Jose Mourinho

[ohtottenham!]

For me that exposes Levy's total lack of insight in regard to the football side of the club!

The highlighted's the problem whatever views we may have re coaches, players etc.,

 

[shelfmonkey]

Putting aside the needless part of your post, your response seemingly didn't consider or even address what he actually meant did it. Which is probably why you received the ratings you got for your reply.

Meh, I don't care. Don't even know why i'm bothering explaining it, I must be having a metrosexual cycle in my biorhythms

My opinion, if some people don't like it, I couldn't care less. I'm not going to temper my opinions just because someone might be offended!

 

[NickHSpurs]

I actually think the treatment of Bale will be actually what tips the balance in levy’s mind and gets him sacked.

We were struggling in February, Bale comes back in the side making us enjoyable to watch, scoring goals and helping us to win games. Then he’s dropped after the arsenal game and never to be seen again (except in the last 5 minutes when chasing a goal) despite proving that starting him in games recently produced dividends.

If he starts against Southampton I suspect we will win with ease, but he won’t, so we won’t.

I think that’s what has pissed me off most about the last few weeks. Seeing Bale enjoying playing well in a Spurs shirt again was so good and the fact Jose has taken that away from us really fucking annoys me.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Getting to any final is meaningless unless you win it, finishing second IS NOT an achievement, unless you live in PC, woke, Leftie world!!

You could’ve just said ‘a world where failure is rewarded’ or something like that. Whatever your views, there’s no need to be disparaging to a demographic that will be represented at least in part on here, and in your own personal circles, without any provocation whatsoever.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

My opinion, if some people don't like it, I couldn't care less. I'm not going to temper my opinions just because someone might be offended!

This bollocks again. You wilfully misrepresent what another poster has said and instead of being a decent bloke about it and saying something like 'my bad' you come up with this bullshit 'my opinion' and couldn't care less and STILL don't actually address it.

 

[shelfmonkey]

You could’ve just said ‘a world where failure is rewarded’ or something like that. Whatever your views, there’s no need to be disparaging to a demographic that will be represented at least in part on here, and in your own personal circles, without any provocation whatsoever.

You've proved my point?

 

[shelfmonkey]

This bollocks again. You wilfully misrepresent what another poster has said and instead of being a decent bloke about it and saying something like 'my bad' you come up with this bullshit 'my opinion' and couldn't care less and STILL don't actually address it.

Yawn

 

[punkisback]

Getting to any final is meaningless unless you win it, finishing second IS NOT an achievement, unless you live in PC, woke, Leftie world!!

Haha. Very funny when it’s well known that failing upwards is a privilege usually extended to the right wing political elite. But oh well! Nothing political about being a gracious loser at all. But of course I would rather us win. This sort of stuff just put it in the politics thread as it has nothing to do with us winning a cup final.

 

[tototoner]

Mourinho's Spurs future heading in one direction with Levy expected to make call

Tottenham Hotspur have struggled in recent months and there is a growing belief within the club that Jose Mourinho's time at the club will come to an end

www.football.london

Tottenham Hotspur have struggled in recent months and there is a growing belief within the club that Jose Mourinho's time at the club will come to an end.

Alasdair Gold, Tottenham Hotspur correspondent

12:56, 17 APR 2021

Updated 08:37, 18 APR 2021

There is a growing belief within Tottenham Hotspur that Jose Mourinho will not be at the club next season, football.london understands.

Tottenham have had a rotten time in 2021 and look set to miss out on Champions League qualification for a second consecutive season, having previously played in the competition for four campaigns in a row.

With six games left, Mourinho's side are five points off fourth-placed West Ham who had their own problems at Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon, but Chelsea and Liverpool also sit above Spurs with a game in hand and the initiative, while Everton could still overtake the north London club with their own game in hand.

Tottenham's slide has been dramatic since the 3-1 defeat at home to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool on January 28.

Mourinho's side have lost seven of their 14 Premier League games since that day, winning just five matches and drawing two, conceding 21 goals, just one less than they have scored.

