MAURICIO POCHETTINO bizarrely warned his Tottenham team must not be like the ‘cow that sees the train crossing’ after declaring they are currently not contenders for any silverware this season.

Spurs won their first three games in the Premier League but have since suffered back-to-back defeats to Watford and Liverpool.

They kick off their Champions League campaign away to Inter Milan tonight and boss

Pochettino said: ‘We are not realistic contenders in any single competition.

If we show the same face as against Watford, it’s impossible to be a contender. If we

show the face [we showed against] Liverpool, it will be so difficult.

‘We have to show our best and show we deserve to be a contender. We need to be consistent. If we are going to be a contender then we need to improve a lot. A lot.’

Asked about the importance of experience to Spurs’ prospects, Pochettino used an unexpected analogy which brought comparisons with Eric Cantona’s infamous ‘seagulls follow the trawler’ speech.

‘It’s like a cow that every single day during ten years sees the train crossing in the front at the same time,’ he said. ‘And if you ask the cow what time is the train going to come, it’s not going have the right answer. In football it’s the same.

‘Experience [matters]. But hunger, motivation, circumstance, everything, is so important. We use too much talk of, “the experience is going to help”.’

The Spurs manager surprisingly left Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld

out of the squad to travel to Milan.

Both were below-par against Liverpool but Pochettino denied their omission was to ‘punish’ them, saying: ‘It’s a technical decision. What does it mean? Find it in the dictionary. A technical decision. Tactical is on the pitch. Maybe outside the pitch too.’