Mourinho admits Tottenham will never rule transfer market

Spurs manager, Jose Mourinho has conceded defeated to the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and both Manchester clubs in the transfer market after admitting that his new side will never be kings of the transfer market.

Jose has played down the prospects of a spending spree this January after the club ended their transfer drought over the summer by signing Tanguy Ndombele, Ryan Sessegnon, Giovani Lo Celso and Jack Clarke under former manager, Mauricio Pochettino.

Mourinho, however, declared Tottenham's transfer policy means a signing spree won't be happening and that the club will never be one to regularly spend big for players.

“I am at Tottenham Hotspur. I know the profile of club, I know the project, I know the vision, I know the objectives and I know that in our transfer market we are going just to react to things that can happen to us in the market," Mourinho said.

"If some player leaves we need to adapt to it. But we are never going to be the kings of the market, attacking important targets, fighting with clubs that are ready by their profile and philosophy to splash the cash and to go to the important targets.

"We need to do our things in an intelligent way, a creative way, and I repeat I like the players that I have. The more I work with them, the more I know them, the more I realise their qualities and their problems.

“I keep saying that I need time and this time is arriving. Not from yesterday until the 26th, or the 26th until the 28th. But in January, in February, we are going to have a little bit more time to try to improve it.”

Spurs have struggled defensively since Mourinho's arrival, keeping just one clean sheet across eight matches.

Their new manager is adamant he can fix the club's issues at the back but is cautious of not hurting their attack in the process.

“I know how to do it, but to do it 100 per cent I am going to take away from the team some qualities that we want to keep," he said.

“And then it is more difficult to do it because to play for a clean sheet and to put all the focus on the clean sheet, on the improvement of the defensive organisation and try to kill the mistakes that we make, that is not difficult to do.

"The difficulty is to do it with players that are the players they are, with the habits they have; the difficult thing is to put it right defensively without losing the qualities we can have offensively.”

Tottenham host Brighton in the early kick-off on Boxing Day before travelling to Norwich City three days later.