Mauricio Pochettino comments on Tottenham Hotspur’s latest stadium delay

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Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium has been pushed back yet again.

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has told Football.London that he wants to play the first leg of the club’s Champions League knockout clash at their new stadium despite a new delay.

Spurs advanced into the knockout stages of the Champions League on Tuesday night, picking up a 1-1 draw at Barcelona as Lucas Moura’s late equaliser was good enough to send Spurs through, with Inter Milan only drawing at home to PSV Eindhoven.

Much has been made of Tottenham’s passage into the last 16, as they took just one point from the first three games of the campaign before taking seven in the final three.

Pochettino worked a minor miracle to get Spurs through, but there was some bad news for Spurs on Wednesday, regarding their ongoing stadium fiasco.

Three months after the stadium was supposed to open, Tottenham are still without a permanent home, and their hopes of opening in January are now over, with the club confirming that they have to return to Wembley once again.

It’s unclear just when Spurs will finally have the go-ahead to move into their new home, but with the last 16 of the Champions League in February, fans will want to be at the new stadium rather than at Wembley.

Now, Pochettino has admitted that he hopes to play the first leg of a last 16 clash at Tottenham’s new home, believing it would be a ‘massive boost’ – but urged people to wait and see what happens.

“I hope and I wish to play our first leg in the new stadium,” said Pochettino. “Now, I don’t know if it’s going to be there or not or in Wembley. We need to wait. But my wish and hope is we can pay the first leg in our new stadium.”

“I don’t think it is going to help us with our performance in the way that we want [where we play]. If we are capable of performing in the best way, of course it is going to help us – Wembley or our new stadium. I don’t believe it is going to be decisive to play in one or another stadium. The most important is our performance on the pitch. Of course, for the motivation, for our fans, of course for our players, our staff, it would be fantastic, a massive boost for us to play in our new stadium. But I think the motivation will be there too if we play Wembley, the same,” he added.