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Mauricio Pochettino calls on Tottenham players to be ‘clever and positive’ in home Cup tie at Stadium MK

Tottenham will play their home League Cup clash with Watford in Milton Keynes: Getty Images
Tottenham will play their home League Cup clash with Watford in Milton Keynes: Getty Images

Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham must not become victims of circumstances as they prepare to play Wednesday's League Cup ‘home’ match against Watford in Milton Keynes.

The Spurs manager also said he would be happy to continue at Stadium MK, 50 miles outside London, if they beat the Hornets and earn another home draw in the fourth round.

Spurs requested to host Watford at the home of League Two club MK Dons because their new stadium is still not ready and Wembley is unavailable after hosting a boxing match on Saturday.

Pochettino admitted it was a "tough" situation but insisted the club's difficult circumstances will not be an excuse for failure.

"It is not an excuse to play in Milton Keynes – I don't want to say anything negative, I am so optimistic and very positive," he said. "The circumstances are the circumstances and we can't change them. We need to be clever and positive in a tough period.

"The last season was tough and now this is tough because the expectation was to play in our stadium. For everyone, that is so disappointing and frustrating. But it is so important from inside to keep strong and believe and try to be positive.

"It is circumstance no one wanted but we need to keep pushing. We cannot go down because the circumstances are the circumstances.

"It's easy to blame [the circumstances] but I don't want to – I want to be responsible for the result and the performance.

"If there is one thing I didn't want it is to give reason to the players, to us, to say, 'If we don't win it's because of Milton Keynes, it's because we don't play at our stadium, it's because we play at Wembley'. I am not like this. If we lose it's because we deserve to lose and our performance is no good or because I made a mistake.

"It is our responsibility, but for me if you are a winner you have a different mentality and if you are a loser you always try to find an excuse to avoid responsibility. I understand that it is not the same as playing in your home and the help from our fans will be fantastic in our new stadium and the energy is different to play in MK than your own stadium. But I don't want to find an excuse, we need to go there and show personality and character and win the game.

"That is our responsibility, it is not to blame the venue or the fans or the chairman. When we are on the pitch, we are on the pitch, it is 11 v 11 and we need to be clever and better than the opponent. I understand football like this, this is my character and personality. I understand everything that happens around, but I try to avoid the players finding excuses."

Asked if Spurs could continue at Stadium MK for the fourth-round, which is scheduled for the week starting Monday October 29, Pochettino said: "If we win, after the draw we'll take the decision if we need to play at home and it's not possible to play at Wembley or our new stadium, I'm more than happy to play again at Milton Keynes."

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Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images

Spurs will play at least the next two home League games and all three Champions League group matches at Wembley, their temporary home last season, while building work continues on their £850million, 62,062-seater new home.

Pochettino again apologised to supporters for the ongoing delays to the project but reminded them that it will be the club's home for generations to come.

"I understand completely the fans are not happy but no-one is happy and we need to adapt ourselves in that circumstance," he said. "If we only complain, find excuses, it's difficult for the club and team to move on, it's difficult to be strong.

"I am the first that would like to finish the new stadium. If I have to go to work after training here and help the builders, so the fans and the chairman will be happy, I promise I go. But I told you in the past when there was the decision because it wasn't ready for the date we expected to play against Liverpool we were so disappointed.

"I need to tell them sorry, that we are doing all that we can to try and finish and the chairman is so committed. I promise he didn't sleep trying to find solutions. Of course we feel disappointed for our fans but they need to understand that is a venue for the rest of our lives and for the next generations and years and years and it is so important to finish in the right way.

"Maybe one or two months means a lot , but in the end it is no time because the most important thing is to finish and be safe when we are going to move there – fans happy, players trying to give their best to win games and in the future have a venue that is going to help us win trophies. I think Tottenham's future with this venue to play, with a stadium that will be the best, the only thing that we will be missing is trophies in the cabinet. But we need to start to put trophies there. The best training ground, the best stadium, the best fans, not so good manager and training ground, great players, only trophies we need to add to the history of the club."