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Jose Mourinho

How do you feel about Mourinho appointment

  • Excited - silverware here we come baby

    Votes: 666 46.7%
  • Meh - will give him a chance and hope he is successful

    Votes: 468 32.8%
  • Horrified - praying for the day he'll fuck off

    Votes: 292 20.5%

  • Total voters
    1,426

Kiedis

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,926
8,490
We're in the midst of a rebuild. Our last two transfer windows reflect that this is also what the club is working towards and the best way this Mourinho crap can end is if we don't let him get a single fucking say in terms of transfers and keep rejuvenating the squad so that the next guy (or the guy after that) will have something with potential to work with.

Mourinho will get another job, and would you know it, it will be with a team where it soon emerges that the players haven't got the "right mentality" who wont perform no matter how much the serial winner tells them how shit they are.
 

WannaDanceWithUdogie

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2019
1,452
10,366
Jose ain't spurs. When we hired him it was a good idea at the time however as the full task has appeared especially with Covid lowering funds it's clear it's probably not gonna work out
 

mrlilywhite

Well-Known Member
Sep 1, 2008
3,174
4,992
Even Leicester currently aren’t better than us and they are very dependent on Ndidi and Vardy.
How are we going backwards? I would also say that apart from Chelsea we are the most linked with players by reliable media.
Yeah except Vardy and his merry men are sitting in 3rd, just beat a notoriously hard Palace 3-0, whilst we bent over and let Sheff Utd Roger us. Also if trophies were handed out for the number of times we are linked with any player, then half of the stadium tour would be dedicated to how we could have signed Dybala trophy or the trophy for snubbing Bruno Fernandes. Some of our most exciting times as fans have been waiting to see if Levy could give us another Levy time - that's how bad things are currently.

By backwards I was clearly focusing on the actual football we have been playing for the past couple of seasons, or does that not count now?
 

SuperPav10

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
338
1,212
Jose is just a name he is no longer the manager he once was. His second stint at Chelsea actually cost them more titles than he won them look they could have had two world class players and a very good international striker but he decided these players were rubbish. Between Salah and De Brunye since returning back to the EPL how many trophies have they won. To me Mourinho lost any remaining magic he had at Real Madrid and has been a shadow since then.
Or perhaps those players weren't quite as good as they were when they returned to the Prem a few years later? It's easy to say he didn't want to invest the time in developing them but when you're working at a club like Chelsea (and it's your 2nd stint there), time isn't on your side and he had a big point to prove. My guess is he wanted players who were ready to make the difference there and then. It worked. They won a title and the League Cup.
 

brasil_spur

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2006
12,668
16,712
He has some big decisions to make for Monday - does he drop people like Son for example who normally walk into the team but showed no effort in the SU game (sorry to pick on Son as I love him but he’s a good example in this case). Interesting to see who makes the cut for the everton game.
Agreed, for me Monday is a defining day in my opinion of Mourinho.

If he doesn't drop Son, Lucas and Sissoko then I'll be very shocked. Based on his commitment I would consider Dier at RB right now. Revert to CBs consisting of two of Toby, Jan and Sanchez and ensure Ndombele is in the starting lineup and I think we're getting somewhere.

But the first team needs a shake up and Mourinho needs to have the balls to back up his words on this.
 

SuperPav10

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
338
1,212


This is pretty astounding considering the majority of our fanbase decided it was time for Poch to go because "he had lost the dressing room" for Jose to now question their desire.

I feel the same now as I felt under Poch which is that the players attitudes were the issue. Not to say they were bad apples but that we needed a personnel overhaul as the players no longer had the fight in them to continue the journey.

I worry for this route that Jose is going though. Feels like we're going to be heading for a toxic environment.

Or it's a similar feeling Poch had after we blew 2nd and rolled over at Newcastle? Things changed the following year and players he thought he could rely on didn't stick around.
 

emiley heskey

Well-Known Member
Jul 3, 2020
1,121
1,832
Or it's a similar feeling Poch had after we blew 2nd and rolled over at Newcastle? Things changed the following year and players he thought he could rely on didn't stick around.

I hope he doesn't see Aurier, Sissoko, Moura, Sanchez as a long term options for us anymore. Even if he liked Sissoko, Moura and Aurier's physicality, I hope last game made Mourinho understand what these players are and he will start reacting to it.
 

Wsussexspur

Well-Known Member
Oct 2, 2007
8,918
10,176
Quite simple with Jose either club backs him. Which means riding out the end of the season what ever the results are and where we finish. Then in the transfer window they fully back him with in reason.. I.e brining in realistic targets that Jose wants and get rid of the players he doesn't want and let him have next season to fully work with the squad. Or... If they aren't prepared or simply cant financially afford to back him then realistically they need to sack him as he is showing he cant get the best out of this squad.. To be fair to him im not sure any manager can given the imbalance in the squad and the attitude of some of the players.