On top of that Tottenham exited the FA Cup in the fifth round with a defeat at Everton and then came that embarrassing collapse in Croatia as they threw away a 2-0 first leg lead to lost 3-2 on aggregate at Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League.

Mourinho was brought to the north London club to build upon what Mauricio Pochettino had done with his three top three finishes, including one second place, ahead of the fourth place finish and historic Champions League final appearance in the Argentine's last full campaign.

Mourinho was tasked by chairman Daniel Levy with blowing a fresh wind through a club that had gone stale in that final campaign in the wake of the crushing disappointment of the defeat in Madrid.

He told the Portuguese at the club's Christmas party a month after his appointment that his wishlist that first season was a top four place and a trophy.

While Mourinho initially got a reaction from the Tottenham players, the result 17 months on from his appointment is a Spurs side that is neither an improvement on what came before nor a true Mourinho team.

There has been an overhaul of sorts of the squad during his time at the club, with nine new players coming through the doors - many of whom specifically targeted as 'Mourinho types' - and some stalwarts such as Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen and Victor Wanyama moved on.

Mourinho's camp will say that more needed to be done and the 'painful rebuild' Pochettino himself once spoke about needed to be implemented, although the numbers of players signed since the Argentine's statement show that the quantity of signings has been there, if not always the quality, and the problem has sat more in the inability to move players on to enable more of a revamp.


The Portuguese's decisions over certain players has also caused strain behind the scenes with Dele Alli a mere onlooker this season, along with England international Harry Winks and most notably Gareth Bale.

The Welshman, like Mourinho, had long been a target for Levy, but the two men have clearly not been a match made in heaven, with Bale often watching matches from the sidelines despite a purple patch of goals and assists when he did get a run in the team this year.

Others have also found themselves out of the picture for long periods, with signings during the Mourinho era such as Steven Bergwijn and Carlos Vinicius struggling for game time in the Premier League.

Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier, who both penned new deals in reaction to the Portuguese's arrival, have spent plenty of time watching on, as has Davinson Sanchez and Spurs' last signing Joe Rodon, as Mourinho has failed to find a centre-back pairing he is happy with.

Club record signing Tanguy Ndombele had a fractious relationship with Mourinho in his first season before the pair worked through their issues for this campaign, while Danny Rose has sat out the last year of his contract without a place in the club's squad.

Mourinho's team decisions would have brought little dissent had the results on the pitch showcased why he was right to make certain calls.

However, other than that brief stint at the summit of the Premier League in December, Tottenham have been disappointing with an overwhelming feeling that Harry Kane has dragged them up the table almost single-handedly with his 31 goals and 16 assists in 43 matches.

With Kane's own future in doubt once again, the fear of what could happen if he were allowed to leave the club has never been greater with the gaping hole he would leave in the team, whatever the huge money recouped from his sale.

The style of football has also caused concern within the club and outside its walls with those fans once desperate for silverware now just desperate to enjoy football matches again.

It has been some time since there has been such a disconnect between the fans and the club and it is unclear whether their absence from matches has only increased that feeling or in fact aided Mourinho's tenure because they would have been very vocal about what has been served up on the pitch.

Friday's draw at Everton saw Mourinho select five defenders and two defensive midfielders in front of Hugo Lloris in a bid to solve Spurs' leaky defence, but it only detracted from the visitors' attacking display and they still conceded twice at Goodison Park.

With eight defensive personnel on the pitch and just three attacking players in Kane, Son Heung-min and Ndombele, Tottenham's bench was overstuffed with attacking talent as Bale, Alli, Giovani Lo Celso, Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura all took their place among the substitutes, while Bergwijn and Vinicius could not even get into the squad.

The Mourinho era could yet yield a trophy, if Tottenham can upset the odds next weekend in the Carabao Cup final in front of 2,000 of their fans, against Premier League leaders Manchester City.

The club are currently sweating over how Kane's right ankle reacts in the aftermath of yet another unfortunate injury, with Richarlison falling on it late in the match and forcing the England captain off.

