Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino has vowed to “stick with the club” until they achieve all of their goals having also claimed he is a victim of his own success.
Pochettino, the man who Manchester United want to become their new full-time manager, has received criticism for not backing up his impressive work at Spurs by winning trophies.
They crashed out of both the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup within four days of each other last week, which led him to say again that finishing in the top four is a bigger priority for his club.
Pochettino staged a passionate defence of the job he has done at Spurs at a lengthy press conference on Tuesday, insisting he has over-achieved on the club’s brief to take them in the Champions League by the time they moved into their new stadium.
“I love my job, I love my job. And of course I love a big challenge,” he said.
“I am a very positive person and I am going to try and deliver in my job. I am going to going to stick with the club until the end to help the club achieve all they want.
“When I arrived at Tottenham I knew very well the challenge will be tough and what happen now will happen now.
“We are victims of our own success, the club was in a different level. No one believed in us, no one believed the way we operated from beginning will bring success to club.
“Of course club played once in 22 years in the Champions League and now after four years we played three times in row – that was the dream of our fans, our staff and players to play in Champions League.
“The principal thing that we need to clarify, our fans need to know, when you ask me if I agree to win a domestic cup will help us to achieve the last level, I cannot agree.
“In the last four or five years we played in four semi-finals, one final, I think we try, we were there, we were close, and in last three seasons, we are consistently playing Champions League, be in the top four.
“We are so close, we need to try to keep working, the fans that are not happy, of course with perspective in the future they are going to appreciate the job everyone is doing at this football club.
“Right now we are focused on trying to win every game in every competition, but for different reasons we are still missing something that means we cannot deliver.”
Spurs have challenged at the top of the English game without spending anywhere near the money their top four rivals have and they have had to contend with playing at Wembley while their ever-increasingly expensive – and delayed – new stadium gets built.
They are also set to go through two successive transfer windows without signing anyone.
Pochettino often complains that such circumstances are overlooked.
He added: “We cannot underestimate all the club is doing in the last few years, or this group of players and staff, because we have been competing with all the circumstances in last four years, the people thinking we are real contenders, that we have capacity to compete against big sides, fighting is a massive prize, not criticism and I take it as a positive.
“It’s a moment to explain a little bit more the big picture. It’s so important because sometimes the people can get confused.
“I am not going to complain, I am going to translate the reality, the fans want the reality. Then other people want to give their opinion from outside.”