What are the expectations this season for Tottenham?

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino will need time to bring success to White Hart Lane

Next season will see yet another new era at Tottenham with Argentinian boss Mauricio Pochettino having arrived from Southampton this summer.

The former-Espanyol chief should fit in with the way that Spurs traditionally likes to play their football.

Passing

Spurs fans like their teams to play passing football and with Pochettino at the helm that is exactly what they will get.

He completely revolutionised the way that Southampton played the game, bringing in a high pressing, possession based attacking style.

This style brought almost universal acclaim and meant that Southampton became one of the most attractive teams in the Premier League to watch. Nobody liked playing against the Saints under Pochettino because it was hard to get the ball off them, let alone score against them.

The young Argentinian boss is unlikely to stray too far from his philosophy at White Hart Lane next season and will attempt to repeat the relative success he achieved at St Marys on a larger scale.

Time

Pochettino is going to need time to get his ideas across to the Tottenham players. The Southampton players adjusted relatively quickly to his methods and you could argue that Spurs have better players than the players Pochettino had to work with at Southampton.

The 42-year-old boss has already stated he does not expect Spurs to be busy in the transfer market this summer, which may come as a disappointment to fans of the north London club.

However, the former-Saints boss is obviously looking to assess his big squad of players and bring some stability to the club.

Changes

The number of players that came through into the club last summer was incredible. Spurs were busy spending the profits of Gareth Bale’s world-record sale to Real Madrid and certainly went for quantity.

A lot of those new arrivals were highly-rated stars and came with big price tags to match their status. The only real big success was Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen, who should fit into Pochettino’s style of play perfectly.

Hopefully the rest of last summer’s new arrivals will now feel more settled in their surroundings, especially the highly-rated Argentinian attacker Erik Lamela. At Roma he was regarded as one of the brightest young stars in world football.

There must have been widespread excitement amongst the Spurs fans that the club were signing such a highly-rated young star. The fee of £30million looked like lost money last season, as the youngster struggled with fitness and injury problems.

Maybe his compatriot can find a way of accommodating the 22-year-old and help him discover his top form in north London. Lamela proved at Roma that he has immense potential. He maybe just needs the right manager to nurture it.

The likes of Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli and Vlad Chiriches will also be hoping to make a bigger impact at Spurs next season as well.

Competition

The Premier League is a fierce competition and achieving anything of significance is very difficult. With the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool (albeit it at the expense of losing Luis Suarez) and Chelsea all splashing the cash it could be difficult for Spurs to even challenge for a top four place next season.

That is not even mentioning arch-rivals Arsenal, who have already brought in Chilean star Alexis Sanchez and look set to strengthen their squad further.

There is likely to be seven teams competing for those top four places, including champions Manchester City and Everton, so it will once again be difficult for Spurs to make those lucrative Champions League spots.

Challenge

However, Mauricio Pochettino has proved at Southampton that he is a clever manager and can get the best out of his players. Tottenham does have some very talented players in their squad and managed in the right way could be a big danger to their rivals.

Pochettino has claimed that he is looking at challenging for the Premier League title at some point, but first he needs to establish Spurs as a top four club and then think about the title.

With so many clubs looking strong that is easier said than done. I do however think that Pochettino and Spurs are a good fit and given time Pochettino could turn Spurs into a team capable of challenging for the title in the future.

For now their main aim has to be the top four, which they are currently odds of 7/2 to achieve. If Pochettino can bring the best out of his talented squad then that top four is definitely not unrealistic for Spurs next season.

What are the expectations this season for Tottenham?