Like a fine Argentinian wine, Mauricio Pochettino has mellowed with age.

Four years ago, at Southampton, Pochettino commanded his players to walk over hot coals in a bonding exercise. On Wednesday, he took a more convivial approach to team-building, treating 50 members of Tottenham’s playing and support staff, plus chairman Daniel Levy, to a meal at The Beast restaurant in Marylebone.

“I paid the bill at the end! That is true,” Pochettino said on Thursday. As an Argentinian who feels culturally Spanish, Pochettino chose red wine from Mendoza - “Argentine wine is the best!” - and steak from the Galicia and Basque regions of Spain. “When I pay, I pay good! Good restaurant, good food, good wine,” he said.

The purpose of the outing was simple. Pochettino believes bonding off the pitch is as important as work on it and he wants to create strong emotional ties within his Spurs squad, so they fight for each other like brothers.

“To work tactically here in the morning or to go last night and put all the staff, the players and the chairman in a restaurant... That is tactics, too,” said the Spurs manager.

“It is so important, just as it is important to work on the pitch. To know better in between them, to speak in a different way. That creates links between them, emotion. And when you must fight in a competition, there’s willingness to help your team-mates more - and care more for the gaffer that pays the bill!”

The night was particularly significant for Tottenham’s five summer signings, all of whom arrived in the final week of the transfer window, thereby missing the manager’s notoriously gruelling pre-season.

Serge Aurier, the Ivory Coast right-back signed from PSG, made his debut against Borussia Dortmund in last week’s landmark win in the Champions League but Pochettino was cautious about his chances of making a Premier League bow in Saturday’s match at West Ham. “Maybe,” he said. “It’s important to go step-by-step, building fitness, understanding how we want to play and the relationship in the team.”

Fernando Llorente, meanwhile, says he needs more time to get fit after missing pre-season at Swansea with a broken arm before his deadline-day transfer, and Pochettino has urged patience with Juan Foyth, the 19-year-old centre-back who made his Spurs debut against Barnsley on Tuesday.

​Davinson Sanchez, at least, has impressed in the last three big games after joining Spurs in a club-record deal from Ajax but Pochettino knows it may be some time before supporters see the best of the new boys.

“Now, we only need time,” he said. “It’s only a few weeks that they are involved in the dynamic of the team, the club.

“There are different examples in the world - like Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid. He came from Juventus [in 2001] and only after six months he started to perform in the way that he can play and he was really criticised.We need time for the players that we signed to engage with everyone, know everything. But I think we’re strong. I’m so happy with my squad.”

More meals paid for by Pochettino would accelerate the process but the football is coming thick and fast for Tottenham, who also face a 10-hour round-trip to Cyprus for Tuesday’s Champions League match against APOEL and a match at Huddersfield before the international break.

“We always try to find the way to stay together out of the training ground,” Pochettino said. “But it is so difficult here in England because it’s such a busy schedule that we have.

“We play every two to three days and then all are away for international break. Yesterday was a very good day to laugh and share in a different atmosphere.

“You need time to create a good dynamic. It’s so important and we need time to engage everything, to have different alternatives to play and try to win. In the end, that’s the principle objective.”