Pochettino offers blunt response when asked if he would take fourth place, discusses Spurs hopes

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Tottenham Hotspur take on Burnley in the Premier League this weekend.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has told Football.London that he wouldn’t accept fourth place in the Premier League right now.

Spurs have been in strange form of late, as after taking just two points from four Premier League games, they then beat Stoke City 5-1 and Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 at Wembley Stadium.

However, they then became the latest team to fall victim to Manchester City, losing 4-1 to Pep Guardiola’s side last weekend to fall 21 points behind the league leaders.

Spurs lie seventh in the Premier League table, one point behind this weekend’s opponents Burnley, but just three points off the top four.

Tottenham’s title challenge appears to be over before it ever really started this season, but landing a Champions League place will be important for manager Pochettino.

Spurs are in the last 16 of this year’s competition and will want to be in next season’s group stage, but they must either win the Champions League, or finish in the top four of the Premier League.

Now, Pochettino has been asked by Football.London whether he would take fourth place this season, to which Pochettino responded with a blunt and definitive one-word answer; ‘no’.

Pochettino was then asked whether he wants to finish higher than fourth, and admitted that he does, believing that winners sometimes need to experience defeat in order to return stronger.

“Yes. Of course,” said Pochettino. “I am not a comfortable person. I love to take a risk. I am here because I love to take a risk. I feel I am a winner. Sometimes the winner lose and they need to lose to feel the pain and of course I never resign a result to play. Never,” he added.