He walked to the team coach outside the stadium gingerly but without any precautionary protective boot or crutches and all eyes will now be on how the ankle responds in the days ahead as it is still too early to tell.

For Mourinho, the cup final at Wembley represents a chance to bring a rare piece of silverware to Tottenham and some justification for his style, but the inability to get the club back into the top four in a season when Spurs' pandemic-hit finances desperately needed the huge boost looks to be costly not only to the club but the head coach's tenure.

There is a growing belief inside the club that Tottenham will begin next season without Mourinho at the helm but Levy will know that his next move must be the correct one.

He chased Mourinho for more than two decades and made a huge call in replacing Pochettino, popular with the players and majority of fans.

In those final months of his five-and-a-half year era, the Argentine was not the same inspirational, uniting figure he had been in previous seasons, rocked by the Champions League final defeat to Liverpool and there was a sense that he had taken the club as far as he could with the tools at his disposal.

Mourinho's appointment was box office gold for the club and his track record suggested that he would be able to bring the trophies to Tottenham and take them to that next level they craved.

It has not worked out that way and while he has frequently publicly praised the squad at his disposal, he has never truly looked happy with it and that is shown in the constant tinkering with his side.

Captain Lloris admitted after the defeat in Zagreb that the togetherness at the club was no longer there and that some players not in the starting line-up had spent too much time complaining rather than supporting the team.

While Mourinho is not believed to have 'lost the dressing room', despite freezing out some of the squad's big personalities, it is clear that he is not getting the best out of what he has.

While the need for a new centre-back or two, particularly a leader, will be pressing this summer, there is plenty of quality within the squad if the club can play to their strengths once again.

Tottenham need someone who can coach the best out of their players rather than require a big outlay on new signings.

Who will be at the helm for the 2021/22 season remains to be seen. Julian Nagelsmann has admirers at Tottenham but Bayern Munich also have eyes on the young RB Leipzig boss.

Brendan Rodgers is another held in high regard by some at Spurs, although reports that former Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri is a managerial target are believed to be wide of the mark.

If, as expected Mourinho does depart before next season begins, then Tottenham must make sure their next step is the right one and it's important that the club also looks at itself and asks whether - despite the stadium construction and now the pandemic - it really pushed and backed its managers at key moments.

One of the game's most talented young coaches in Pochettino and now one of its most successful and experienced in Mourinho have both failed to lift Spurs to the top level.

Tottenham's next step, whatever it may be, must be the right one.

 

[ohtottenham!]

My opinion, if some people don't like it, I couldn't care less. I'm not going to temper my opinions just because someone might be offended!

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I actually think the treatment of Bale will be actually what tips the balance in levy’s mind and gets him sacked.

We were struggling in February, Bale comes back in the side making us enjoyable to watch, scoring goals and helping us to win games. Then he’s dropped after the arsenal game and never to be seen again (except in the last 5 minutes when chasing a goal) despite proving that starting him in games recently produced dividends.

If he starts against Southampton I suspect we will win with ease, but he won’t, so we won’t.

I think that’s what has pissed me off most about the last few weeks. Seeing Bale enjoying playing well in a Spurs shirt again was so good and the fact Jose has taken that away from us really fucking annoys me.

That’s it for me, that’s what has put me firmly in the Jose out camp having originally felt he could be the right man. He had totally cut his nose off to spite his face. Whatever you say about him off the ball and his energy levels, he came into the side and looked like the missing link, our football was suddenly better and he was playing very well. One match v Arsenal where he was bad, but no worse than anyone else on the pitch, and he’s back to being behind all the worker bees who don’t actually contribute anything.

You can say ‘well it was Burnley, Fulham and Palace’ but against those three he did far more than the players being chosen ahead of him have done in another dozen fixtures this season v sides of similar level. We’ve taken 5 points from a possible 12 v Brighton and Newcastle for fuck sake... and guess where 3 of those 5 came from... that’s right, Bale’s head.

