Mauricio Pochettino believes he would have been sacked by now at Tottenham if all he had done was to win a domestic cup. The manager takes his team to League Two Tranmere in the FA Cup on Friday while he also has them in the Carabao Cup semi-finals, where they face Chelsea.

Pochettino has never hidden where the domestic knockouts rank on his list of priorities and they are some way behind the Premier League and Champions League. It is his ambition to win one or both and to his mind being able to compete is of a higher value to the club and its standing than to win the FA Cup or Carabao Cup – even if he would love to do that.

Pochettino has yet to win a trophy in his managerial career and it is a stick with which he is sometimes beaten. He sets greater store by his three top-three Premier League finishes with Spurs and the accompanying Champions League qualifications.

“To win the Carabao Cup and be in the middle of the Premier League table …” Pochettino said. “I think I would be sacked a few years ago – with two or three Carabao Cups or FA Cups. If you don’t finish how we have finished [in the league] in the last three seasons but win the FA Cup, I don’t know if Daniel [Levy, the Spurs chairman] would have too much patience with me or is nice to say: ‘OK, you’re 10th in the Premier League, I’ll give you a new contract.’

“My ambition is to win the Champions League with Tottenham or the Premier League. That’s what puts you in a different level.”

Pochettino will weigh up whether to use Harry Kane as a starter or substitute at Tranmere but he has promised to field a strong lineup notwithstanding Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final, first leg against Chelsea at Wembley.

Pochettino has made it clear the club must offload players this month if they are to have the funds to refresh the squad as they contend with the costs of their new stadium. They will listen to offers for at least five players – Victor Wanyama, Mousa Dembélé, Fernando Llorente, Georges-Kévin N’Koudou and Vincent Janssen.

Wanyama has disappeared off the radar this season because of a serious knee problem. He last played in the win at Crystal Palace on 10 November and Pochettino’s assistant, Jesús Pérez, said: “We will see probably in two weeks if he is ready to start to train.”

Dembélé and Llorente are out of contract in June, with the former interested in a move to China or the Middle East and the latter linked with a return to Athletic Bilbao. Spurs are keen to remove Llorente’s wages from the books. It has emerged he takes home £100,000 a week, Spurs having had to pay a premium to take him from Swansea in 2017 ahead of Chelsea.

Pochettino said: “It doesn’t just depend on us to regenerate the squad. In case we don’t sell players, it’s impossible to bring players in and to find the capacity to bring players in.”