Danny Rose has promised to sign off in style if next month’s Champions League final against Liverpool is to be his or some of his teammates’ last game for Tottenham. Mauricio Pochettino has spoken of the need for a “painful rebuild” at the end of the season, which has fuelled the sense the club is approaching a crossroads. Rose has been among a host of players linked with a summer exit.

“I keep seeing my name that I’m being sold, so if that’s the case and it’s going to be my last game for Tottenham against Liverpool, I’m hoping to go out with a bang and lift a trophy,” the left-back said. “It’s a Champions League final so individual situations have to take a back seat and you have to put the club first. We are going to do that. We do realise we have a chance to make history.”

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Pochettino has added to the uncertainty by putting his future back on the agenda with a series of recent comments. The manager told El País on the eve of Wednesday’s semi-final second-leg victory at Ajax that he turned down the chance to succeed Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid last summer because he had just signed a new five-year contract at Spurs. He made it clear it was a difficult decision.

Pochettino then said at his pre-Ajax press conference he might walk away from Spurs if his team won the Champions League – and added he was not joking. At the time it was difficult to read him although, after the game, he made it rather clearer he had been joking. “Yes I am going to leave – maybe if I lose too,” he said, with heavy sarcasm.

Pochettino has challenged the chairman, Daniel Levy, on more than one occasion to match the club’s ambitions to the scale of its magnificent new stadium – to close a five-year chapter and operate in a different way, “like a big club”. He has hinted he wants to see heavier spending and more decisive action in the transfer market. The key to greater latitude will be player sales because, with repayments to meet on the £1bn stadium project, Pochettino will not be granted huge funds in net terms.

Christian Eriksen’s situation is pivotal. The midfielder has stalled on signing a contract to replace the one that expires in June next year and, if he cannot be persuaded to recommit in the summer, Levy will look to cash in. He has let it be known the Dane would cost £130m, which sounds fanciful but this is Levy and, moreover, it offers an indication of how the battle lines are being drawn. Real Madrid are prominent among Eriksen’s suitors. Were he to go for big money, Spurs would bid for higher-level, more expensive players.

Toby Alderweireld has an attractive-looking £25m buyout clause in his contract this summer while Kieran Trippier is of interest to Napoli. The futures of Fernando Llorente, Victor Wanyama, Michel Vorm, Vincent Janssen and Georges-Kévin Nkoudou are uncertain.

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Harry Kane, who damaged ankle ligaments against Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on 9 April, remains optimistic he will be fit for the final. Kane sprinted across the pitch to join the celebrations after the Ajax game and he will return to training on grass next week. If everything goes to plan, he could be working with the ball by next weekend.

Kane roused his teammates with a heartfelt half-time speech, as they trailed 2-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate, asking them whether this was how they wanted to be remembered. Lucas Moura’s second-half hat-trick turned the tie around and secured the club’s progress on the away goals rule.

Trippier said: “Harry is exceptional for club and country and we’re all hoping he can be back because of his presence – even at half-time [in Amsterdam], he’s coming in going mental at us because we can do better which we all knew. This is what we need, the leadership that he has.”

Rose added: “It’s 50-50 in the final, a one-off game. Liverpool are a great team and they might be Premier League champions. The gaffer mentioned beforehand how they played against Barcelona [in the semi-final second leg] – he said the attitude we needed is what Liverpool showed. We watched it in the hotel and he’s made us a promise, which I won’t say until after the final, but he wants us to go and win.”