Pochettino: Don’t expect hints on transfers from me!

Tottenham Hotspur are having quite the summer of transfers and transfer rumors — it’s been one of the busiest and most fun windows of activity that I can remember as a Spurs fan since the summer Gareth Bale was sold to Real Madrid.

But if you’re looking for tidbits straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, don’t go asking Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino — he’s not talking. Speaking to the press after Tottenham’s 2-1 International Champions Cup defeat to Manchester United in Shanghai on Thursday, Poch not only stayed mum, but actually tried to nip any future transfer related questions in the bud with some somewhat terse answers.

First, his response to an update request on Danny Rose’s transfer situation:

“No, I think the club have said anything. It’s not my position to talk about the players who are not here. If the club need to communicate something they will communicate.

You know very well Vincent has been sold and GK Nkoudou, Davies, Davinson Sanchez, Wanyama, there are a lot of players training at the training ground. The only update is going to come through the website or the club if they need to. They are our players who are training in London and when we go back they will be involved with the first team.”

Pochettino has always been very aloof with members of the media when it comes to transfers, both incoming and outgoing. He rarely gives things away, though he on occasion will give slight hints towards his preferences, and ne never throws his players under the bus.

This was reiterated later in the interview when a question was asked regarding Toby Alderweireld, whose much-discussed £25m release clause expired at 5:00 p.m. UK time on Thursday. Poch said, in some of his clearest language yet, that he will not be discussing any transfer related activity.

“Like it was yesterday, I’m not going to talk. I’m going to work with the players at the end of the transfer market that the club is going to provide to us. [I have] nothing to say about that. I am very focused on working with the players that we have and the club provides us, the coaching staff, and try to help them to improve and work with the players who we are going to have at the end of the transfer market.

“My position from now for the future so you know... I’m not going to talk about signing players, selling players, extending the contract of the players or not extending the contract of the players. That is going to be all through the club to update you if they want. I’m not going to communicate or talk about that, I’m going to talk about managing the squad that we have.

“[This is] to make clear because in the future if you’re going to ask me it’ll be a little bit weird because I won’t answer because I don’t have the answer.”

Fair enough! Poch also spoke about the match itself, and said that he was pleased with his team’s work and performance while in Asia, but said that his squad was a little tired heading into the United match.

“The trip has been better because of the lack of preparation [heading into it]. Always it’s a risk to play this type of game against Juventus and Manchester United after starting in July. We started with eight and 12 different groups [of players returning]. it’s a short time to prepare and travel.

“I think the balance was fantastic. I think the younger players’ performances were very good. I am very happy. Nobody was injured, all the players finished the tour and to build step by step our fitness and the way we want to develop our way I think winning one game and another loss but with the feeling we can do better, a lot of positives. I expected it to be good but not as good as we showed it in the last two games.”

Spurs now return home before heading back on the road to play in the Audi Cup against Real Madrid at the Allianz Stadium in Germany at the end of July.