Mauricio Pochettino: Why it's unfair to compare Spurs to Liverpool

Mauricio Pochettino believes Tottenham Hotspur are an "inspiration" to the Premier League because they don't spend lavishly like Liverpool.

Spurs famously reached the Champions League final last season having not spent a single penny on new players across the campaign.

Why are Spurs an "inspiration"? Five things to know…
1. Spurs reached the Champions League final last season and finished in the top four.
2. Pochettino didn't sign a single player, either last summer or in the January transfer window.
3. Liverpool, meanwhile, spent over £160m on new recruits across 2018/19.
4. Both sides competed in the CL final, with the Reds securing European glory.
5. But Pochettino has urged people not to compare the two clubs because Spurs "are so competitive with less".

Jurgen Klopp meanwhile sought to bolster his ranks with the acquisitions of Alisson, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri, spending over £160m to improve his squad.

Both sides reached the European final in Madrid, but Pochettino believes Liverpool will look at his side as a beacon of "inspiration" for achieving their goals without reaching for the chequebook.

He told the Evening Standard: "When you analyse from 2014, when we arrived at Tottenham, the net investment of all the teams.

"It's not that City [started spending] when Guardiola arrived, or Liverpool when Klopp arrived, or Chelsea when Conte or Sarri arrived, or Manchester United when Mourinho or now Solskjaer arrived.

"It's in their history – in the last 10 years – all the money they were spending to arrive here. For us, we are far away from that. It's not fair to compare and say Liverpool is going to be an inspiration for us. No! It's the opposite.

"Tottenham is an inspiration for the rest of teams in Premier League or in England because with less in everything you can fight. The most important is that culture, that philosophy we create all together in the club in the last five years. Maybe, in the end, we can get or not [get] a trophy but we are very close. We are so competitive with less we are doing a lot more than our rivals.

"I think we proved a different way to operate – we achieved the final of Champions League fighting with big clubs."