MAURICIO Pochettino has claimed he laid the foundations for Saints boss successor Ronald Koeman to build on this season.

The Argentine believes Koeman took over “a winning team” when he arrived at St Mary’s last June.

What he didn't say, though, was that Rickie Lambert had already been sold prior to the Dutchman's arrival, while Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Dejan Lovren and Calum Chambers were preparing to leave.

Speaking on Catalan radio station RAC1, the Tottenham boss said: “It is always easier taking over a winning team which is the case this time with Ronald [Koeman].

“We came here (to Tottenham) and had to reinvent things.

“We always laugh about it because we left a team at Southampton that practically trained itself after a year and a half to come here.

“Here we had to recreate everything that we had done at Southampton, pretty much from zero, but it’s a great challenge.”

Pochettino arrived at Saints in January 2013.

Looking back at that time, he said: “It was a team with a lot of problems, with players like Adam Lallana who wasn’t playing and Luke Shaw who wasn’t playing but in one and a half years we turned it round.

“We brought a lot of young players through and finished eighth.”

Lallana hadn’t been playing in the month leading up to Pochettino’s arrival because he had suffered an injury in the home win against Reading the previous December.