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Glenn Hoddle: If Spurs don’t pay big wages, squad WILL be broken up

Glenn Hoddle believes Tottenham need to start winning silverware and paying higher wages if they are to keep their star players and manager at the club.

Spurs have come on leaps and bounds since Mauricio Pochettino took charge in 2014, dramatically improving the quality of their squad and achieving a number of firsts along the way, including their best ever Premier League finish of second in 2016-17.

However, Hoddle does not believe they will truly be taken seriously until they win a major trophy.

“They need to win silverware, it’s as simple as that,” Hoddle says. “I said that last season and I’ll say it again now.

“You want to finish in the top four and you want to get into the Champions League, and that’s important, but if they want to hang on to the manager and all their best players, they need to start challenging for trophies and winning a few.

“I remember when the Spurs team I was a part of won our first trophy with the FA Cup in 1981 and it changes the image of how that team is viewed.

“For the Harry Kanes, the Dele Allis, the Christian Eriksens of this world, they will want to start winning trophies, and it needs to start now because that Spurs team is good enough to challenge for cup competitions.”

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READ: Comparing Mauricio Pochettino’s first Spurs XI to team which beat Man Utd

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As well as the need to win something to keep their players happy, Hoddle believes Spurs may also have to increase their wage limit to stop the vultures from circling in future years.

“The trouble is the wages on offer at other clubs,” he says. “I always used to say the top players were worth every penny of what they get, but when you see players on £250,000-a-week and some on a lot more than that, it’s incredible.

“I never believed we would get to this position, but it’s become the norm now, and if Spurs are not willing to pay their players those big wages, this squad will be broken up, it’s as simple as that.

“Players talk, agents talk and they all know what is available at other clubs. The Spurs chairman (Daniel Levy) would not take a business deal if it was £5million less than a second offer he had on the table. That’s the reality. So they have to be careful.”

Hoddle does not, however, see Pochettino leaving for pastures new any time toon.

“I’m not too worried about that, so long as he feels the club have an ambition that matches his own,” Hoddle says.

“He is building something there, it feels like he has been given a lot of control of that club on the football side of things and he may not get that if he went to Real Madrid or Manchester United.

“He has done a great job, no doubt about that. He has improved players, which is what a top coach does, and unless something changes in terms of how the club is being run, I see him staying there for the foreseeable future.

“But like the players, he will also want some silverware.

“He has not won anything in his coaching career yet and even though he has got close to winning the title and got to the back end of cup competitions, he needs to get them over the finishing line and take them to the next level.”

By Kevin Palmer


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