Mauricio Pochettino ready for 'toughest' season yet at Tottenham: 'I am a winner and I love the challenge'

Mauricio Pochettino has warned that this season will be his toughest yet at Tottenham but said he feels a responsibility to help the club through the testing times ahead.

The Spurs manager described himself as "full of energy" and relishing the challenge, and he defended Daniel Levy against criticism for the club's unprecedented summer in the transfer market and the ongoing uncertainty over the new stadium.

Spurs are the first Premier League club not to make a summer signing since the introduction of the transfer windows in 2003, and Pochettino has said some players could still leave before the end of the month.

Meanwhile, the club's move to their new 62,062-seater stadium is on hold after they were forced to relocate the home matches against Liverpool and Cardiff City to Wembley. The venue for Manchester City's visit on October 28 remains unknown.

"Given everything, for me, it will be the toughest season and if we want success we have to give more than our best," Pochettino said. "100 percent is not enough – it’s 200 percent. We know from inside that the season will be hard and because we are warriors we want to fight.

"We want to be proud at the end, we want success and we do not want to complain or make excuses. I am a winner and I love the challenge, so I feel full of energy. We want to go again. The club, the fans, and the team need our full energy more than before."

Pochettino signed a new five-year contract at Spurs in May, a week before he emerged as a leading candidate to take charge of Real Madrid following Zinedine Zidane's surprise resignation. The former Southampton head-coach, 46, was also coveted by Chelsea before Maurizio Sarri's appointment.

Asked if he was confident that signing the contract was the right decision, Pochettino said he felt a responsibility to stay at "on the frontline" at Spurs because of how much the club has given him.

"I am very grateful to the club, the fans and to Daniel Levy. When you are in a difficult situation, this is the moment when you need to show that you are there," he said. "It is easy when everything is good to be there, but when the winter is coming it’s easy to run away.

"I want to be on the frontline fighting and trying to win with all the circumstances that, today, are at the club. I feel the responsibility to them and that is why I am here. I am happy and I think Tottenham gave us – my family, Jesus [Perez, my assistant], everyone – a lot of things that always we will be grateful for and it was a moment to say, 'We are going to be with you all, fighting in the circumstances'."

Pochettino insists chairman Levy is working tirelessly to create a more lasting legacy for Tottenham: "There is no point in blaming the club, the board or Daniel. He is making an amazing effort to create the legacy that will endure for a generation and forever.

"You cannot blame a person that does not sleep because he is thinking [about] how to deliver the best job for the club. It's a business, of course. But sometimes the fans need to think. It is easy for Daniel to think, 'OK, rather than investing in a massive training ground, new stadium, let's put the money into players. Happy? Then in 20 years, I am going to be remembered for winning the Premier League.'

"But in the end, there would still be 35,000 in a stadium. It is how you grow up and have a vision. It is not because I love Daniel Levy. Do not confuse! It is only about being fair to his amazing effort. He generates incomes and resources that the club will need to be in the top four and have good players. The manager complains, the players complain, the fans complain – but he is working with his people trying to build a new era in the stadium.

"I know how much he suffers, how much the people here suffer. Of course I want the people to be rewarded for all that effort. The fans only need to be patient and to believe and support the club through a very difficult moment. I am sure that we are going to have success in the future, with myself of with another manager. To help today the club in that moment, it was my responsibility to be here."