Mauricio Pochettino Reveals Why Spurs Are a 'Bit Behind' Premier League Rivals in Pre-Season

Mauricio Pochettino has claimed that Tottenham are behind their Premier League rivals in pre-season and the transfer window because they are "building the squad".

Spurs lost 3-0 against big spenders Manchester City on Saturday, and were last week beaten 3-2 by Roma.

Pochettino has admitted that there is still work to do before the beginning of the new season, and stressed that the club are "working hard" to bring in players.

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"Of course, Man City have more senior players than us and they invest more money than us," Pochettino told Sky Sports. "You can see that we have a lot of young players on the bench.

"It's true the squads are completely different but we are building the squad. Maybe today they have a little bit of an advantage, they are ahead of us because they have signed and kept the players that they want.

"We are a little bit behind but working hard to sign some players who can help us and bring some energy, and make us more competitive."

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On defeat against City, Pochettino added: "We prioritised training, and tried to get fit, over the result, as I told you before Paris Saint-Germain and Roma.

"It's true you want to win but Manchester City was better than us, showed better quality. We lost and deserved to lose, and they deserved to win.

"It's not trying to justify, for me they were better, but our main players 14 days ago started training and it's very difficult to get fit if you only focus on playing games.

"We pushed a lot to train to train and develop our physical condition. Yesterday it was a tough training session and we knew it would be difficult to compete with City, who have a lot of quality."