Mauricio Pochettino has briefed the press ahead of Tottenham’s Premier League meeting with Watford on Monday night.
Spurs will be aiming for their first victory since the 2-1 win at Stoke City earlier this month.
A number of topics were on the agenda at the press conference. Here are three things we learned.
Winks will miss Watford, Rose is a maybe
Pochettino revealed Harry Winks still isn’t ready to play despite his ankle rehabilitation going well. In fact, the midfielder is unlikely to return before the end of the season.
Meanwhile, Danny Rose could play a part against Watford after missing the FA Cup semi-final through injury.
“He is going to join the team and start to train with the group tomorrow if he’s OK today. We’ll see what happens in the next few days,” said Pochettino (via @BenPearceSpurs).
Pochettino is still annoyed with the FA over Kane
The Tottenham manager voiced his disappointment at the FA after the furore over a tweet about Chris Smalling and Harry Kane following last weekend’s defeat to Manchester United.
Pochettino said: “For me, it was embarrassing and it was a shame because the FA is English football, and Harry Kane is a potential captain at the World Cup.” (Via ESPN.)
“It was difficult to understand, very very difficult,” he added. “Of course they apologised about that. It disappointed me that this situation happened.
“Harry was very sad of course. But he’s strong in his mind. He moves on and of course we’re going to help him and we’re helping him to move on about that situation.”
The Spurs boss reiterated his commitment to the club
Pochettino went on to clarify comments he made after the semi-final defeat, when he said the manner of Tottenham’s project will not change under him “or another” manager.
That led to the suggestions his future lays away from north London, but Pochettino cleared things up on Friday.
“It was not a message I was sending to someone, I was only explaining in the context of the question that the project is so strong [and] we believe in this project,” he said (via Sky Sports).
Read more about those comments here.
