Jose Mourinho

[Locotoro]

Its interesting, I've very much been in the "dont like him, never have, never will, can he please leave our club ASAP" camp. I was initially impressed with the way he adapted to our squad, the aurier hinged right-back idea etc but was completely underwhelmed by the football. Underwhelmed is probably an understatement. Its been turgid for the most part. However, I've come to understand that tactical changes are not easy especially in a demoralised squad ravaged with injuries and who have been together for a long time under 1 manager. It takes time, it takes player recruitment and coming in mid-season doesnt really allow much time for either.

Post lockdown there have clearly been signs of improvement. We are much more solid and only really conceded exceptional goals. Our counterattacking play has been much improved. I still struggle to understand why he gives up the ball and territory so readily or why when we get on top he doesn't allow us to press it home and go for it.

It is clear though that with the right players, jose still knows how to produce winning football. We have bought a cm that will allow us more flexibility. But we absolutely need 2 new fullbacks, Aurier is atrocious imo. He can't beat a player, can't defend, has no positional sense and makes at least one big mistake every single game. Davies is solid, but nowhere near good enough. I don't think I've ever seen a player give the ball away so much. Fullback is a hugely important position in modern football and if we want to be a top team, we need top fullbacks. We also need a cb and a back up striker if we are to really challenge next season.

He needs to find a way to get ndombele fit and playing too!

I'm prepared to give him a year.

One thing that people should remember is that as much as it takes time for a team to adapt to a new manager's philosophy, that manager's legacy also remains for at least a season when hes gone.
This is why I think if we were to employ a progressive possession mind coach after Mourinho leaves he's likely to have some real early success as the team will already have some really good fundamental defensive capabilities.

 

[RichieS]

One thing that people should remember is that as much as it takes time for a team to adapt to a new manager's philosophy, that manager's legacy also remains for at least a season when hes gone.
This is why I think if we were to employ a progressive possession mind coach after Mourinho leaves he's likely to have some real early success as the team will already have some really good fundamental defensive capabilities.

Wenger's success ended when the last of Graham's defence left...

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Wenger's success ended when the last of Graham's defence left...

Which of Lehmann (38), Cole (32), Lauren (30), Campbell (35) and Touré (36), the first choice centre backs in the invested season, were at Arsenal under Graham? League starts in brackets.

Quick bit of research tells me that the only George Graham players at the club still were Keown, who started 3 league games, and Parlour, who started 16.

 

[RichieS]

Which of Lehmann (38), Cole (32), Lauren (30), Campbell (35) and Touré (36), the first choice centre backs in the invested season, were at Arsenal under Graham? League starts in brackets.

Quick bit of research tells me that the only George Graham players at the club still were Keown, who started 3 league games, and Parlour, who started 16.

I was mistaken then. Although Keown was still there, so technically...

 

[walworthyid]

Wenger's success ended when the last of Graham's defence left...

Wengers success ended because of the rise of chelsea,then city, which in turn meant that arsenal struggled to get the best players.

Finally, paying for the stadium also had a big impact.

 

[Albertbarich]

Interested to know the feeling of the majority of our fanbase now on Jose?

Before lockdown things were pretty toxic, lots of injuries, poor run of results and performances and a seeming falling out with ndombele, the original ney sayers and Poch loyalists were filling their boots, whilst the staunch Jose lovers were preaching patience, others were somewhere in between.

Then from the restart we got a few good results but things got a bit negative again after sheff.utd and Bournemouth even though we’d become more solid and there were clear signs of improvement.

Fast forward to the end of restart and end of the season and we’d gone on a pretty good run, unbeaten in 5/6 I think and snuck into 6th place. Jose also seems to have a clear plan and ITK’s this summer seem very positive about his approach with Levy and we’ve seemingly signed his top target already.

More time has now passed so are the Poch loyalists slowly starting to move on from their lovein and are the ones who were against his appointment from the word go starting to come around or are those ones just sticking to their guns and waiting to get a chance to beat him with a stick at any new given opportunity.

