Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville knows a thing or two about winning league titles. He says that Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has simply done a fantastic job with his team to transform them into potential title winners this season. The club have been able to close the gap at the top of the table down to just four points. There is a belief within the club that they may actually claim the first Premier League title in their history. Spurs came closest to winning the Premier League only last season and ended up finishing third due to a dramatic late-season collapse.
Neville reckons that Pochettino has learnt from the 2015-16 season to make substantial changes in the squad. Over the course of the summer transfer window, the club was criticised for not making marquee signings in order to build on the third place finish. Spurs appeared to concentrate more on enhancing the current squad. This led to the departures of players like Emmanuel Adebayor, Nacer Chadli, and Paulinho.
Neville, speaking on the Sky Sports 1’s Monday Night Football programme said:
“I love the coach, I think he is brilliant. He picked up a squad of poor characters, seven or eight of them.
“To transform it so quickly with not a huge amount of money at all – Tottenham are well coached, play brilliantly, exciting and I just think that they (the players) all respond to him, they love him.
“To me, he is the most exciting young coach in the Premier League, and potentially the most exciting in Europe.”
A hugely impressive aspect of Pochettino’s time at Spurs is that the club has spent a little money in trying to catch up with the top teams. Manchester City have spent several hundred millions in the attempt to make the club as a regular title challenger. Yet, they find themselves battling for Champions League qualification.
Spurs have quietly gone about their business. Astonishingly, they have had a net spend of just £1 million in the last five years. Even though the figure is largely helped by the transfer of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a whopping £85 million, there is little doubt that the club have been extremely prudent in the transfer market. Pochettino has taken this character to the next level as his signings like Dele Alli have been immensely successful for a fraction of the cost.
Neville says that he would not be surprised if the club managed to win the league title this season. Only a couple of weeks ago, Chelsea had a huge 10 point advantage in the table. It has been cut down to just four points largely due to Spurs going on an incredible seven-game winning run. Since there are six matches still left in the season, there is a huge possibility of Spurs managing to take the lead over the West London outfit. Momentum is certainly with Spurs, who will be coming up against Chelsea in the FA Cup semifinal this weekend.