Bale may not be what he was, but he’s a damn sight better than the players who are starting and coming off the bench ahead of him and that’s all down to Mourinho and his ego.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

My point being that the 'taking part is more important than winning' culture of modern times is not applicable in professional football, I get no satisfaction from reaching the CL final and losing in such a pathetic manner, I don't wear reaching the CL final as a badge of honour and neither should any Spurs fan, imo.

The blow of participating and being defeated in the CL final aside, in general terms when Spurs takes part in CL, that is something to be proud of. And especially in the knock out stages. That has nothing to do with a culture war that most people have left behind in the decades past. That has just something to do with facts. Playing the best in Europe, generating the revenue, watching our team pull of outstanding team performances or moments of individual excellence, yes, the CL is honourable. Participating in it is great. And yes, as a CL team consecutively over a few seasons, that was an honour to the Tottenham badge, and a very tangible, real and important achievement. You do win something when you are a part of the CL over time. That's called modern club football.

 

[dontcallme]

Haha. Very funny when it’s well known that failing upwards is a privilege usually extended to the right wing political elite. But oh well! Nothing political about being a gracious loser at all. But of course I would rather us win. This sort of stuff just put it in the politics thread as it has nothing to do with us winning a cup final.

Disagree. Please do not troll in the politics thread.

 

[wrd]

My opinion, if some people don't like it, I couldn't care less. I'm not going to temper my opinions just because someone might be offended!

The battle cry of all 15 year olds myspace accounts

 

[nedley]

I think it means that should they win the league cup, they will let him see out the rest of the season. Respect sorta thing. But if they lose, then they'll cut ties ASAP. Seems logical.

Nothing like leaving it late. Too late to retrieve the possibility of top 4.

Levy allowing heart to rule head once again imo.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

[QUTE="EastLondonYid, post: 7296181, member: 17840"]
Agree, but I was referring to Danny.
[/QUOTE]
Sorry. I should put my glasses on!

 

[Dov67]

Sanchez isn't good enough. His passing alone would be enough reason to say that. No buses and not being thrown under one.

He does do some excellent things from time to time, but on that front he's a bit like Ndombele for me. He'll do something that makes you think 'wow' in the 15th minute of a game, then nothing, piss poor and another 'wow' moment might come a game or two later. Not enough, not nearly often enough, complete lack of consistency and in Sanchez's case, be honest, when the ball goes anywhere near him you're just waiting for the fuck up.

So he does have some positive attributes, this isn't a slagpiece, but for me, those aren't enough. He simply isn't as good a defender as you would want to see in a team going for top four, let alone titles or even playing regularly in the CL.

All in my opinion of course.

problem with Sanchez is he is either an 8 or 9 out of 10 or he’s a 3 or 4 out of 10. That kind of inconsistency is dangerous especially for a CB. cannot be relied on to not shit the bed.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

His massive toxic ego aside, I just think the game has left him behind, he hasn't progressed or adapted tactically.

Was he ever a tactically astute coach?. He managed the best teams with the best players and had the biggest amount of cash to operate with. I'm pretty sure most managers given the tools that Mourinho had they would deliver the same level of silverware.

 

[Mark_147]

So next Monday after City game even if we win?!!!

Probably means he stays until the end of the season if we win and gets sacked on the Monday if we lose.

 

[dontcallme]

Was he ever a tactically astute coach?. He managed the best teams with the best players and had the biggest amount of cash to operate with. I'm pretty sure most managers given the tools that Mourinho had they would deliver the same level of silverware.

If you take other managers of Chelsea and yes most delivered silverware. But Jose was by far their most successful manager. He clearly did something right.

At the beginning of the season we were nullifying the opposition's chances and winning off Son and Kane. It might not have been the most attractive way to play but it was effective up to around November.

I remember watching us lose 2-1 to Liverpool and thinking they only scored from a set piece and a deflection and created little else whereas we scored from a one on one and Bergwijn missed 2 great chances and if I remember rightly Kane missed a good chance too. It appeared something good to build on.

But then we went downhill. Started giving away goals and Son's goals dried up a little. There's been little sign of turning it around since.

I had such high hopes for Jose and this season.