Mauricio Pochettino insists he will no longer discuss Tottenham's transfer business or contract talks

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Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says he is no longer prepared to discuss transfer business or the contract situations of his squad in public, insisting he will leave it down to the club to update supporters.

Pochettino has always refused to discuss transfer targets publicly, repeatedly dismissing links with players as 'rumours', but he has previously been willing to talk about his own players' contracts and their chances of leaving the club.

Given the reluctance of his chairman Daniel Levy to go on the record, Pochettino has been Spurs' de facto mouthpiece since joining the club in 2014 but that is set to change according to the Argentine, who warned the media not to bother asking him about transfer business or contracts in future.

Pochettino was responding to a question about the £25million release clause in Toby Alderweireld's contract, which expires today. The Belgian and Christian Eriksen are both entering the last year of their Spurs deals.

"I'm not going to talk," Pochettino said in Shanghai after Spurs' 2-1 defeat to Manchester United.

"I'm going to work with the players at the end of the transfer market that the club is going to provide to us. Nothing to say about that.

"I am very focused on working with the players that we have and the club provide us, the coaching staff, and try to help them to improve and work with the players who we are going to have at the end of the transfer market.

“My position from now for the future, so you know: I'm not going to talk about signing players, selling players, extending the contract of the players or not extending the contract of the players.

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Man Utd | 25/07/2019

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"That is going to be all through the club to update you, if they want. I'm not going to communicate or talk about that, I'm going to talk about managing the squad that we have.

"To make clear because in the future if you're going to ask me it'll be a little bit weird because I won't answer because I don't have the answer."

Goals from Anthony Martial and Angel Gomes earned United a 2-1 win at the Hongkou Stadium, with Lucas Moura on the scoresheet for Spurs. Despite being a friendly game as part of the International Champions Cup, the match had a distinct edge, with Moussa Sissoko appearing to stamp on Daniel James in the first half, prompting a melee.

AFP/Getty Images

Pochettino said his players, who were playing for only the second time in pre-season, were tired and apologised to United for some of their tackles.

"I was a little bit annoyed about some situations, I was not happy," he said. "It was a friendly game and when you are tired, when it’s so hot, you are not right with the tempo to arrive at the actions, sometimes you arrive late and something can happen.

"I apologise on behalf of our players to Manchester United – it wasn’t their intention, but sometimes when you are tired you arrive late and some thing can happen and I was worried because in this period of preparation it is sometimes you need to be aggressive and you need to play with passion but sometimes the focus is to build your fitness and develop the way you want to play.

"Of course I was worried for Manchester United but in the second half the game was a bit more relaxed."

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