Personally I loved Poch but felt it was 100% the right time to part ways and couldn’t think of many better appointments than a refreshed and remotivaed Jose. Sure we’d need to get used to a new style but the guy has won it all. The original excitement of his press conferences and the first match away win at West Ham vindicated my excitement, I was a bit downbeat when he got outclassed at home to Chelsea by his pupil fat frank and then the injuries to son sissoko Kane etc came, the wheels feel off the momentum went, we couldn’t win a game and the football was shit, I was very demoralised and started to question his appointment but to be fair a lot agreed at that point and things were getting very toxic in the fan base towards Jose and the club but some preached patience.

During restart I was so impressed how we played vs Man.u and could see some real positives and then fast forward to Bournemouth it was one of the worst games I’ve ever watched and I now really questioned the style of play. Since then we went on a really great run, beat the gooners in a great tactical display and have played some decent stuff but importantly got some
Great results which gives us good momentum going into next season. Im now very optimistic and starting to think the call of patcience was a good one and that with the players back from injury we did look a different team and If Jose can get in 3-5 players to mould the squad I think the results could be very promising next season and they style of play should improve a little as well.

So how’s everyone else feeing now about the Spurscial one?

I've actually always found him charming and funny but I was one of his most vocal critics pre lockdown.

I despise the football, utterly despise it but i begrudgingly admit he's sort of getting results.

When it became clear he was here for next season there was little point in carrying on the rants. We just have to wait and see.

I dont think next season will be fun but it could be effective, or a disaster...

 

[ginola99]

Wengers success ended because of the rise of chelsea,then city, which in turn meant that arsenal struggled to get the best players.

Finally, paying for the stadium also had a big impact.

Those two factors and not keeping the players they developed. They have a player for each position that arrived young and left for big bucks from 2009 onwards (Fabregas, Van Persie, Ade, Nasri etc.).

 

[Metalhead]

Which of Lehmann (38), Cole (32), Lauren (30), Campbell (35) and Touré (36), the first choice centre backs in the invested season, were at Arsenal under Graham? League starts in brackets.

Quick bit of research tells me that the only George Graham players at the club still were Keown, who started 3 league games, and Parlour, who started 16.

Can’t blame him holding onto Parlour as Romford doesn’t turn out many Peles.

 

[C0YS]

The thing is Jose's first two seasons at Utd were massively successful.

Post Fergie United

Solskjaer: 6th, 3rd.
No wins

Mourinho: 6th, 2nd, 6th (when he left).
Won: 1 league Cup, 1 Europa League, 1 community shield (if you count it)
Runners up: FA cup, PL

Van Gaal: 4th ,5th
Won: 1 FA cup

Moyes (and Giggs): 7th
Won: Community Shield

So, as it stands Mourinho did do better than the rest, and his signings actually were much better than Van Gaals too. Also Jose's 6th was an odd one. He only got 5 losses the whole season, and ended up with 69 points,higher than what Solskjaer got this season. But the main thing is they just sort of 'gave up in the last few games as Jose saw top 4 as harder than winning the Europa league, so started playing a heavily rotated team for the last 5 games and ended up winning 1 in the last 6. I think he was also trying to make a point to the board at the time but was a long time ago.

I mean I hope he does better here mind. I hope him taking a good year off has helped him out.

 

[Danny1]

Quite simply:

1) Performances have been hit and miss - but got better and better generally as our defence was clearly the initial target.

2) Confidence of the players has grown as they were rock bottom when Mou took over.

3) Results have generally been great, only 3 managers in the league got more points than him since taking over and Mou has had to deal with massively key players missing during that time.

All in all I think he has done a smashing job with the tools he was given and from the ITK it seems a positive relationship is brewing with him and Levy so let’s hope that continues and he can deliver us some much overdue silverware.

 

[buckley]

Having seen Jose working daily with the players and hoping he can come up with what we all need namely a winning team .
As a sidenote I read that Poch had started to not take training and was watching training by a TV link .
I obviously dont know if this was true but if confirmed I can see how he lost the players belief and trust its such a pity but understandable if true . At least Jose seems committed to the extent that he practically lives at the training ground thus showing he is fully committed if nothing else . Confirmation of the Poch non attendance at training would be nice to know one way or the other.

 

[gavspur]

Having seen Jose working daily with the players and hoping he can come up with what we all need namely a winning team .
As a sidenote I read that Poch had started to not take training and was watching training by a TV link .
I obviously dont know if this was true but if confirmed I can see how he lost the players belief and trust its such a pity but understandable if true . At least Jose seems committed to the extent that he practically lives at the training ground thus showing he is fully committed if nothing else . Confirmation of the Poch non attendance at training would be nice to know one way or the other.

