Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has admitted that his team are lagging behind in their preparation for the upcoming new Premier League season after the north London side were thrashed 3-0 by title rivals Manchester City in the qInternational Champions Cup in the early hours of Sunday (Nigerian time).
John Stones, Raheem Sterling and Brahim Diaz's goals condemned the team who are yet to add to the squad from the transfer market to a defeat. Spurs also missed a couple of first team players through injuries.
"Of course, Man City have more senior players than us and they invest more money than us," Pochettino told the media in his post match conference.
"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.
Pochettino however revealed that the club will sign some players as they campaign in the Premier League and Champions League next season.
"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.
"We prioritised training, and tried to get fit, over the result — as I told you before [the games against] 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 [the result] — 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.
"For us, more than the result, we try to help the team to arrive in two weeks in our best condition. The reality is that we want to win in two weeks against Newcastle.
"You need to understand that Harry Winks was injured and is getting fit. It was a big problem for us last season. Mousa Dembele is the same. We cannot speak about playing a Premier League game today in Manchester or London."
Pochettino spoke about the Spurs' fans booing former player Kyle Walker.
"I totally understand the fans showed they're disappointed with the situation.
"But I think Tottenham fans love him, he spent nine years at the club. It's a spontaneous feeling they showed but it's not personal, it's not a big issue. It's only to show him they're disappointed.
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