Cautious spending, a focus on young talent and a plan to develop English players, Mauricio Pochettino’s approach sounds a lot like Arsene Wenger’s at Arsenal.

Tottenham are the only club out of last year’s top six to spend any money this transfer window, and according to manager Pochettino, this is precisely the plan. Speaking in the Evening Standard, Pochettino outlined his philosophy at Spurs.

“It’s true that sometimes it’s opposite to another club at the same level as us. We see what happens. My philosophy is to try to adapt myself in the club. We are Tottenham and we create our own philosophy, our own way.”

This sounds strangely similar to what Arsene Wenger used to say after Arsenal moved to the Emirates Stadium. Wenger was often criticised for not spending as much money on players as our rivals did, and he would frequently defend himself by bringing up the club’s philosophy.

Back then, Arsenal had a dedication to young players and an aversion to over-spending on players. The Gunners were frugal and frequently mocked for it, but Wenger stuck to his guns until such a point that the club could spend comfortably again.

https://twitter.com/djkennranch/status/889970096281616385

Having been through the Emirates Stadium move and experienced the difficulties that brought, it’s easy to see what Spurs are doing. Their own new stadium, which will cost them more than £800m, will have a big impact on their spending power for many years. They will try to dress up their lack of market activity by taking a moral high ground, much like we did.

In many ways, that’s the smart thing to do. With so much money flying about, it’s easy to look like the one club that’s not gone insane just by not spending any money. The media have been oddly supportive of what Spurs are doing, more so than they were Arsenal 10 years ago. Spurs’ approach is being seen as something refreshing and admirable.

Yet, it would be nice if the media acknowledged that Arsenal paved the way for them to do that. That Spurs have likely taken inspiration from what Arsenal did during the Emirates Stadium move, and that maybe we deserved credit for doing that.

@piersmorgan Wenger management of squad with a relatively frugal budget has built @Arsenal as a financial powerhouse cause of the stadium

— The Woodsman (@TheWoodsmanTree) March 7, 2017

To not spend huge amounts of money and focus on developing young players is an admirable thing to do. It’s certainly much easier to do when everyone is fully supportive of it.