However there is little point in my view letting him carry on into next season with basically the same set of players. Its just going to all end up in acrimony with him being sacked by Christmas at the latest.
 

wrd

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2014
13,603
58,005
Or it's a similar feeling Poch had after we blew 2nd and rolled over at Newcastle? Things changed the following year and players he thought he could rely on didn't stick around.

Let me make this clear, I'm not feeling like Jose is in the wrong with his comments. My point specifically is that what he has said is astounding because we sacked our manager because the players felt like this and we're already in this position again a few months into a brand new manager.

This says to me that the problem as it has been all along is that our squad has stagnated and has nothing left because we didn't regenerate when we needed to and all teams need small changes every year to keep it refreshed and I don't care if it's Poch, Jose, Klopp or Pep in charge; if we don't overhaul the squad in a big way then we are going to suffer badly. As most of us predicted in the summer of 2018.
 

nattydredd

Non Contributor
Jul 20, 2015
1,103
4,412
I don't think he's currently capable of turning this lot around. He also knows he hasn't got significant funds to rebuild. He probably also realizes this is his last chance at a big premiership club.

Considering these facts he'll either rize to the occasion/situation or spiral down into self destruction. I'm not a gambling man, but if I were I'd bet on the latter. I think his mind is going to get frazzled from now on till the end of the season. Let's hope I'm dead wrong.

If Levy thinks he's made a bad choice it's going to cost a shit load to sack him.

This situation is grim.

EDIT. One way out for Levy is if another club from abroad comes in for him..but honestly I think that would be wishful thinking. I think Mourinho is done with big club management.
 
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mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,512
To be honest so far in most aspects it's going as I expected, and indeed predicted.

The big difference, improvement even, that we have seen in the last few months is counter attacking and making the most of fast transitions with quick interchanges and moving of the ball to threaten and score goals. This isn't surprising as all of Mourinho's teams have been built on this and he was obviously going to bring that to us.

We've looked most comfortable, most threatening, and put in our best patches of games performance wise (eg. the first halves of Southampton (A) in the cup, or the United (H) game the other week) when making a conscious effort to all get in behind the ball as a unit, deploying a medium defensive block, and coaxing the opposition forward a little before engaging at the halfway line and then pouncing on turnovers of possession. We haven't seen this consistently, but when we are playing in this fashion we've looked secure enough in defence and very dangerous in attack and not that far off looking like his Madrid or Chelsea sides in executing a gameplan.

But if we are doing anything else tactically, then it has more often than not looked a real struggle.

When we sit in a low block and just soak up pressure (eg. the second half of the two games I mentioned above) then we seem to lose our counter threat and when we're constantly defending in and around our penalty area we just don't have the very good pure defensive maestros to get the job done in this fashion. We've had a tendency to sit back on a lead and get reeled back in in this fashion, and the games we've done it from the start - barring the, lets be honest, fairly jammy win vs. City - it hasn't even looked like working really at any point.

Then there are the games where we have to be the protagonist, on the front foot against teams sitting back against us. Here we have seen more than a few games with a real lack of idea. No clever movement, no synchronisation, seemingly no plan as to how we're going to break teams down. Sheffield United being the obvious one so fresh in the memory. Even West Ham though we made heavy weather of, I was always confident we'd win against a team putting in a pretty limp dick performance against us, but creating chances was still a struggle. Then there is the defensive aspect, I'm seeing no signs of any real press when we are high up the pitch and this can leave you wide open to get caught out - Sheff Utd did it, West Ham had their chances, the Wolves game, and this will continue to happen if it isn't addressed. Selections also need to be tweaked in this case, three wingers against bus parkers looked unwise and proved to be the case, when we come up against low block defences maybe something like a 4-1-4-1 with two of Lamela/Lo Celso/Ndombele playing as dual 8/10's.

To start wrapping it up, none of this shocks me. I said before his first game even that Mourinho likes to be able to counter and that's where his strengths lie and wondered what he could bring to a team playing on the front foot.

Question is how do we get games to pan out in a pattern that benefits us and plays to the plus points of our football and what Mourinho is comfortable with? I'd say its three pronged:

a) make a conscious decision to get behind the ball in our medium block, whatever the game and even if the opposition is looking to do similar and you potentially get into a bit of a 'stalemate' and boring. messy affair.

b) if we're doing well in a game and/or winning, have some bollocks and don't get negative and drop into a low block with 30-45 mins left to play.

c) if you feel it's unavoidable to be the front foot team, rethink the selections. As said above, maybe just the single pivot in midfield with a more adventurous creative duo ahead of him. Also needs much more work on the training ground - with the ball how to plan to create chances, and without it how to press and not leave ourselves open.

He's got to work it out fairly sharpish, with the games coming thick and fast and then a new season also looming large in the blink of an eye. Over to Mourinho......
 
