Pochettino whets Spurs' appetite for success
| WEST HAM | TOTTENHAM |
Mauricio Pochettino took his Tottenham Hotspur players and staff for a steak dinner this week in a bid to fuel his club's appetite for success.
Pochettino paid for a large group of Tottenham stars and his coaches, as well as the club's chairman Daniel Levy, to eat at the Beast restaurant on London's Oxford Street.
The menu boasts steaks from Finland, Spain and Nebraska and Pochettino chose the Spanish cut, which came in at £13 (S$23.75) per 100g, as well as wine from his native Argentina.
With a London Derby against West Ham looming for Spurs tonight, Pochettino believes his title-chasing team will benefit from bonding over the dinner table.
Pochettino said yesterday: "We had a dinner in a London restaurant with all the staff and players, that I invited of course.
"I paid the bill at the end. That's true, the one time that I was invited!
"That is important because you prefer to say, 'Shall we do tactics here in the morning or would you prefer to go last night and put all the staff, the players and the chairman too in a restaurant?'.
"That is tactics, too. It is so important, just as it is important to work on the pitch, to know better in between them, to speak in a different way. That creates links between them, emotion.
"When you must fight in a competition, there's more willingness to help your teammates and care more for your teammates and care more for the gaffer that pays the bill."
Spurs' hopes of winning last season's league title all but ended after a 1-0 loss to West Ham at the London Stadium in May, but Pochettino insisted that they will not be out for revenge tonight.
Left back Ben Davies is available for selection after an ankle problem, and Spurs have no fresh injury concerns.
West Ham will be without the injured duo Manuel Lanzini and Pedro Obiang, who are expected to return to action only after next month's international break. - WIRE SERVICES
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