Eriksen: Spurs already have a great team - we don't need to spend big on new players

Christian Eriksen is unconcerned by Tottenham’s lack of summer signings and says it is an English habit to equate spending with success.

With a lucrative Premier League TV deal now paying dividends, six of last season’s top seven clubs have bought at least one £30million player.

The exception is Spurs, who are yet to recruit anyone – a source of frustration and concern for some fans.

However, Eriksen has no such worries and has pointed out what happened in the summer of 2013, when the Lilywhites spent £108million on seven new players including Roberto Soldado, Paulinho, Vlad Chiriches and Etienne Capoue, who all struggled and departed two years later.

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“I don’t think you need to spend to win anything,” said the Dane. “It’s just a matter of how you see a team, how the players are.

“Only [Kyle] Walker has left in our team and we know what we did last season, so I can’t see why we shouldn’t be able to do hopefully even better than last season. It’s an English thing isn’t it. It’s an English thing where you have to spend money to win something, apparently.

“But also I read something from the gaffer where he said our club is just different compared to other clubs, in that we don’t spend as much money as them. When I came there were seven new players at the same time and you saw how that ended. Now in the last few seasons we haven’t bought as many players and it’s changed around.

“You have to have a philosophy, a plan, and it looks like we have one. It’s the same lads trying to become better, help each other, and that makes it easier – when you have known your team-mate from day one.

“If you buy a lot of players, everyone needs to know what is going on straight away and be a bit lucky.

“We are lucky at Spurs at the moment. Everybody knows what’s going on and what needs to be done. Spurs are in a lucky position.”

While Tottenham have cashed in on Walker, accepting a £50m offer from Manchester City that made the right-back the most expensive defender ever, Eriksen is not expecting a spate of departures – and for his own part he remains perfectly content with life in the capital.

“I like living in London. I wouldn’t have extended my contract if I didn’t,” said the 25-year-old, speaking after taking part in a Q&A with Florida-based youngsters involved in the Special Olympics organisation.

“Even now you always see something new when you go into London, little shops popping up. The family have been here enough so I don’t need to show them around any more.

“The first season with the new manager was different but the last three has been the same people, same staff.

“As a team we are very young and everyone has a long contract. No-one has to go away, they are happy where they are.

“Of course it’s something we can improve on, because when you’re young you learn, and that’s what we’re doing now. I think everyone felt last season that we were on the right road, but Chelsea were just winning all those games 1-0.

“We have the feeling something special is on the way, and hopefully we can turn it around from last season and keep that same feeling as well, to get the season started and be in a good shape straight away.”

Eriksen continued: “I think the difference at the start last season was we had a few draws in the first few games, and although we managed to turn it around, by that time Chelsea were already ahead.

“Of course we finished very strongly and we need to do that for the whole season if possible. You take one season at a time but everyone knows we have been very close in the last two years, so I think in that time something has been brewing. Now this is the third season with the manager to become even better than we were.

“Last season second place was silverware – just not gold. We want to be on top and that’s what you want to be remembered for.

“The team has been together for many years and we’re going to go for titles. Hopefully we’ll be better than the other 19 teams.”

Boosted

Tottenham’s hopes of improving on last season’s second-place finish and winning the crown may be boosted by the fact that more of their primary rivals will be involved in the Champions League this time.

Unlike last season, Chelsea will have a continental campaign to distract them and test their resources – and, unusually, there will be five English clubs in Europe’s premier club competition as Manchester United won the Europa League last term.

“There’s no advantage there for anyone,” said Eriksen. “I think it will be very close this season because everyone is in Europe and everyone has to think about two or three tournaments.

“The top sides will want to win everything so the key is to try and keep everyone fit and sharp.
“But all the teams outside the top six are strong as well. They can all compete and there are always some surprises – you saw that the season before with Leicester. I don’t think Leicester will do it again, but you never know with [Kasper] Schmeichel!”

While Eriksen feels positive about the upcoming campaign, Tottenham will have to improve their results at Wembley if they are to realise their ambitions.

Spurs have only won one of their last nine matches at the national stadium, and they were disappointed in three of their four European clashes under the arch last season, losing to Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen before a draw with Gent resulted in a Europa League exit.

“It was a big difference playing there in the Champions League,” said Eriksen. “There was nothing bad about it, just the results. The fans were disappointed with the results but the chances we had in all the games were positive.

“I hope Wembley will never be an excuse if we miss the chance to be champions.

“We finished very well at White Hart Lane and if we could do something similar at Wembley then it’ll be a very good season. There are no excuses.”

Eriksen was one of four Spurs players who answered questions before signing autographs and taking photos with the young people at the Lilywhites’ hotel in Orlando on Friday.

The world’s largest sports organisation, the Special Olympics works with people with intellectual disabilities, which has more than 4.9 million athletes in 172 countries.

It aims to provide children and adults with training and competition in a variety of sports, and a global partnership with Spurs was established in 2009, resulting in the club delivering football coaching clinics in China, Poland, India, Singapore, the US and Australia.

Tottenham originally planned to hold an outdoor session on Friday but, due to a storm, they hastily arranged the Q&A session and invited the youngsters to their hotel instead.

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