Mauricio Pochettino Issues Tottenham Warning over Summer Transfers

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has suggested he will wait to decide on his future at the club until he knows whether he will be backed in the transfer market this summer. 

Pochettino will oversee Spurs in the UEFA Champions League final against Liverpool at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on June 1 before sitting down with the club to discuss plans for next season.

He told El Partidazo de COPE (h/t the Mirror's Matt Maltby):

"I will not make decisions about my future [until] after the final, it is important to know what the club's future plan is.

"If we want to return to the Champions League final next year and fight with Manchester City and Liverpool for the Premier League title, we need reinforcements.

"City's goal was to win the Champions League, ours to finish building our stadium."

Spurs did not sign a single senior player last summer, becoming the first side in Premier League history not to do so in the summer transfer window.

They didn't recruit anyone in January, either, which makes their run to the final under Pochettino all the more impressive, as sports journalist Ryan Taylor and Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe observed:

It is the culmination of Pochettino's five-year project in north London.

The manager has also guided Spurs to four consecutive top-four finishes. Before his arrival, the club had only finished in the top four twice in the Premier League era.

Football writer Andrew Gaffney is among the vast majority of Spurs fans hoping he will remain at the club:

Pochettino has been mooted as a candidate to take charge at Real Madrid, Manchester United or Juventus.

Asked about the Spanish giants, he added:

"Real Madrid? I have no other goals if I am not training Tottenham; football takes you where you deserve.

"Ahead of the final, we will train at Valdebebas and sleep in a nearby hotel.

"I asked [Real president Florentino Perez] to let us sleep in the sports centre, but he told me that I can only sleep there when I become the coach of Real Madrid."

Spurs fans will have been pleased to see Zinedine Zidane return to the Santiago Bernabeu in March, shortly before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was handed the reins at Old Trafford on a permanent basis.

Both managers have significant overhauls on their hands, though, so it might not be too long before either club is in the market for a new coach should one or both of them fail to rise to the challenge.

Meanwhile, there will already be a vacancy at Juve this summer, as Massimiliano Allegri is set to step down.

Pochettino's achievements with Tottenham, particularly now he has taken them to a Champions League final, will make him an attractive option for Europe's elite, so the club must do all it can to keep him where he is if it wants to establish a similar status.

As the manager suggested, that will come down to giving him the financial backing to better compete with Spurs' wealthier rivals. If they don't have the resources or the will to do that this summer, it would be no surprise if he opted to move on.