Mauricio Pochettino: ‘I am living my dream with Tottenham’

By Jonathan Valentine — Mauricio Pochettino believes Tottenham Hotspur’s appearance in the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday night is the fulfilment of a dream he had five years ago when he first took charge of the club.

The manager will lead his side into the first leg against Ajax this evening at the club’s recently opened Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which is hosting the second major European night of its short existence following the quarter-final first leg victory over Manchester City three weeks ago.

For the stadium to be already hosting such games is way beyond expectations, given that Pochettino’s task when he was appointed in May 2014 was to get Spurs challenging for a Premier League top-four spot by the time their new 62,000-seater home was ready.

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Three top-three finishes later – with a fourth within reach – the manager insists his side have created history by challenging at an elite level alongside having a £1bn stadium built.

“I am living my dream, I am already living it – to be in the semi-final with Tottenham,” said the Argentine. “It was a dream five years ago and we are living it. When you are ambitious and want to achieve big things you need to dream. I was always a dreamer.

“When I was very young, I dreamed in my hometown in Murphy one day to be a football player and I achieved it. It was tough to achieve all that I dreamed but I believe there is power in your mind when you are determined to achieve, the thing you dream is only time and to wait and work hard to try and get.”

‘What no other club could do’

Pochettino recalled that his first meeting with chairman Daniel Levy took place when the Tottenham chairman was dressed in pyjamas.

“My first meeting was in his house and he was without shoes, like in his pyjamas, but it was in the afternoon,” said the manager. “We were talking about my feeling about the squad of Tottenham. In the squad were more than 30, I think 34 or 35 players. I said ‘oh it’s an NFL team’. How are you going to handle that?

Read more: Tottenham team news: Two formation options against Ajax

“That was my first meeting with him. We talked a lot about my ideas, our ideas and how we can share them. The principle objective was to help the club finish the training ground and build the stadium but [while] being competitive.

“That was the most important thing, the ambition. Because to have a project that is only to finish the stadium and facilities is not me. I love to play for the glory. It was an ambitious project, in different ways to our opponents, to develop a project to be sure we are going to be financially safe to help the club achieve what we achieve after five years and be competitive.

“I’m so proud, because we can develop two different things in football no other club could do: the most unbelievable facilities and then put the club on the sports side in a very competitive place, reduce the gap to top four, be contenders and play Champions League in three, four years.”

Big name absences

Spurs must overcome the absences of the injured Harry Kane and the suspended Son Heung-min. Pochettino admitted his side suffered from “stress and fatigue” as they laboured to defeat to West Ham on Saturday, but he is adamant the emotion of a first semi-final in the Champions League era will carry his side through.

Read more: How Ajax got the magic back under Cruyff disciple Erik ten Hag

“The energy, the chance to play a semi-final for Tottenham does not happen often,” he said. “We are in circumstances impossible to change and must be ready. It’s a game it’s impossible to tire of, it’s impossible not to be excited to play. It’s all mental. The energy is going to be there, no doubt.”