Sign up to FREE email alerts from Football London - Spurs Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Mauricio Pochettino has made it very clear that if Tottenham Hotspur do not have a clear and ambitious plan going forward then he is open about his own future.

The Argentine has worked wonders with his patched up squad this season, taking them to the Champions League final and what looks like a top four finish in the Premier League this campaign, despite zero investment in his squad.

Pochettino has been speaking recently about starting a fresh chapter at the club next season, drawing a line under the success through struggles over the past five years as Spurs build their new stadium and completed their £25m training ground.

He was asked whether the historic events of Wednesday night's triumph at Ajax, sending Tottenham through to a showpiece Champions League final on June 1 against Liverpool, would help persuade Daniel Levy to give his manager what he needs going forward.

Pochettino laughed before asking: "Do you know Daniel? He never loses his composure. There’s no easy with Daniel."

The Spurs boss has worried some fans with his words in recent days about potentially leaving the club if they win the Champions League because he will have reached the pinnacle under the circumstances of this season.

It was put to him that all his talk about a new chapter might be preparing everybody for his departure or him taking a sabbatical as Pep Guardiola did when he left Barcelona to recharge his batteries and rest from football.

"I am open for everything," admitted Pochettino before launching into a lengthy monologue. "What I think is I’m not open to start a new chapter with no plan or a clear idea.

"I am not open to start a new chapter with no plan, no clear idea and not being transparent, telling you and telling our fans what next, what is our objective, to stop talking about perception, about reality.

"Don’t leave you or our fans to think what you want, but to be really transparent, because if not, I think it is going to be difficult. Until now it was so clear, that the priority was all that we talked before.

"But because I know very well how this business works and we know very well that we need to operate in a different way - that doesn't mean to spend more or less money - when I say operate, it’s not only to say spend money or sell players or buy players.

"To operate differently is to be transparent and way ‘that is what we want’ for the next year, for the next five years, for the next ten years. And start to work hard."

(Image: (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images ))

He added: "But if we expect every season to be in the final of the Champions League because it is our plan, we need to create a plan. And the plan maybe is different to what has happened in the last five years.

"And if we believe that if we operate in the same way that we have operated in the last five years we are going to be every season in the final of the Champions League, and we are going to be every season in the top four and competing against projects like Liverpool or Manchester City or Manchester United, I think we are very naive.

"Because I know the business and because I know how it works, I wanted to be clear, I wanted to be honest. First of all with my club, with my players, with our fans and, through you, to relay the right message.

"I don’t want to fight anymore about perception, reality…’yes, we are real contenders’. I need to defend my position, I defend the impression of the club.

"And every single press conference…’you must compare yourself with Liverpool’. But in what? We are completely different. But then the expectation cannot be the same.

"If you want to expect the same from Liverpool, from Manchester City or Manchester United and Chelsea. And you put the same expectation on Tottenham, and the people expect the same, of course, give me different tools to work. If not, I see the people working in the same way, in the future I’m going to be this guy. I am the most stupid person to work [in the same way as the past five years]."

The Spurs boss continued: "In the future in Tottenham, not being honest and to relate our feelings and our reality. That is the most important because in the five years we have achieved a lot of things and I think like I explained before, it was an amazing period. But now it’s what’s next, that is my point.

"Of course we are all excited now and it's difficult to see the future but the future arrives quickly. And if you are not focused and if you don't start to work and if you do not make a plan, if you don't anticipate the things, when you crash you crash.

"Of course we are happy, yes but at the same time we need to sustain working hard to try to create a plan to develop in the next year, five years, I don't know, it's Daniel's decision, to be consistent and to create a realistic plan for the club and to match the expectations from you [the press] and from the people because if not, our destiny is to crash. It's not to be successful like today."

(Image: (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images ))

Pochettino was asked whether if Levy's plan did not match his hopes would he take a break from football?

"I am open like I said before. I am open to everything. Of course I love to work, I love Tottenham, I love to be here every day, I enjoy it a lot, I am so grateful but after five years, I think our effort was massive and of course my motivation is to be here and to work hard, to try to achieve all that the club want to achieve," he explained.

"But the problem is …. I need to know what we need to achieve or for what we are going to fight and then who is going to assess the tools that we have to achieve what we plan to achieve.

"That is the most important thing because if someone is coming from outside and wants to assess my job or the way we want to operate in the future or how we want to assess the players and I don't have the possibility to do what we need to do, everything is going to be difficult, no?

"That is the most important thing. How we are going to assess? Who is going to assess? Who is going to design the plan? What we need to do achieve? What we want to achieve in the future? That is plenty of things we need to make clear after 1 June. I think you all agree?"

Much has been made about Tottenham needing to go on to win trophies and Pochettino was asked whether that was the next stage for him in his managerial ambitions.

"My ambition is bigger than only a trophy. Of course, winning trophies is one of my objectives but it is not only to win a trophy," he said.

"I know very well for many people it is only about winning trophies. For me it is winning trophies and to create a special project. I think to play a final … we were talking the other day. Do you now that after more then ten years at clubs like Barcelona, who have the best player in the world, no? Lionel Messi. You know how many Champions League finals he has won? Only three.

(Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

"And for Tottenham is only playing in the final for the first time. All we create in this five years, because we know the reality. You know when we arrived here no one believed to reduce the gap to the top four. We were scared to play QPR because the manager was Harry Redknapp. ‘Oh Harry is coming, he knows us. He knows the players and White Hart lane. That was the feeling of the club. Oh we lose three derbies against West Ham. Ohhhh the first game we are going to play West Ham’.

"We are Tottenham. We are Tottenham. Always I was in my mind, Tottenham big club, why don’t you believe inside? To build this belief inside to reach the Champions League I don’t think we realise the type of success with Tottenham. We are going to play Liverpool who won five. We are talking about Ajax who won four.

"When you get to the Johan Cruyff Arena there is a massive picture of Johan Cruyff. Our history is different. We have an amazing history but I think we need to create the most exciting history or we need to write the history. And we have the possibility.

"When you assess how we arrive here it is more than winning a title, it is more than winning three titles, it is more than winning five or ten titles for a team like Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Juventus.

"That is why my motivation is to create something special in football and Tottenham gave us that possibility. All the history we created in the last five years is amazing and you feel that can be possible. Now it is about how we handle or manager the future and that is the key."

He concluded: "We will have the possibility to put Tottenham there [up high] but the most difficult thing is you reach this level but now to sustain this level in the future.

"That is the point we need to talk how we can keep the club in the last level we have arrived now. We have played a final of the Champions League, not too many clubs can reach this level."

Keep up to date with the latest Tottenham Hotspur news, features and exclusives from football.london via our free WhatsApp service.

Text NEWS to 07776197989 and then add the number to your phone contacts book as spurs dot london (case sensitive, with spaces) to receive daily updates and breaking news from Alasdair Gold and the team on Spurs.

Your phone number won't be shared with any other members of the group. Click here for more information on the service.