I remember hearing that, but then the very same day, there were pictures of Poch on the training pitch. So, I dunno.

Something strange went on though, for sure. Personally, I think Poch got too emotionally involved in certain aspects, which then led to his odd decisions. He looked like a broken man at the end. He knew he’d lost it, and that was only going to go one way. I hope he’s feeling better for the time off.

 

[emiley heskey]

https://mobile.twitter.com/LastWordOnSpurs/status/1294317959595397121

Jose Mourinho on former Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen joining Benfica:

"He will be a great in Portugal. A big professional, a silent leader, Jan is amongst the best. At Spurs we will all be behind him, he is very dear to us.”

 

[spursfan77]

Jose Mourinho on former Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen joining Benfica:

"He will be a great in Portugal. A big professional, a silent leader, Jan is amongst the best. At Spurs we will all be behind him, he is very dear to us.”

I wonder how instrumental he was getting him to go to Benfica.

 

[Danny1]

I wonder how instrumental he was getting him to go to Benfica.

I can imagine he had some sway in it. As for Jan, he will absolutely boss that league. His sheer class will be miles above every other team and I hope the Benfica fans love him as much as we do!

 

[archiewasking]

Jose Mourinho on former Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen joining Benfica:

"He will be a great in Portugal. A big professional, a silent leader, Jan is amongst the best. At Spurs we will all be behind him, he is very dear to us.”

Classy again from José.

 

[ultimateloner]

I still think Mourinho is a great appointment for our club at this phase of our development. However as fans we will need to accept the trade off. My view:

Pros:
1) He is a legend in world football. I can see him influencing the board and all levels of the club, so he might make a difference on how we are run on the footballing side.
2) Our players might actually learn something from him.

Neutral:
1) We will be a defensively-solid unit playing boring football that would likely see us getting bad results against weak teams and good results against strong teams. I don't think we will see CL football again under him (but this isn't entirely JM's fault).

Cons:
1) He wont have the same type of emotional attachment/bond to us as Poch. This means it would be a easier decision for him to leave when trouble brews.

I think overall that we've appointed a highly respected, charismatic and proven manager. However on the flip side we are a 'rebound choice' for each other (us to rebound from Poch, and to face the reality of an aging squad, and for JM we are a rebound from his time at Man U) and that doesnt usually end well because it wont withstand challenges.

 

[buckley]

I will pose just one question " do you think Hoijberg would have come to us after turning down other clubs who were willing to pay more wages if Jose was not our manager " myself I think he knows alongside many pros that if you follow this managers doctrine you will come out winning trophies .Also he may be the catalyst for others to join albeit in the lower end of the market but never the less good players .
As for the really big players we are not in that marketplace and in any case the really elite seem to go to who will pay the most as in Neymar to PSG he was playing for the No1 club in the world in Barcelona but went to the French club for ?

 

[Albertbarich]

I will pose just one question " do you think Hoijberg would have come to us after turning down other clubs who were willing to pay more wages if Jose was not our manager " myself I think he knows alongside many pros that if you follow this managers doctrine you will come out winning trophies .Also he may be the catalyst for others to join albeit in the lower end of the market but never the less good players .
As for the really big players we are not in that marketplace and in any case the really elite seem to go to who will pay the most as in Neymar to PSG he was playing for the No1 club in the world in Barcelona but went to the French club for ?

Nobody can honestly answer that question.

If jose wasn't here its not like we would have some unknown in. Take the supposed interest from Everton for example. Ancelotti is also a huge name.

And then who else was interested? Between us and Everton when you factor in recent history, facilities, London the absolutely id think someone would choose us 9 times out of 10 over everton.

Of course jose is a draw but there are many factors involved.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Seems like Jose is really trying to focus on leaders. It’s what we’ve said for years, lots of good signs:
-Dier & Toby new contracts (both leaders)
-Hoyjbjerg , former saints captain from age 23/24
-Joe Hart - experienced winner
-Leadly King ? being added to our coaching staff, leader and former captain ?‍
? this is what you need to win things. ?