recalling his pomp across the Spanish city at Barcelona, before adding with delicious malevolence: “I never lost against Espanyol.”

Spurs came a cropper against West Brom the last time they played in the Thursday Night League in Europe, and Koeman turned the screw on Pochettino expertly.

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He said: “It’s normal that the pressure is on them - it’s a big club, and if they don’t have the results they expect, the pressure is always a bit higher. We hope that, one day, we will have to cope with that same feeling at Southampton.

“We had a lot of changes here in the summer, but we have good scouting, we brought in good players and maybe the challenge now is to finish higher than last season.

“If everyone was surprised with eighth place last year, people love how the team is doing and the way we play, and we will try to top what we achieved.

“But we don’t make priorities about winning and we don’t make s*** about

losing.”

Koeman has already scored one moral victory over Tottenham, hanging on to French World Cup midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin when Saints were losing a platoon of star players in pre-season.

And he rebuked Spurs for their trifling efforts to lure him away with £12million the highest offer tabled.

Asked if Tottenham had made bid for Schneiderlin, Koeman scoffed: “No, not a serious one.”

Ouch.