COMMENT: Cups and egos... and bottle. Just what was Mauricio Pochettino trying to say this week? Was it the Tottenham manager towing the company line? Acting on orders of the higher ups? After all, we all know it's been the board which have held the Argentine back in the transfer market...
Or has it? It's emerged today that contrary to common belief - and what's been inferred by Pochettino this past year. Money has been available to the Spurs manager. And it's been significant.
Daniel Levy, the chairman, in consultation with the club's Bahamas-based backer Joe Lewis, has assured Pochettino the money is there for the right additions. A centre-forward to cover Harry Kane. A midfielder to fill the void left by Mousa Dembele, now of Guangzhou R&F. If Pochettino wanted to spend. And in style. The funds were there to be tapped.
Yet instead, the players the manager have moved for this month have been Jack Clarke, the Leeds United teen. And Hull City's young goalscoring midfielder Jarrod Bowen. Potential. Ones for the future. And certainly not the type expected to make any instant impact.
"We are a team not built to win titles still," argued Pochettino yesterday. "To be a contender is always difficult for us. That is realistic. Today the club is doing fantastically. It's so successful."
And the general feeling is he's right. The new stadium. Levy's take-no-prisoners financial management. The manager has had to work within a strict range of parameters. Tapping the academy for reinforcements. Spending modest sums on 'what could be' rather than 'what is now'. He's worked wonders on a tight budget. But who's fooling who here?
You can bet at Spurs Lodge they can hear the footsteps. Just as they can across town at Cobham. Eight wins from eight and in a matter of a month Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has Manchester United looking a genuine top four prospect.
For their part, Chelsea weren't hanging about. Out went Alvaro Morata - to Atletico Madrid. And in came Gonzalo Higuain. Maurizio Sarri needed a striker. He nominated the one he wanted. And Chelsea went out and did the deal with Juventus. In the battle for the two remaining places in the top four, there was no way Sarri and Chelsea were going to be left sitting on their hands.
At Tottenham, well, even after losing Harry Kane for two months. Even with the cash available. Pochettino hasn't moved. While Sarri was handing Higuain a debut in their FA Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday, Pochettino was doing similar, only it was 20 year-old Kazaiah Sterling he threw on as Spurs were dumped out of the tournament at Crystal Palace.
Leading the line from the start (in Kane's absence) was the goal-shy Fernando Llorente. The other natural centre-forward available to Pochettino, Vincent Janssen, has been banished - never to return.
Almost £35m spent on two players. The two players the club has that are nearest to Kane. Yet neither have managed to get close to meeting expectations. Which raises the question: in terms of buying centre-forwards, has Pochettino lost his bottle?
Indeed, is he a manager capable of identifying a readymade goalscorer and helping him make an instant impact? Would Higuain have worked at Tottenham? Cristiano Ronaldo? Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Better yet, if offered the opportunity, would Pochettino have welcomed any of those three to Spurs?
Bringing through young talent. Helping good prospects become great players. There's a lot to admire about that approach. And it does take courage for a manager to back local potential over a readymade outsider.
But it can also be used as a crutch. A buttress against those whom question that same manager's ambition. Potential needs time, as they say. Young players are going to make mistakes. They don't develop overnight.
“We are going to create a debate that to win a trophy is going to help the club," argues Pochettino. "I don't agree. That only builds your ego."
Is that ego? Or mentality? Because at Chelsea, where trophies are demanded, that ego saw them act. Strengthening the one area where Sarri's team has been found wanting this season. If there's no place for Chelsea in that final top four, it won't be due to a lack of ambition in the transfer market.
At Tottenham. If things remain as they stand. There will be excuses. The Kane injury. The lack of depth. The overloaded schedule. You just know such reasons - and more - will be offered.
"In the last four or five years, we've been fighting in different ways to achieve what the club needs, to be in the level of Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City or Arsenal or Liverpool," insists Pochettino.
"People wish we could win some trophies but being realistic, we are doing so well."
And of course, he's right. That's if being realistic, as he says, is about what he can't spend in the market, rather than what he won't...