'Tottenham fans love him really' - Kyle Walker boos played down by Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino "totally understands" the hostile fan reaction towards Kyle Walker during Manchester City's 3-0 victory over Tottenham on Saturday.

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Walker was jeered by Spurs fans every time he received the ball during the north London club's meeting with City in the International Champions Cup, in front of a crowd of 56,232 at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

The right-back spent eight years at White Hart Lane before completing a £45 million to Pep Guardiola's side this month. 

And, despite the boos, Spurs boss Pochettino believes the reaction towards Walker was not personal.

“I totally understand," he told reporters. "Fans showed they are disappointed with the situation but the Tottenham fans love him really.

“He spent nine years at the club. It is not personal. It is not a big issue. It is only to show him they were disappointed he left.”

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Tottenham have yet to add to their squad ahead of the 2017-18 Premier League season and were bettered by a City side who have splashed over £160m so far this window. 

Guardiola has secured deals for Monaco pair Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva, goalkeeper Ederson, Real Madrid's Danilo, and Walker, with further additions expected.

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City beat Spurs 3-0 in the pre-season meeting on Saturday, with John Stones, Raheem Sterling and Brahim Diaz scoring City's goals. 

“They played better than us," Pochettino added. "It is difficult to judge the level on pre-season. We prioritised training and to try to get fit.

“It is true when you compete you want to win. Today Manchester City were better than us. They showed better quality. We lost and they deserved to win” said Pochettino.

“Our main players only came back 14 days ago. It is very difficult to get fit if you only focus on playing games. We pushed a lot to train and develop our physical condition.

“We had a tough training session the day before the game so we knew it would be difficult to compete with a team like Manchester City that have a lot of quality and very good players.

“For us we were focused today more on helping the team to arrive in two weeks in our best condition.

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“The reality is we want to win in two weeks when we start the Premier League against Newcastle. That is the game we want to win.”

“City have more senior players than us. They have invested more money than us and you can see for us we have a lot of young players on the bench.

"So it is true the squads are completely different today. Today they are ahead of us because they signed and keep they players they want.

“For us we we are a little bit behind. We are working hard to finish and try to sign players that will help us and bring us some new energy and make our team more competitive.”