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emiley heskey

Well-Known Member
Jul 3, 2020
1,121
1,832
I think we also missed a trick by not selling players in a proper way and buying their replacements. I had no problem when we sold Walker as we got big money for him actually at the end but we bought Foyth and Aurier with that money, look where those two players are now? Also I think we needed to sell Rose when he was on top form and use the money creatively on buying attacking left backs who are on their prime rather than chasing kids like Sessgnon. There's no denying Sessgnon is a top prospect but can Sess replace prime Rose at this moment? No not possible. We needed to buy players who are 22 to 24 years old. Not kids like 19 or 20 years old and expect them to replace Rose, Walker at the same season. City sold Sane, Chelsea always in buy and sell for lot of players, city every season has two or three big name signings and also they let their players go when it is time but we are still stuck with Dele, Toby, Vert, Sissoko ... We sold Eriksen when he has only 6 months left on his contract whereas we could have brought one of Barkley or Grealish in 2018 and gradually replaced Eriksen. But we didn't do it. Players like Sissoko, Toby, Rose, Davies, Dele, Lamela, Winks simply stagnated due to not having proper challenge from the other players in their positions. Both Rose , Walker elevated their games when we bought Trippier and Davies. Till then, Rose and Walker were not consistent. Kane stagnated slowly because of lack of competition for his position. Even Aguero don't know whether he is going to play in tomorrow's match or not.

We are now also making the same mistake with RB position. We are chasing another 19-20 years old kid Aarons and we will expect him to do what Walker did in his prime. But it will be not possible for him to emulate Walker at his prime. He atleast need two season to do that barring any injury. So next season, we will also see up and down performance from our right back players unless we buy a solid, proven RB... Also does Davies gets scared for his position by seeing Ryan Sessgnon as his only competitors at the back? Will Davies have extra motivation in training to impress his coach?

Only good thing I have seen so far is we are looking at 24 years old premier league proven Defensive Midfielder who seem to have leadership ability as well. That's a step in right direction for that position.
 

holsten777

Well-Known Member
Jul 3, 2015
249
440
It's clear that a shift in mentality is needed, and has been for a while. There needs to be a shake up. I think that Mou knows this. I'm weirdly optimistic based on his words below:

“I believed in the evolution of the team and I thought that by a desire point of view, they put more in than us. That’s something that disturbs me.

It’s something that I feel, I don’t know, that’s my way of being – it’s something that destroys me a little bit on the inside because I think the last thing in football is when you have the feeling you could, you should do more."

Honest. I hope that he's in this for the long haul and we give him time to do a proper rebuild, with a d.o.f next to him to make the clever signings which allowed us to punch above our weight for so long. We've since regressed and need to regroup. It's new ground for him but we need to start again from the foundations up. I think he wants to be with us long term and I'm happy that he's here and want him to oversee the rebuild again.
 
Aug 10, 2008
437
2,154
Even Leicester currently aren’t better than us and they are very dependent on Ndidi and Vardy.
How are we going backwards? I would also say that apart from Chelsea we are the most linked with players by reliable media.
Mate I'm not trying to be funny, but how you can look at our position in the table, the gaping holes in our squad, and the (largely) uninspiring football we've been serving up this season and conclude that we're not "going backwards" is quite frankly baffling! We're a million miles away from the team of 2 years ago. You sure you're not some ENIC sponsored bot trolling us!
 

IamSpurtacus

Well-Known Member
Jun 5, 2019
1,487
7,011
I think that the issue is 100% with Levy and Lewis. Jose whilst in my opinion the total wrong man for the job isn't at fault for that.

Totally agree - but you have to realize that Levy and Lewis have a property and / or trading background - it underpins the entire strategy and approach

The reality is that football is secondary - Spurs were referred to as "Anchor tenants" by the head of biz dev. That says it all. The football team that underpins the value of the club referred to as though they're merely early occupants at some fancy shopping centre

We don't invest in established players, we don't invest in the best youth. What the fuck is the team's or club's philosophy? Hope an academy prospect happens to have Harry's drive? He's a once in a generation player and we're squandering him - and we'll lose him because it's clear Levy won't invest in the playing squad in the same way he will in the property, because it's a less certain pay off than calculating mortgage rates and property inflation

Whereas Abramovich has chosen to invest in the team to win, Levy has chosen to invest in the stadium to build brand and business value - and it shows on the pitch
 

stormfly

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2006
4,584
11,990
I’ve only just remembered that there is going to be an Amazon documentary about this bloody season haha! This season is going to be some people’s first impression of us ffs!
 

Metalhead

But that's a debate for another thread.....
Nov 24, 2013
25,351
38,294
The thing with properly backing Jose if that youre going to be spending a lot of money on players who will either be in their 30s or ones with absolutely zero resale value... Koullibally is all well and good but 90 odd million is a lot.

Needs to be a balance between experience and youth in our squad.

Jose will certainly be done with us but i suspect at end of the season Levy and Jose will shake hands and off we go for someone else. Jose needs to go to PSG or somewhere like that
I would be surprised if Jose leaves at the end of the season.
 
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