Pochettino: Tottenham youngsters hungry for titles

Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino insists he is delighted with the balance of his squad despite having a heavy reliance on younger players.

Spurs are fourth in the Premier League and just five points behind leaders Leicester City, with the likes of Harry Kane, 22, and Dele Alli, 19, enjoying fine campaigns.

At 29, captain Hugo Lloris is the oldest member of Tottenham’s first-choice starting XI, but Pochettino thinks the few senior players he does have are an excellent complement to his young talent and says they all share the same hunger to win silverware.

The former Southampton boss also rejected the claim that a squad predominantly made up of younger players cannot last the pace in the chase for trophies.

Pochettino said: “It is a topic in football. We need to try to demonstrate that it is not true.

“It is true that we have a lot of younger players but [they are] the right ‘younger’ as they have a very strong mentality and they are hungry. Sometimes you have a lot of older experienced players who have won a lot of titles without hunger. 

“It is always important, the balance. We need to have senior players who are hungry and young ones that push a lot and want to win the title.

“We have signed young players but we have very experienced players. I think the balance that we have is very good. This is a new project, a different project and there are a lot of examples with maybe a more experienced team in the Premier League.

“The most important thing is to balance the younger with the experienced players to create the winning mentality and to have hunger to win titles.”