MAURICIO POCHETTINO has accused Barcelona legend Xavi of trying to “destroy” Tottenham by helping Manchester City capture Dele Alli.
By TONY BANKS
The Tottenham manager, who has seen England ace Alli linked with Manchester City and Real Madrid and full-back Kyle Walker with both Manchester clubs, insists no player at White Hart Lane is for sale.
Pochettino accused Xavi of trying to help his old Barcelona pal Pep Guardiola, now in charge at City, by unsettling PFA Young Player of the Year Alli just as the season reaches its climax, with Tottenham battling with Chelsea for the Premier League title.
Xavi, the former Barca star now playing for Qatari club Al Sadd, said Guardiola will look to sign English players this summer, and that Alli is the best of them and his type of player.
“Is Xavi working for Manchester City maybe? He wants to help Guardiola,” said Pochettino, who used to manage Barca’s city rivals Espanyol.
“He’s in a period when he loves to talk, in Doha. But he was a Barcelona player – he’s my enemy. He tries to destroy our focus to win because he hates me, because he’s Barcelona.
“Because we are doing things and the club has a lot of potential, the focus is on our talented players.
“But my relationship with my chairman Daniel Levy is so close. We have our plan to try to improve. The players that we want to keep, we will keep.
“He said to me, ‘We don’t need money’. If we sell players it is because we want to sell players. We will sign players we want to sign. All the decisions we take are to improve the team.”
The Spurs manager’s mistrust of Xavi was stoked this week by a visit from Thierry Henry and their recollections of the night in December 2009 when Henry’s Barcelona beat Pochettino’s Espanyol 1-0.
“We remembered the game where Xavi cheated the referee,” said Pochettino. “He fell, it wasn’t a penalty, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored for Barcelona and they won.
“The defender was Raul Baena. Xavi fell down and said ‘penalty’, and they gave a penalty.
“It was very funny because the video showed no one touched him. Everyone in the media was saying it was a penalty. It goes from lie to lie to lie.”
What is true is the imperative for Spurs to beat Crystal Palace tonight to keep the pressure on leaders Chelsea.
He is adamant his team will not crumble like last year, and has ordered his players to put any thoughts of their futures on hold and focus on the next six games.
They have had counselling over the past few days to help them cope with the trauma of the tragic death of coach Ugo Ehiogu last week.
And they have also had to swallow the disappointment of being beaten by Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday despite dominating large parts of the match.
But Pochettino insists they are ready to go again.
“I say to them, ‘Enjoy the present. Don’t think about the future. You can see how the team is improving, our decisions so far are good. Trust in the club. Don’t think about holidays, about rumours, about next season’.
“I want a big effort in the last three or four weeks to try to achieve. If we don’t, we try next season.
“It is different to last season. We are disappointed after the semi-final but that was in a different competition – now we are fighting for the league.
“Last season there were a lot of problems, a lot of stress, and the team was spending energy thinking of many things and not being focused. Now the players are okay.”
By TONY BANKS
Pochettino accused Xavi of trying to help his old Barcelona pal Pep Guardiola, now in charge at City, by unsettling PFA Young Player of the Year Alli just as the season reaches its climax, with Tottenham battling with Chelsea for the Premier League title.
Xavi, the former Barca star now playing for Qatari club Al Sadd, said Guardiola will look to sign English players this summer, and that Alli is the best of them and his type of player.
“Is Xavi working for Manchester City maybe? He wants to help Guardiola,” said Pochettino, who used to manage Barca’s city rivals Espanyol.
“He’s in a period when he loves to talk, in Doha. But he was a Barcelona player – he’s my enemy. He tries to destroy our focus to win because he hates me, because he’s Barcelona.
“Because we are doing things and the club has a lot of potential, the focus is on our talented players.
“He said to me, ‘We don’t need money’. If we sell players it is because we want to sell players. We will sign players we want to sign. All the decisions we take are to improve the team.”
The Spurs manager’s mistrust of Xavi was stoked this week by a visit from Thierry Henry and their recollections of the night in December 2009 when Henry’s Barcelona beat Pochettino’s Espanyol 1-0.
“We remembered the game where Xavi cheated the referee,” said Pochettino. “He fell, it wasn’t a penalty, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored for Barcelona and they won.
“The defender was Raul Baena. Xavi fell down and said ‘penalty’, and they gave a penalty.
“It was very funny because the video showed no one touched him. Everyone in the media was saying it was a penalty. It goes from lie to lie to lie.”
What is true is the imperative for Spurs to beat Crystal Palace tonight to keep the pressure on leaders Chelsea.
He is adamant his team will not crumble like last year, and has ordered his players to put any thoughts of their futures on hold and focus on the next six games.
They have had counselling over the past few days to help them cope with the trauma of the tragic death of coach Ugo Ehiogu last week.
And they have also had to swallow the disappointment of being beaten by Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday despite dominating large parts of the match.
But Pochettino insists they are ready to go again.
“I say to them, ‘Enjoy the present. Don’t think about the future. You can see how the team is improving, our decisions so far are good. Trust in the club. Don’t think about holidays, about rumours, about next season’.
“I want a big effort in the last three or four weeks to try to achieve. If we don’t, we try next season.
“It is different to last season. We are disappointed after the semi-final but that was in a different competition – now we are fighting for the league.
“Last season there were a lot of problems, a lot of stress, and the team was spending energy thinking of many things and not being focused. Now the players are okay.”
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