Mauricio Pochettino shuts down rumours linking him to Chelsea

“They always have a fantastic squad so it will be a tough game to play in”.

Speculation linking Pochettino with Chelsea has been steadily gaining momentum this week, reports suggesting that Roman Abramovich has been impressed with the solid foundations the Argentine boss has built at White Hart Lane.

Jan Vertonghen could be out until March, Mauricio Pochettino said on Friday.

Federico Fazio, Eric Dier and Kevin Wimmer represent the sum of Tottenham’s defensive options – with the latter expected to start Saturday’s FA Cup fourth round clash against Colchester United – and Pochettino is adamant the Austrian will be able to prove his worth. I understand why the media, ask me, ‘Why rotate?’ and ‘Why not play with a strong team?’

Tottenham Hotspur are Premier League title contenders this year.

‘But I don’t care about that’.

‘The most important thing is that I’m focused on my job’.

Pochettino insists Spurs have sufficient quality within their current ranks to cope with the loss of both Vertonghen, and Andros Townsend, who joined Newcastle this week.

What’s your prediction for Colchester v Tottenham?

“People criticise the under-21 league but when you play those types of players in it, it gives them a really good test to the levels that are needed”. “We’re not anxious, I think we’ve shown we’ve got enough quality to compete across all the competitions”.

But Levy is keen to reward Pochettino for building a young team which looks likely to achieve Champions League qualification despite the club having made a profit in the transfer market since his arrival in 2014. Though results have improved since club ownership let coach José Mourinho go and appointed veteran manager Guus Hiddink on an interim basis, the Blues are still virtually guaranteed to miss a chance to make it back into Europe, and might even find it hard to finish in the top half of the Premier League table. The way that we play is to enjoy.

“We kept a very good relationship and always it was about the player needing to play”.