Mauricio Pochettino admits Tottenham are 'behind' rivals but insists club is working hard on signings

Mauricio Pochettino has attempted to all–ay fears over Tottenham's transfer window by stressing that the club are working hard to bring in new players. However he admits that Spurs' squad is 'completely different' to Pep Guardiola's at Manchester City, who have taken a rather proactive approach to player recruitment this summer.

Spurs were outplayed by City at the Nissan Stadium in Tennessee on Saturday (29 July) with goals from John Stones, Raheem Sterling and youngster Brahim Diaz pummelling Pochettino's side to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat.

After the match Pochettino pointed out that Manchester City's squad depth is vast, while he is currently having to call upon raw young starlets. Spurs are believed to be interested in Everton's Ross Barkley and Bournemouth's £15m-rated Joshua King. However, moves for the attacking pair are not imminent with Toffees boss Ronald Koeman revealing that no offers have been made for 23-year-old Barkley, who was valued at £50m (€55.9m) by his boyhood club earlier this year.

Pochettino also mentioned City's sizable summer outlay — Guardiola's side have spent around £200m this summer, including £50m on Kyle Walker, while Tottenham are yet to splash any amount of cash — and admitted that the north Londoners may be 'behind' their Premier League rivals at the moment, though he did insist that the club are working hard in the transfer market in order to remain competitive ahead of the upcoming campaign.

"Of course, Manchester City have more senior players than us and they invest more money than us," Pochettino told Sky Sports. "You can see that we have a lot of young players on the bench.

"It's true the squads are completely different but we are building the squad. Maybe today they have a little bit of an advantage, they are ahead of us because they have signed and kept the players that they want.

"We are a little bit behind but are working hard to sign some players who can help us and bring some energy, and make us more competitive."

Tottenham have not enjoyed much success both in the transfer market and on the pitch during pre-season. The defeat by Manchester City followed losses to Roma and Paris Saint-Germain, but Pochettino revealed that more focus is being put on the training sessions rather than the actual matches themselves.

"We prioritised training, and tried to get fit, over the result, as I told you before Paris Saint-Germain and Roma," Pochettino added. "It's true you want to win but Manchester City were better than us, showed better quality. We lost and deserved to lose, and they deserved to win.

"It's not trying to justify, for me they were better, but our main players 14 days ago started training and it's very difficult to get fit if you only focus on playing games.

"We pushed a lot to train to train and develop our physical condition. Yesterday it was a tough training session and we knew it would be difficult to compete with City, who have a lot of quality."