Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino has commented on the situation regarding money in Chinese football.
Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has told The Guardian that the club have yet to receive bids for any of their players from Chinese clubs.
Spurs made it six Premier League wins in a row on Saturday afternoon, beating West Bromwich Albion 4-0 at White Hart Lane to keep the pressure on league leaders and London rivals Chelsea.
Some believed that Tottenham, who played the first Premier League game of the weekend, could pile pressure on Chelsea given that star striker Diego Costa had been left out of their squad to face Leicester – but the Blues racked up a 3-0 win anyway.
Chelsea’s Diego Costa clashes with Tottenham’s Eric Dier
Costa, 28, had a bust-up with manager Antonio Conte according to The Telegraph, stemming from concerns over his fitness and an alleged £30million-a-year offer from an unnamed Chinese club.
The Spanish international’s future is now in doubt, and is another warning that the money on offer in China could be enough to turn Premier League heads, after playmaker Oscar left Chelsea for Shanghai SIPG.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino before the match
Elsewhere, John Obi Mikel has also left Chelsea for Tianjin Teda, long-term Premier League target Axel Witsel has signed for Tianjiun Quanjian, QPR’s Tjaronn Chery has quit for Guizhou Zhicheng, ex-West Ham, Manchester United and Manchester City star Carlos Tevez has joined Shanghai Shenhua in a blockbuster deal, and even further back, Graziano Pelle traded Southampton for Shandong Luneng and Ramires quit Chelsea for Jiangsu Suning last year.
It’s clear that many players are having their heads turned by the Chinese riches, and fans are left wondering whether their star players will be the next to head over to the Far East.
However, Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino has told The Guardian that Spurs are yet to receive any offers from Chinese clubs for their players, after Tottenham playmaker Mousa Dembele told the London Evening Standard that he could understand why the money was appealing to older players.
Pochettino added that Chinese clubs may have ‘broken the market’, and thinks that the money on offer to Costa, if reports are to be believed, is ‘unbelievable’.
“Have there been any offers from China for my players? No,” Pochettino said. “My reaction to the Costa story was indifference because, luckily, it is not my problem. What can you do when an offer like this arrives from a country that is like this? It’s crazy money. It looks like they broke the market. If the offer to Costa is true, it’s unbelievable, unbelievable. But we will see what happens.”
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