'We hope he stays' - Tottenham squad want Mauricio Pochettino to take Spurs to the next level, says Ben Davies

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Ben Davies says the whole squad wants Mauricio Pochettino to stay at Tottenham, believing he is the manager to take the club to the next level.

Pochettino has four years remaining on his contract and there is no reason to think he will not be Spurs manager next season, but the Argentine has so far refused to be clear on his plans.

After Saturday's Champions League Final defeat to Liverpool, he said it was not the time to discuss his future and he has promised to hold talks with Daniel Levy on the club's strategy going forward.

The Argentine is thought to be seeking assurances from the chairman that he will be backed to reshape the squad in the summer. and he has called on the club to kick on after Saturday's defeat - just as Liverpool did after finishing runners-up a year ago.

Davies, who is not expected to leave Spurs, told Standard Sport: "He's been amazing for us.

"He's put the building blocks in place to put us where we've been in the Champions League. The way we've played, and the attitude and belief we've got in the squad is all down to him.

"As a group of players, we really hope he stays because he's the one to take us to the next level.

"Those are the types of games we want to be involved in on a regular basis," added the Wales international, who is expected to have surgery on a niggling groin problem now the season is over.

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"It's a learning curve and we have to take a lot of experience from it.

"It's tough to put into words right now but when we look back over the summer and reflect on it, there are moments that we'll never forget – those Ajax and Man City games, the emotions we went through as a team brought us closer together as a group.

"We really went into Saturday believing anything was possible and we were going to do the job. But it didn't pan out that way.

"We've had a stop-start season. Especially at the beginning, we didn't seem to find our form. We had players injured regularly, Sonny [Heung-nin Son] was away a lot [on international duty] and all these things seemed stacked against us.

"Even in the Ajax and City games everything was against us. But we pulled through. We put everything on the line in these games, showed so much character in the group and it's a really proud feeling to be part of it."

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Liverpool Champions League Final | 1/6/2019

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Spurs have not made a signing for 16 months, since Lucas Moura in January 2018, but Davies expects that to change in the summer and predicted an exciting season, in which Spurs will play a full campaign at home for the first time in three years.

"If some new faces come in, it'll be a similar atmosphere where the boys who have been here a while have to kick on and show the experience we've gained," he said.

"It's going to be an exciting season next year, we need to proud of what we've done this year and these experiences will spur us on to do it all again.

"Being back home is huge. That's another thing – we played a most of the year at Wembley, thinking we were going to be out of there in September.

"We've got a bit of continuity now and we hope to use these as building blocks."

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