Catching Liverpool: Tottenham challenging for the title is a project - Jose Mourinho needs time to emulate Jurgen Klopp

In the fourth part of a series of articles assessing Liverpool's closest challengers and where they need to improve next season, Matt Law focuses on Tottenham Hotspur. Read James Ducker on Manchester City and Manchester United, and Law on Chelsea.

In the aftermath of Liverpool’s Premier League title success, the name of Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Daniel Levy, spent time trending on Twitter.

A year after Liverpool had beaten Spurs in the Champions League final, the Reds were crowned English champions to pile more pressure on Levy over his running of the club.

Supporters raged at the missed opportunities, the comparative spends of each club and what some still believe was the unfair treatment of former head coach Mauricio Pochettino in comparison to Liverpool’s backing of Jurgen Klopp.

Pochettino this week reminded those same fans of his lasting affection for Tottenham by wearing a ‘Spurs’ T-shirt in a social media post with his son, Maurizio, who has signed a new contract at the club.

At the end of Klopp’s first season in English football, Liverpool finished in eighth place and Spurs were third after failing to maintain a title challenge with Leicester City.

Tottenham were this season heading for a similar position to that of Liverpool four years ago before Levy backed the players over his head coach by firing Pochettino.

One can only assume that Levy did not have the stomach, or the finances, for a squad rebuild of the size Klopp was granted so instead tried to hire a manager with a track record of getting his teams over the line.

But Jose Mourinho’s appointment has in no way guaranteed that Spurs will finish any higher than Pochettino’s side would have and the club look further from challenging for the title than at any point since Klopp’s arrival on Merseyside.

It is not just Liverpool’s title success that has sparked more questions among the Tottenham faithful, either, as Bruno Fernandes reignites Manchester United’s Champions League charge.

Fernandes is one of a long list of players for whom Tottenham made a move under Pochettino, only for the club to ultimately fail to clinch his signing.

Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum are two of the ones that got away at Liverpool and Fernandes is threatening to have just as big an impact at Old Trafford.

So, with far less money to spend than United, Chelsea - who have already signed Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech - and Manchester City, just how does Mourinho go about trying to close the gap on Liverpool?

There has already been one cause for optimism for Mourinho in the fact that Levy has already decided that none of Tottenham’s star players will be sold against the club’s will this summer, no matter of whether or not the club qualifies for the Champions League.

So that should at least guarantee Mourinho one season of working with Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Giovani Lo Celso, who should be able to form a potent trio and unlock plenty of defences.

The struggles of record signing Tanguy Ndombele have in some way overshadowed the promise shown by Lo Celso, who, at around £27 million, looks like a steal.

Steven Bergwijn, too, has shown early promise in his Spurs career and it appears that the January departure of Christian Eriksen will not be felt too keenly.

Clever recruitment will be key for Spurs with issues to solve in midfield and defence, particularly at right-back, and there appeared to be an acknowledgement from Mourinho this week that patience will be required.

Asked what he and Tottenham must do to try to make ground on Liverpool, Mourinho replied: “I think what they did is what you have to do. Which is when you trust a manager, you trust. And it doesn't matter how you do in your first season, it doesn't matter how you do in your second season, you keep working because you believe in him so you keep working together.

“So if the results in the first season are not good, you improve. If the results in the second season are not good, you keep improving and you go to the third season, you go the fourth and, of course, when the manager is good, and the structure behind is good, and, when they manage to do collective work like they did, the results arrive.

“So I think it's a great example for people that think in football everything is done in one week, one month or one year. So I double my compliments to them exactly because of the profile and the way they accepted it was a project - well done.”

Mourinho also believes he needs to change the mentality around the club, using Ndombele as an example of how Tottenham are not used to having big players or expensive signings on the substitutes’ bench.

Fabinho spent a long time on the Liverpool bench as he settled into life at Anfield, while Naby Keita is still yet to hold down a regular starting place almost two years since he moved to England from RB Leipzig, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is often rotated.

But if Mourinho and Spurs are really going to catch Liverpool and Manchester City, then they may have to be brave in the market and eventually sell a star to fund the kind of moves that have got the Premier League champions over the line.

Selling Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona was seen as waving the white flag in some quarters and yet the transfer effectively funded the incoming deals for Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker.

Tottenham, of course, have been down that route before when they sold Gareth Bale to fund a rebuild but, instead of investing the money in two or three transformative talents, they spread it too thinly.

Whichever route they ultimately decide to go, Mourinho is going to need to be creative and is most likely going to need the sort of time Klopp has been afforded at Liverpool.