Mauricio Pochettino sends damning message to Tottenham as fans start singing his name

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Mauricio Pochettino believes Tottenham need to be serious challengers for both the Premier League and Champions League titles and claimed winning the Europa League is “not enough”.

Pochettino spent five years at Spurs, overseeing a runners-up finish in the league, as well as taking the north London club to their first Champions League final – where they suffered defeat to Liverpool in 2019. The 53-year-old, who will take charge of the United States at this summer’s World Cup, was sacked later that year.

However, Spurs have largely fallen away since his departure, and Thomas Frank is already under pressure following a troubled start to his reign which continued with a 2-0 defeat by Manchester United on Saturday. Tottenham supporters have even sung Pochettino’s name at recent matches.

And Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Pochettino, whose contract with the US national team runs until the World Cup, said: “It is true that Tottenham is a club that needs to think about winning the Premier League and the Champions League.

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“Their facilities are Champions League (level), and in the past we didn’t have that. But now it is about winning the Premier League and the Champions League. The fans appreciated (us) because we challenged for the Premier League and the Champions League.

“To win a Europa League that the team won (last season) is good, because when you celebrate a trophy that is good, but it is not enough. It is not enough for a club like Tottenham to challenge for the Carabao Cup or the FA Cup or the Europa League or the Conference (League).

“It is a club that should be, or needs to be in the Champions League, and fighting for the Champions League, and trying to believe you can win the Champions League, and fighting for the Premier League, and believing you can win the Premier League.”

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Tottenham are 15th in the Premier League table and without a win in their last seven league matches. They have fared better in the Champions League, where they finished fourth to qualify for the last 16 without the need for a play-off.

They face Newcastle in the league on Tuesday need and Frank admitted the need for a result as the pressure ramps up. "There's no doubt we are desperate to win games, desperate," said Frank.

"There should be that feeling when we haven't won enough. The way I work - we're all different - is that if you haven't won enough, you do everything you can and you actually do a little bit more and you work a little bit harder. You just know that's the way to get out of tough moments.

"That's what I expect from players and I actually think that's what I see from the players. They run very hard and that's why I'm so annoyed we couldn't get anything out of the Manchester United game. I'm convinced, if it had been 11 vs 11, we would have got something out of it.

"We haven't won enough - you need to be desperate, because if you're not desperate you don't understand the situation you are in. That's what we want for the fans, that's what we want for the team, the club."

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