Tottenham still short of funding for January transfer window, says Mauricio Pochettino

Spurs are currently trying to pay for their new stadium and have taken out a bank loan of £637million to pay for it

Mauricio Pochettino does not believe that Tottenham Hotspur have any money to spend in the January transfer window, even after a summer in which they famously failed to sign a single player.

Spurs are currently trying to pay for their new stadium and have taken out a bank loan of £637million to pay for it. Their net debt will be close to £600m by the year end and will have to be re-financed.

As Pochettino explained in his press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Spurs are having to pay for the stadium “with our own resources”, rather than relying on a billionaire benefactor. This means that money has to be diverted from elsewhere, like when Arsenal paid for the building of the Emirates Stadium, thereby restricting what Spurs can do in the transfer market.

Pochettino was asked at his press conference whether he will spend any money in January and he tellingly said nothing, just pulling out the right pocket of his tracksuit trousers to reveal that it was empty. When pushed, he said: “He asks me if I’m going to spend money! I don’t have money!” When asked whether he was referring to himself, and if the club had money to spend, he repeated the gesture with his empty pocket.

The implication was clear: Tottenham still do not have any money to spend. In the summer they failed to offload Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose, Victor Wanyama, Mousa Dembele or Moussa Sissoko and were left unable to sign any players themselves. And now, Spurs will likely have to sell to buy to generate any funds in the window next month. So the second half of the season, when Spurs are competing on three or four fronts, will likely prove as much of a challenge as the first half.

But as Pochettino explained, this is the inevitable consequence of Spurs spending their own money on the stadium, rather than having it built for them. “One thing you need to understand is that Tottenham built the new stadium, one of the best stadiums in the world, with our own resources,” he said. “Daniel is doing that with our own resources.”

Spurs, unlike Chelsea or Manchester City, do not have a benefactor who can spend hundreds of millions on a stadium and new players at the same time. “It’s not like people came in and said: ‘What is the cost of the new stadium and new facilities? Here’s £100m, £200m, £500m. And what does the manager want? Five players? Ok, we’re going to invest £500m more!’

“The difference to another project is we’re doing all these fantastic things with our own resources. It’s important to make that clear when we compare with another team. We’re doing everything with our own resources – that’s why it’s massive credit for Daniel. To be competitive like we are, it’s tough.”