Many deride Mauricio Pochettino for never winning a trophy with Spurs, but part of that comes from the fact that, simply put, his team were just that good.
Pochettino made Spurs from Champions League hopefuls to Champions League regulars (almost winners) and Premier League contenders, while retaining their exciting-football philosophy for which the club have long been famous for.
In this article, we present to you our top 5 picks for the best signings Tottenham made during the years of Mauricio Pochettino.
This is an easy one. Not many signings Spurs have made in the entire Premier League era have worked out as well as that of Son Heung-min, let alone under Mauricio Pochettino.
The South Korea captain arrived at White Hart Lane from Bayer Leverkusen for €30 million in the summer of 2015. Having recently begun his tenth season with the club, Son is now the captain of the side and one of the club’s all-time top goal-scorers with a tally of 164 goals and 84 assists from 411 appearances.
At their peak, Poch’s Spurs had a near-impregnable defence that also built attacks right from the first third of the pitch. Ben Davies was, more often than not, an able operator at the back for the Argentine and one of the first players Spurs roped in after the commencement of the Pochettino era.
Arriving from Swansea for €12.65 million, Davies would go on to make 330 appearances for the club, proving capable at both the fullback and centre-back roles. He recently celebrated his tenth anniversary as a Spurs player.
Trippier’s €4.9m move to Spurs from Burnley in 2015 can easily be considered one of the greatest all-time bargain deals in Premier League history. During his time at White Hart Lane, not only did the Englishman establish himself as one of the best fullbacks at both club and international level, he also handed the club a hefty profit when he moved to Atlético Madrid for €22 million in the summer of 2019 after making 114 appearances for them.
Here’s another excellent bargain signing Spurs made during the Poch era. Alderweireld was calmness incarnate at the back ever since he set foot in North London till his last game for the club. Not only did Spurs get maximum value off their €16m purchase of the Belgian by getting 236 appearances from him, they also nearly made their money back when they sold him to Al-Duhail for €13 million in 2021 with his prime years well behind him.
Does Lucas Moura warrant a spot for delivering Spurs that night alone? It’s debatable. But Moura certainly delivered sufficient goods on top of that to at least warrant a mention here. With 39 goals and 27 assists from 221 appearances from out wide, including his hattrick against Ajax in Spurs’ 2018/19 Champions League semi-final second leg, one can safely say he paid back a fair bit of the €28.4 million the club sent PSG’s way to purchase him towards the end of the 2018 January transfer window.
What do you make of our picks? Do you think someone else should have made the cut? Let us know in comments.
