Jose Mourinho concedes Tottenham will not be “kings of the market” in the January window as they are unable to match certain Premier League rivals in terms of profile and spending.
Tottenham have won five of their eight matches in all competitions since Mourinho replaced Mauricio Pochettino last month.
The London side have been tipped to strengthen their squad early in 2020, while Christian Eriksen has been linked with a move away as he enters the final stages of his contract.
Mourinho reiterated he is content with his squad but acknowledged his hand may be forced somewhat when the transfer window reopens, with Jan Vertonghen another player facing an uncertain future.
“I am at Tottenham Hotspur. I know the profile of the club, I know the project, I know the vision, I know the objectives,” he is quoted as saying by several British newspapers.
“I know that in our transfer market we are going just to react to things that can happen to us in the market. Like I was saying 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.
Tottenham fell to a 2-0 defeat against Chelsea last time out, making it 14 goals conceded in their first eight games under Mourinho.
However, the Portuguese is reluctant to tighten up at the back at the expense of curbing his side’s attacking instincts.
He added: “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.
“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.”
