Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has ruled out a mass overhaul of his squad this summer, despite Spurs under-performing so far this season.
The north Londoners are currently languishing in seventh in the Premier League, five points off the top four, and the FA Cup looks like their only realistic chance of silverware this season.
An injury crisis certainly hasn’t helped, but Tottenham blogger Sean Cook from @TalkingTHFC told talkSPORT he would keep only SIX members of the current squad around.
“There are, and I kid you not, about six players from the entire squad I would be disappointed to see leave this summer,” he wrote in his column.
“The rest I’m afraid can get out of my club.”
However, Mourinho insists there will be no such exodus or influx of players at Tottenham this summer.
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Speaking at a pre-match press conference before the FA Cup fifth-round clash vs Norwich on Wednesday night, he said: “There will not be massive changes.
“First of all, because that is not what we need, secondly because that is not the profile of the club and thirdly because of what the market is.
“Year after year after year it’s more difficult so I’m not thinking about an overhaul at the moment. But of course we need to make our squad better.”
Mourinho had plenty more to discuss at his press conference, and here’s the best of what he said…
On Hugo Lloris’ injury
“I am expecting good news before every match. Yesterday I was not sure that he couldn’t play tomorrow. He can’t.
“I’m going to wait for good news for Saturday – I hope he can. It’s not the kind of injury where we know he’s not ready to play for three, four or five weeks. It’s not a situation like that.
“He’s not playing tomorrow but I cannot tell you he’s not playing Saturday because maybe he can.”
On whether Troy Parrott will play vs Norwich
“He will be on the bench tomorrow. We are taking very good care of him.
“He has qualities, he has potential. He’s not an end product and he has a lot to develop at every level.
“He’s going to be on the bench tomorrow again. He has two Premier League appearances, something that is not normal for 18-year-olds.
“He has the privilege of that and training with the first-team and the very good people in the academy. Step by step.”
On Eric Dier’s best position
“I don’t know, I don’t know.
“Of course he comes from my country and before he came to Tottenham I knew about him and that his formation was shared between the two positions.
“And then I knew the highlight of his career in this club was playing as a no.6. A no.6 was also where he came an England player, playing in the top competitions.
“But let’s see, I think he has the potential to be a central defender – and of course the feelings of the players are very important.
“It’s much better for a coach and for a player to be confident in their feelings.
“At this moment I am very happy with his performance. I will give him the opportunity in the future to play as a centre-back with a back four, and let’s try together to make the best decision for him and for the team.”
On Tottenham’s season
“My focus is long-term focus. That’s with the long-term focus, everything is the same for me. I want to win a trophy with Tottenham. That doesn’t change for me. This season the circumstances are not easy.
“The fact that I couldn’t play the Carabao Cup gave me one less chance to win a trophy. Twelve points behind fourth and 30 points behind first obviously made that impossible too.
“In this competition we are in this moment 15 teams, because Portsmouth are out. I think all the 15 teams have a dream to fight for.
“It doesn’t matter Kane, Lloris, Sissoko or Sonny or whoever, it doesn’t matter. Until we are in the competition we are going to fight for the dream.”
