Dean Ashton has ripped into the mentality of Tottenham’s senior man Mauricio Pochettino for his comments about the Carabao Cup
The Spurs manager watched his side suffer a shock 3-2 defeat in the fourth round of the League Cup on Wednesday night, despite leading the game 2-0 at half-time.
Pochettino appeared to dismiss the Carabao Cup in his pre-match press conference for West Ham and
“Our objective is to try win the Premier League and Champions League – for me, two real trophies that can really change your life,” he said.
And then the FA Cup, of course, I would like to win. I would like to win the Carabao Cup, but I think it will not change the life of Tottenham.”
Ashton, who has worked as a pundit for the likes of Sky Sports, BBC Sport and talkSPORT, has labelled Pochettino “pathetic” for his assessment of the Carabao Cup.
“I think it’s pathetic. I just think it’s an excuse, because surely he wants his team to get a winning mentality and that starts with the Carabao Cup,” Ashton told talkSPORT.
“Jose Mourinho has showed in the past how important that first trophy of the season can be and, especially for Tottenham, they need to win something.”
Spurs appeared to be sailing into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup thanks to first-half goals from Moussa Sissoko and Dele Alli against West Ham.
However, the Hammers produced a second-half comeback at Wembley as Andre Ayew (two) and Angelo Ogbonna scored decisive goals.
OPINION
Pochettino’s comments about the League Cup were slightly strange given that silverware is the one thing missing from his impressive stint with Spurs. The Argentinian boss can go up to the next level if he begins to add trophies and the North London club are desperate to be successful. They are becoming the nearly men every season and sooner or later they will have to finally get over the line with this current crop of players or it will be deemed a huge failure. They were cruising against West Ham on Wednesday night and should have had enough to see the game out.