This narrative - that Pochettino has done amazingly considering the impoverished quality of his squad - is starting to wear a little thin. Since he joined Spurs the club has spent £240m on players. That's in addition to the £80m spent on players that remain in the squad from before his arrival. So his squad has a cost basis of around £320m. But let's think about value. Spurs have done well by buying promising players and allowing them to develop at the club. Think about some of the costs and the players' possible current values:
Cost Value
Eriksen 11,000,000 50,000,000
Vertonghen 10,000,000 40,000,000
Alli 5,000,000 50,000,000
Dier 4,000,000 35,000,000
Son 22,000,000 35,000,000
Alderwiereld 11,500,000 35,000,000
Trippier 3,500,000 25,000,000
Totals 67,000,000 270,000,000
So, even with these conservative valuations, these players are now worth £200m more than when they were bought, giving a current squad value of £520m. But wait, that's without Kane. If Kane is worth £80m then the total squad value has to be at least £600m. For what it's worth, transfermarkt.com thinks they're worth
€913m. And, for comparison, Liverpool's squad is valued at
€926m - not much in it, is there. (And how's Pochettino going to do at United - our squad is only worth
€759m?)
So what's the take away here. First: Pochettino and Klopp have very comparable squads in terms of value (they're both about
€100m behind City) and neither of them has won anything yet. Second: if Ole can get what we've seen out of the current squad, imagine what he'd do with a squad as good as Klopp's or Pochettino's. Third: why would Pochettino want to come and struggle here when he's already got a good squad with a new stadium just around the corner.
[Edit: Keep forgetting that tables don't line up right. Anyway, I'm sure you get what I mean.]