Tottenham Hotspur took the decision to sell Kieran Trippier to Atletico Madrid in the last transfer window, with the English right-back hitting the ground running in Spain.
However, Pochettino and Levy failed to bring in a first-team replacement, leaving them to make do with what they already have at the club.
Academy graduate, Kyle Walker-Peters, played the first three Premier League games for the Lilywhites before picking up an injury.
Davinson Sanchez then filled in at right-back for a couple of games, although he looked far from comfortable away from his normal central defensive berth.
Serge Aurier came back into the starting XI in an impressive couple of games against Crystal Palace and Leicester, but then saw red in the Southampton game and had a woeful game against Bayern Munich.
Ten games into the new season and it is still unclear who will be first choice this season.
Kieran Trippier has now revealed that he did not need to think twice about joining Atletico and that there is a winning mentality from the top down. This is more relevant than ever after Spurs were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Colchester and demolished 7-2 by Bayern in the past couple of weeks.
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Trippier said: “Obviously I was very excited when I first signed here.
“I know a lot about Atletico through watching them over the years. Obviously, the coaching staff; Cholo [Simeone], the way he sets his team up and you can just see from the outside that the players work so hard for the manager. And I wanted to be a part of this.
“I’ve always wanted to play abroad just to experience something different, and the time was now. It was a great opportunity for me to come to such a big club. Champions League football, the players that I’ve got here; it’s just an amazing club and I’ve seen how close everybody is at Atletico and I’m happy to be a part of it.
“I’ve watched Atletico in the Champions League over the years and sometimes in La Liga, and the players they have here and also Cholo – a world-class manager and everybody knows that. To learn from him and play for him: I said in many interviews last season I need to improve my defending and there’s no better person to learn from.
“To be honest, when Atletico were interested, I didn’t have to think twice. I spoke to a few people back at Tottenham about the opportunity to play in Spain, in La Liga, and to come to Atletico: I jumped straight at it.
“You can see that the passion, the second goal that went in [against Juventus in the first group stage game], [Simeone is] crazy. You can see before games how concentrated Cholo is and on the training field the demands of not just Cholo but all of the staff: it’s so 100 per cent professional. You see the winning mentality. Everybody can see it from the outside over the years with the club here coming from the top all the way down. You can see the passion, which is the most important thing, and I can see that the passion is incredible.”
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