TOTTENHAM boss Mauricio Pochettino is urging his wobbling side to be prepared to “die” against Newcastle tomorrow night.
Spurs have won just once in four Premier League games and could miss out on a top-four spot — and a place in next season’s Champions League — if Chelsea can make up a two-point gap in the final two games.
Pochettino’s team host Leicester in Sunday’s top-flight closer in what is set to be their final home game at Wembley before moving to a new stadium. He said: “To win the Champions League is a dream of everyone.
“It’s impossible to not give your best in the last two games to win.
“It’s massive because the Champions League is, with the Premier League, the best competition in the world.
“It’s in our own hands and we need to die to try to achieve that.
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“Now it’s not ‘We need to play two strikers, three defenders’, it’s about the players who are going to play to die to try to achieve.
“If we cannot, we cannot. That is different — we need to analyse why.
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“But now we have to be all together, to fight for that, with our fans and to create a good atmosphere for this game and Sunday.
“To play Champions League in the new stadium would be fantastic.
“That was always our dream, to have the possibility to fight with this kind of club.
“We arrived four years ago and the team was sixth and it was, ‘The dream is to fight and to reduce the gap’.
“That is the truth but four years later we are there. But win? It’s not an easy thing to achieve like this, like magic. We are in a good race to win some titles one day.”
Pochettino’s side lost 1-0 at West Brom on Saturday but he insists the cash generated by a run in the Champions League is not a key factor in the club’s future planning.
His chairman Daniel Levy, though, is unlikely to agree — Spurs earnt more than £50million from the competition this season, while Liverpool are in line for £70m-plus.
Asked whether chairman Levy is counting on the European revenue next season, Poch added: “I think Daniel is fine with the money. It is not a problem.
“The plan four years ago was not to play every season in the Champions League, just to be sure the club is going to survive.
“If you overachieve, fantastic. You have more money to invest. But I don’t think money is a problem.”
Eric Dier, meanwhile, has been ruled out of the game at Wembley tonight with an illness.
Pochettino said: “He started to vomit with a fever and now he needs 48 hours to recover. We hope he will be available for the weekend and I believe he will be.”
As for tonight’s opponents, Newcastle, Poch said: “They have had a fantastic season. Rafa Benitez has done a brilliant job.”
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