Mauricio Pochettino splashed out £7,000 on a Tottenham team-bonding dinner in a posh West End restaurant this week.
The Spurs boss paid for 50 players and staff before a run of three big away games – and even paid for chairman Daniel Levy.
And the Argentine manager said such get-togethers were a “tactic” to bring together his multi-national squad off the pitch, especially new summer signings like Fernando Llorente and Davinson Sanchez.
Before the visit to West Ham, Pochettino said: “We need time for the players that we signed to engage with everyone, know everything.
"It's only a few weeks that they are involved in the dynamic of the team, the club. You need time to create a good dynamic.
“Not only tactics but outside too. We had a dinner in a restaurant in London with all the staff and players that I invite, of course. I paid the bill at the end!
“That is important because you can say: 'Tactics here in the morning' or you prefer to go last night and put all the staff, the players and the chairman too in a restaurant.
"That is tactics too. It is so important, just as it is important to work on the pitch. To get to know each other better, to speak in a different way. That creates links between them, emotion.
"And when you must fight in a competition, there's willingness to help more your teammates and care more for your teammates and care more for the gaffer that pays the bill! It's so important and we need time to engage everything, to have different alternatives to play and try to win. In the end, that's the principle objective.”
Pochettino took Tottenham to The Beast restaurant off Oxford Street specialising in steaks and seafood – and where a side order of white asparagus costs £12.
“I didn't take them to McDonalds no, no, no,” laughed the Spurs boss.
“When I pay, I pay good! Good restaurant, good food, good wine. It was English but steak from Spain and Australia but Argentine wine, which is the best! I wanted to invite the chairman because he always invites me.”
The dinner took place on Wednesday night after winning through to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup and before European action restarts next week.
“It's difficult to find a day or night altogether,” he said. “It's such a busy schedule that we have, we play every 2-3 days and then all are away for international break
"It was a very good day to stay altogether outside and laugh and share in a different atmosphere. It is impossible not to talk about football. The players maybe they didn't talk about football.”