Tottenham News: Mauricio Pochettino’s band of brothers out to dine at top table

FLAMES flicker from grotesquely gnarled tallow bursting forth from ornate candelabra.

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino wants to create camaraderie GETTY

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino wants to create camaraderie

Hundreds more candles float majestically on shelves high above the cutlery-laden tables.

The seats are crude institutional benches, while in the shadows, strange thaumaturgical creatures scuttle menacingly in tanks. Giant glass flasks of intoxicating potions glow from illuminated shelving.

There is much of Hogwarts about Beast restaurant in Marylebone and on Wednesday night it was Mauricio Pochettino who was weaving the magic; offering true insight into his unique managerial style.

He greeted players, coaches, analysts and medical staff as they shuffled excitedly into position either side of the single long wooden slab hosting the party.

A priceless team-bonding exercise? Not on your Nellie. Dinner at Beast is astronomical. The bill for treating 50 members of staff, including chairman Daniel Levy, to the finest Norwegian crab, Galician steak and Argentinian wine set the Tottenham manager back many thousands of pounds.

“I invited them, so of course, I paid the bill at the end!” he said magnanimously. “And when I pay, I pay good! Good restaurant, good food, good wine.

When I pay, I pay good! Good restaurant, good food, good wine

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino

“We had steak from Spain and Australia but Argentinian wine, which is the best!”

Beast’s cellar boasts a bottle of 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec from the province of Mendoza for £160. Food-wise, even the “lunchtime special” costs £48 per head. For that you get a 9oz steak, crab claw and either chips or a House salad. Not both.

Caviar is a bargain at £65, but a portion is just three-quarters of an ounce. Even a humble side order of thinly-sliced cauliflower costs £10. A plate of white asparagus is £2 dearer.

For Pochettino, though, it was an investment in nurturing camaraderie and friendship within the squad and, if that failed, a mercenary attempt to earn loyalty from his staff and players.

“Going out for dinner creates links between them, emotions,” he explained. “And when you must fight in a competition, there’s willingness to help more your team-mates and care more for your team-mates. And care more for the gaffer that pays the bill!”

Pochettino’s earnest face crinkles into a smile at his own joke. Humour comes easily to the 45-year-old and one cannot help but imagine that he is a gregarious as well as generous host.

Tottenham Hotspur unveil plans for DOUBLE use stadium

This season, though, there have been a few more frowns than usual. Tottenham still have not won a Premier League game at their temporary Wembley home and travelling to West Ham today, their fifth-placed tally of seven points from five games is already four behind last season’s mark.

Sitting locked away in the club’s £45m training bunker near Enfield is not the solution, however. Pochettino is adamant on that score.

“It is important because would you prefer to say, ‘Tactical meeting here in the morning’, or would you prefer to go out the night before and put all the staff, the players and the chairman too in a restaurant?” he said.

“We always try to find the way to stay together away from the training ground because it is so different. But it is so difficult because here in England, it’s difficult to find a day or night altogether. It’s such a busy schedule that we have, we play every two or three days and then all are away for international break.

“So it was a very good day to stay altogether outside and laugh and share in a different atmosphere.

“It’s so important and we need time to engage everything, to have different alternatives to play and try to win. In the end, that’s the principle objective.

“In a way, that is tactics too. It is so important, just as it is important to work on the pitch. To understand better each other, to speak to each other in a different way.”

This latest occasion was especially designed to introduce new signings Fernando Llorente, Davinson Sanchez, Juan Foyth, Paulo Gazzaniga and Serge Aurier properly to the wider group. For new players, Pochettino believes that off-the-field camaraderie is the key to becoming tightly knit on the pitch.

Even Zinedine Zidane struggled initially when he first arrived at Real Madrid from Juventus for £45.6m, the Tottenham manager points out.

“Only after six months did he start to perform in the way that he can play,” he said. “And he was really criticised.

“We need time for the players that we signed to engage with everyone, know everything. But I think we’re strong.”

Twenty-four hours later, the players were still buzzing. “Yeah, it was a great night,” one of the club’s biggest names confirmed privately to a friend. Perhaps Pochettino really is a wizard.

For now at least, and despite the infamous Danny Rose interview, most Spurs players genuinely seem willing to accept a slightly lower salary than their peers in return for membership of a wider family and feeling part of an exciting project.

Even if that does mean eating at Beast a little bit less often.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?