Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino claims his players will be heroes for finishing in the top four this season — no matter what happens in their Champions League decider.
Victory away to Bournemouth in Saturday's early kickoff will seal a fourth consecutive top-four finish for Tottenham , despite signing no new players this season and playing over half their home games at temporary HQ Wembley before finally moving into their new stadium last month.
And Pochettino, who feels they have again “overachieved” in this campaign, has told his players he was proud of them before they lost 1-0 at home to Ajax in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final on Tuesday.
The Argentinian said: “Ten months ago, it was difficult to guess what would happen.
“Of course, the normal people, outside, were thinking it’s going to be a terrible season.
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“I remember always the first meeting altogether when all the World Cup players arrived – it’s going to be a difficult season, but we need to be open to improve and to fight. And I think always we build some spirit inside the dressing room to fight against the reality. And it was tough, but in the end we are in a very good position.
“I am so proud of my players. Of course I am disappointed, like they are, about how we started against Ajax. But I still believe they are heroes, because the effort was massive from the beginning of the season with all the circumstances.
“I said to them before the game with Ajax, ‘What happens now, tonight, happens.’”
Pochettino will hold talks with his chairman Daniel Levy later this month to discuss the next stage in their 'project' — especially transfer plans as they look to make their first buy since Lucas Moura arrived from Paris Saint-Germain 15 months ago.
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And the Argentinian, who signed a new five-year contract last May and takes Spurs to Amsterdam on Wednesday to try to overturn that first-leg deficit, insisted there cannot be a repeat of the “negative” start to this season.
“We cannot live like in the last five years,” he added. “We achieved a lot of things. We overachieved maybe. But what next? I cannot guess.
“One question the other day was ‘The depth of the squad is not at the quality of the new stadium’ in a press conference. If we start next season talking like that, nothing good is going to happen in the future.
“We can’t sell negative things to our fans. We must be positive. We need to fight for big things, behave like a big club and do things properly.”
