Pochettino expects "toughest season" yet at Tottenham

Mauricio Pochettino is anticipating his "toughest season" in charge of Tottenham after they failed to make any new signings before the transfer deadline passed.

Spurs finished in the Premier League's top three for the third successive campaign last term but were unable to end their long wait for silverware, which dates back to a League Cup triumph a decade ago.

While the division's other big clubs all made acquisitions in a bid to strengthen their squads ahead of the new campaign, there were no incomings at Tottenham.

It was also this week revealed that they will not move into their new stadium on the White Hart Lane site imminently as originally thought.

Those factors add up to Pochettino's belief he is facing the most difficult campaign since he arrived at Tottenham in 2014.

"For everything, for me it will be the toughest season and I think if we want success we have to give more than our best," he told reporters.

"It's not enough 100 per cent, it’s 200 per cent. We know from inside that it will be hard, the season, and because we are warriors we want to fight.

"We want to be proud at the end, we want success and we do not want to complain or make excuses. I am a winner and I love the challenge, so that is why I feel full of energy. We want to go again."

Pochettino signed a new deal with Tottenham in May and added he is prepared to meet the challenges facing his club head on.

"It is easy when everything is good to be there, but when the winter is coming it's easy to run away," he explained.

"I want to be there on the front line, fighting and trying to win.

"I feel the responsibility to be here and that is why I am. And then because I am happy and I think Tottenham gave us, all the staff, a lot of things that always we will be grateful for.

"It was a moment to say 'we are going to be with you all, fighting in the circumstances' because we knew what was going to happen."