MAURICIO POCHETTINO says today is D-Day for Christian Eriksen’s Tottenham future.
The Great Dane’s destiny remains up in the air, with neither Real Madrid nor any other club making a decisive move for Spurs’ creative maestro.
And Pochettino insists that unless things start to move today, there will be no time to complete a deal before the European transfer window closes on Monday night.
The Tottenham boss said: “The good thing is that if nothing happens, it’s because it’s not going to happen on Monday.
“On Sunday it’s the game, and there’s no real time to do something.
“We are going to know if Christian is going to be with us or not. That’s the most important thing.”
Eriksen admitted in early June that he wanted to “try something new” after six years at Tottenham.
The Denmark international dreams of a move to Real Madrid, but Juventus have also been linked with him.
Eriksen has started only one of Tottenham’s three Premier League games amid the ongoing uncertainty and Pochettino has been criticised for leaving him out.
The only way of working hard and being all together is trusting in us, in our decision, in our judgement.
The Spurs boss claims supporters need to trust that he had good reasons to drop Eriksen, saying: “People will say: ‘Why are you playing Christian?’
“The team-mates can say: ‘Why are you playing Christian if the rumour is he’s going to leave? Gaffer, why am I not playing when Christian wants to leave, is looking to go away?’
“In this situation, there are plenty of things that happen inside that I cannot translate to you and you to our fans.
“The only way of working hard and being all together is trusting in us, in our decision, in our judgement.”
And Pochettino says the same applies when it comes to deciding whether to play Eriksen in tomorrow’s North London derby if no-one makes a move to sign him today.
Pochettino said: “People need to trust.
“If we make the decision that he’s going to play it’s because we believe he can perform in the way that we expect or we need him to perform.
TRUST OUR JUDGEMENT
“If some people have more information to make that decision, it’s us.
“The first person interested in winning Sunday or last Sunday is the manager, because I need to put my face in front of you and explain why.
“The most important is to trust in our judgement. We are not always right, we make a lot of mistakes. We are humble enough to recognise our mistakes.”
If Real or another club DOES come in for Eriksen today, Tottenham will face another big decision.
Pochettino and assistant Jesus Perez had dinner with chairman Daniel Levy and another board member on Thursday night.
Eriksen’s future is sure to have been on the discussion menu.
Spurs’ bid for domestic and European honours would be badly dented if they lost their most creative player and had to wait until at least January to try to replace him..
But with £600m of debt loaded on to the club from building the new stadium, it would be hard to turn down a big offer for a player in the last year of his contract.
At least Tottenham should finally know, one way or another, by the end of today.
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