Kyle Walker thinks Tottenham can challenge for the title next season, but acknowledges their chances of success will be reduced if they lose their top players like Luka Modric and Gareth Bale this summer.
Spurs kept pace with both Manchester sides for the first two thirds of last season, but a dramatic slump towards the end of the campaign meant they finished fourth in the Barclays Premier League and missed out on the Champions League due to Chelsea claiming European Cup glory.
Now Bale and Modric are once again being linked with moves away from White Hart Lane, and Walker said at an event to promote Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Grudge Match: "I think it's vital (we keep them). The chairman showed last season that we are not a selling club. We can challenge next year for the title, definitely. We will be up there."
He added: "We can achieve anything with the squad we have got. When I look around the changing room there's Gareth, Aaron Lennon, Rafa van der Vaart, Emmanuel Adebayor and even the likes of Louis Saha, Brad Friedel. There are world-class players there, experienced heads and they have helped me a lot this season. It's only upwards for Tottenham."
Tottenham looked certain qualifiers for the Champions League following an impressive 11-match unbeaten run towards the end of 2011 - a sequence Walker played a big part in putting together.
Ultimately, their efforts proved in vain, however, thanks to UEFA's rules that state only four teams from one country are allowed to compete in the Champions League.
Knowing some members of the Chelsea squad, Saturday was a night of mixed emotions for Walker, but he insists Tottenham must move on quickly from their unfortunate disappointment and not spend their time wondering what might have been.
"Obviously Saturday is football. That's what happens in the game," the 21-year-old said.
"I had mixed emotions as I know Ryan Bertrand, he was making his debut and Chelsea are an English team, but I want to test myself at the highest level so I favoured Bayern a little.
"It didn't work out as we would have liked but we just have to pick ourselves up now, dust ourselves down and challenge next year."
Source: PA
