Pochettino concedes Tottenham cannot compete with Manchester United in the transfer market
Alexis Sanchez arrived at Old Trafford from Arsenal and Henrikh Mkhitaryan moved in the opposite direction as part of the deal.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has conceded that they live in a different reality when compared to clubs like Manchester United and Manchester City. Regarding transfer market, he added that they cannot compete for signings like the managers of these clubs can.
United have completed only one major signing in this window in the form of Alexis Sanchez, but Pochettino insists that the manner in which they can just go out and complete the deal is something that Tottenham can only dream of. They have to wait for the player to be available, sometimes until late in the transfer window, depending on a lot of factors.
City are no laggards in that regard and despite losing out to United in the race for Sanchez, have shown their financial muscle yet again by signing Athletic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte for a club record fee. Manager Pep Guardiola is in no mood to stop here and is already planning a swoop for Riyad Mahrez on deadline day, given a recent injury to Leroy Sane.
Pochettino, meanwhile, gave the example of Son Heung Min — bought from Bayer Leverkusen at the end of 2015's summer transfer window — whose signing could only be made possible because Bayer had managed to sign Javier Hernandez from United.
He explained that their club is in the market for any last-minute "opportunities" that may arise, similar to when they snapped up Fernando Llorente from Swansea last summer but, they are still far away from matching the Manchester clubs' pull, in the way they conduct their business.
"They are in a different reality. We are always in the market in a different reality from this type of club," Pochettino was quoted by the Mirror as saying. "We are a club where we sign opportunities. Manchester United want Alexis and so they go for him. It's like this. I don't say that it's good or it's bad. I only say that we are different.
"Maybe one day we will arrive in the same reality. When we signed Son, it was at the end of the transfer [window]. We had tried from the beginning. But first of all he said no. Then, at the end, because he struggled to play and was upset with his manager, [Bayer Leverkusen] opened the door and we signed him.
"Then they signed Chicharito [from Manchester United], remember? Because it was an opportunity. Understand the difference. For us, last summer, Fernando Llorente was an opportunity at the last day of the transfer market."
