Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham need to be “cleverer” than their big-spending rivals this summer and land the first punch by signing their targets early.

Spurs brought in Southampton’s head of recruitment Paul Mitchell in November and have sought to develop their scouting network - and their head coach is keen to move quickly in the upcoming transfer window.

“If you punch before the opponent, you have half of the job done,” said Pochettino. “For us, it’s important to work hard during the season to take early decisions. This is always important in football.

“I think we need to be cleverer than the teams that invest more money than us. I’m happy that we have created a very strong institute now to follow the players around the world, and we need to arrive earlier than the teams that have more possibilities to invest than us.

“I think Tottenham have great potential to fight for the top four. Maybe it’s not easy to fight against Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea because they have behind them a big financial potential and every year they spend a lot of money and sign real players, who can perform right away.

“Maybe our project needs to be different. We need to create our own project, our own philosophy and we need to deliver it.

“Tottenham is different to other clubs – better or worse, I don’t know, but we need to create our own philosophy and be special, because we are Tottenham.

“We need to be clever and consistent and we need to fight for that. It’s a good opportunity now. That’s why I told you this season was one for transition, because weneed to settle our philosophy our own way to start to deliver next season.”

Pochettino added: “It’s harder [to be cleverer] because in football all people believe that they are clever. It’s never easy.

“But if you are strong, you have clear ideas and you are consistent and you work very hard, I think you can achieve everything.”

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