Mauricio Pochettino admits Tottenham’s decision to leave White Hart Lane and take up temporary residence at Wembley came at the wrong time in his bid to turn Spurs into Premier League champions.
Pochettino led Spurs to three consecutive top three finishes as they flirted with winning a first league crown since 1961 - with notable near misses in 2015/16 and 2016/17 - but as momentum was building, for the 2017/18 season Spurs played at Wembley as White Hart Lane was redeveloped.
Spurs had claimed a league-best 53 points at home in 2016/17, as they finished second to Chelsea, but in the decidedly sterile and sparse confines of Wembley their home return fell to 43 points as they slipped to third, 23 points behind eventual champions Manchester City.
Alongside the “energy” being sucked out of their home games, Pochettino’s strength in the transfer market was also reduced with Spurs’ net spend in the first-team across four windows from summer 2017 to winter 2019 a modest £22million, as money was invested into their new home.
Speaking on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports, when asked by Jamie Carragher if the move to a new stadium happened at the wrong time, Pochettino said, while laughing: "For me, for sure!
"I think the first season, 16/17, when we finished second, we won 17 games and two draws (at home), the team was doing a fantastic job, but that was the season when they started to build a new stadium and we moved to Wembley.
"The energy wasn’t great, the fans loved to go to White Hart Lane, but to move to Wembley was a massive frustration for everyone but the team kept going and doing well.
"That was the point we missed our own stadium, improving the team a little bit and being close to winning some big trophies."
Pochettino accepts the 2015/16 season, when Leicester stunned the football world to win the Premier League title against all odds was the one where Spurs should have sealed silverware.
Spurs ran the Foxes close but the infamous Battle of Stamford Bridge where an ill-tempered 2-2 draw handed the title to the Foxes. But Pochettino claims the seeds of their demise were actually sown earlier that campaign as they failed to win their opening four matches.
"The ‘Battle of the Bridge’ against Chelsea what everyone remembers. We had some problems from the beginning of the season, so we were a little bit late, but then we were not consistent enough to challenge Leicester really for the title," he added.
"[Following season] That was when Chelsea won the league. Every single season is so different, you can improve, but sometimes teams improve more than you. We were consistent and improving with the points, but not enough to win the Premier League.”
