LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino has said Tottenham have ambitions to be "one of the biggest clubs in the world" but admitted they cannot currently compete financially with Manchester City.
Second-place Spurs take on leaders City at White Hart Lane on Sunday, hoping to end Pep Guardiola's 100 percent start to the Premier League season in his seventh match.
The Londoners finished third last season -- one place ahead of City -- but the Manchester club spent around £170 million on new players in the summer, while Spurs spent some £70m and recouped at least half of that in sales.
Asked whether Spurs, who are building a new £400m stadium, could compete financially with Abu Dhabi-backed City, Pochettino said: "Long term, yes.
"Maybe we are a little behind them now in the project, but our expectation long term is to compete with all the big clubs -- City, [Manchester] United, Liverpool, different clubs.
"For us, it's important to build. We are building, after two years, a different philosophy, a different project.
"Our spirit, our ambition is to be one of the biggest clubs in the world. But for that, you need time, a process."
Guardiola has spent fees of more than £20m on four different players since arriving at City in the summer.
Spurs signed five players in Pochettino's first summer, with £8m Federico Fazio the most expensive, and he said: "If you compare with Guardiola when he arrived, how much he spent and how much I spent with Tottenham, the answer is very clear.
"We are in a very different project -- you know that very well and I don't need to explain that."
Pochettino has continued to promote young players from Tottenham's academy, with midfielder Harry Winks and defender Cameron Carter-Vickers -- who agreed a new contract this week -- expected to be in the squad for Sunday's match.
"We have an unbelievable academy -- people who work very hard to provide the first team with very good players," the manager said.
Pochettino's Espanyol, who were bottom of La Liga at the time, beat Barcelona -- then managed by Guardiola -- 2-1 in the Argentine's first ever win as a manager, one of nine meetings between the pair in Spain.
But the Tottenham boss said: "This is in the past. I don't like too much to speak about the past.
"Football is present and future. For me, the most important thing is to meet them, play well, show our quality and get three points. And off course, to say hello to him.
"Three points is important to reduce the gap. If we win, my speech will be the same as if we don't. The most important thing is to be solid, to show we believe in the way we play. It's too early to start to speak about aims at the end of the season."
Pochettino will assess the fitness of Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier, Danny Rose and Moussa Sissoko on Saturday.