José Mourinho didn’t read the script; he was supposed to go away quietly and not bother Tottenham Hotspur Football Club ever again. Shamed, shunned, and tossed back to from whence he came. In truth, the Portuguese certainly appeared on the face of it stunned with Levy’s position, and the two were said to have a prolonged meeting before the coach then went about saying goodbye personally to the squad. We know that José remains closely in touch with Harry Kane to this day.
Mourinho within days announced a series of punditry posts he had accepted with major broadcasters, and the Special One had no intentions of licking his wounds. In fact, José was appointed by Roma in double-quick time. Operation bounce-back was completed in under ten days.
Jamie Redknapp suggested that Levy specifically pulled the trigger on the then Spurs gaffer before the cup final in order to save money, but whatever the rationale was, hearts sank in the fanbase. Who acts like that, just days before such a major event? Tottenham predictably lost, and one might say that Mourinho hasn’t looked back – but in truth he has.
Part and parcel of maintaining his reputation is squaring disinformation, and speaking this week, Manchester United and Tottenham have both been left with bloodied noses with these quotes from the Mail Online.
‘I won three trophies at Manchester United and that was seen as a disaster,’
‘I reached a cup Final which I was not allowed to play at Tottenham, and that was seen as a disaster.
‘What’s a disaster for me is considered as a great success for others.
I take a view that winning is the metric in professional sports and this explains, quite succinctly, why Mourinho is and always shall be a winner, no matter how loudly the losers might care to howl.
The cries of Manchester United fans make me laugh the most. ‘He left the club in a dreadful state’ is a common refrain.
So did Sir Alex, you poor wet hens, so did Sir Alex.
Daniel Levy threw a cup final. Another few words to add to an already lengthy epitaph.
It was an an abject performance in Zagreb despite being shorn of two of our best players but there’s no evidence the players threw the game. Truth is we gave away bad goals to a guy having the game of his life and missed opportunities at the other end primarily through Harry for whom I can forgive an occasional below par performance or miss.
Its fair to say that there was a fractured dressing room at Spurs at the end of Jose’s era and this may or may not have played a part in his dismissal but the main reason we lost this and other games, in particular against the better sides, was down to the quality or lack of it in the side which was camouflaged by the goals that Harry scored.
The problems aint as bad as people are making out. Hopeless some think we are
Good God, Tappa’s, even you’re now seeing the problems we’ve got!
Working in the Levy inspired conditions that exist at Tottenham must be de-energizing and, ultimately, demoralising.
I’d have to admit that Man City would probably have won that final and I still believe, that for whatever reason, Mourinho is on a downward trajectory (I can’t help thinking that his treatment of that female physiotherapist at Chelsea was perhaps a pivotal moment and that things have been going downhill for him ever since. We must remember, though, that at United as well as winning some minor trophies, he achieved a 2nd place in the Premiership with a team in transition behind an outstanding and massively funded Man City outfit). However, it could never be entirely ruled out that he could have pulled a (tactical) rabbit out of the hat in a one off game on the big occasion.
See you there man.
The lion’s share of the blame belongs to Levy. The players were tired and jaded, as you correctly put it, and the squad was never strong enough for the team to be refreshed (the CEO’s fault!) at key points of the season. Remember that FA Cup semi final against Chelsea where, at an advanced stage of the game, Costa came on as a sub! We always had sweet FA to bring on by comparison.
Domestic cups mean things to players. Its only fans that don’t rate them. Europa league winners medal mean a lot to players too. Fans who only value league titles and CL winner’s ain’t very clever if you ask me
We did have a very heavy programme early on in the season as was commented on by non Spurs sources at the time!
Yes, but the Cups did mean rather more then than they do now; every footballer wanted an FA Cup winners medal
Agreed! Unless the domestic cups become even more diminished in stature than they have been already!
This!
Benitez another always counting his trophies with all those Charity Shields, European Super Cups and, for that matter, Europa Leagues, as nearly all the quality teams are in the CL. Can’t agree, however, about fourth place meaning that much or it meaning more than lifting the FA Cup (or even the League Cup). Not yet, anyway. FA Cup, for me, No 3, though, regrettably, a long way short of CL and Premiership.
He’s still in a job because, sadly, he’s unaccountable!
We wouldn’t have achieved Champions league qualification, that’s for sure. League Cup? Unlikely? Yes. Possible? Also, yes!
Not even with Jesus Christ as head coach would we have won that game with our dead stock ballers
I don’t quite follow that thought. It’s highly unlikely we would have beaten City, they were something like 1/4 on before Jose got sacked. As it transpired we would have to have won our last six matches in theory to have got enough points to overhaul Chelsea which given our form, 1 win in 5 and 7 and 21, is pretty unlikely. It’s more apt to say that if we’d beaten Chelsea at home in February when Jose was in charge we would have qualified for the Cl
Dead ingredients at tottenham. Not even a top top Michelin star chef could create anything gourmet
Hopefully Levy’s upstairs now man. Fab doing his ting.
Just like Poch did. It’s probably very tiresome and draining working under Levy.
I’ll be there when the time comes.
I was all in on Jose as I was on Poch and will be with Nuno, but when we capulated against West Ham we were a total different team onwards. We got more defensive. Tactically depending on the weakest section of the squad. Playing defense with average mistake prone players. Jose never had a sustained period of attacking football unfortunately. While Levy can be a miserable human being running a club, the play on the field left a lot to be desired. The hiring of Jose said to me, we would rise above Levy. I wanted Jose gone in the end. But FFS who fired their manager 8 days before a final.
100% electric bus of course. People belittle domestic cups. Without them our history would look pretty slim. 12 domestic cups. 3 European cups to arsenals 2🌚
Open top bus the manor comes out in numbers.
Because the squad was tired and jaded and had not been refreshed, nor were many of them being paid what they were worth – not Poch’s fault. The rest of his tenure was pretty much gold plated TBF, though he did make some mistakes and the whole bunch seemed adverse to winning in semi’s and finals.
Yeah very much so. Want the open top bus parade, we can get better memories of that than 4th place in the table.
TBF he was full of praise for Poch’s Spurs too.
Levy threw a cup and champions league qualification when he sack Jose. Levy is an accountant and if there is any competence he new that and made that choice. So sacking Jose was more cost effective than a cup and CL football.
Exactly.
But the fact that Levy saved money – guaranteed by sacking Jose early -tells you he feared the result.
Note Jose has won 10/12 finals – very impressive with quite a few teams not favored to win.
Jose only manager to have beaten Pep in a final – so tactically superior.
Pep as we know, keeps getting beaten in CL with stacked squads!
So why do you easily forget/dismiss these facts??
Spurs with a fit 1st team and willing to follow Jose’s tactics had every chance of winning that trophy.
Clear Jose hater.
Most genuine Spurs supporters just want a trophy as we know we cannot/unwilling to invest appropriately, to improve the squad.
This squad won’t win anything.
Dig out Poch’s stats for his last 10 games and we can all have a laugh
Correct
Jamie Redknapp thought Spurs were great when Daddy was the manager but it is funny since they sacked him they are not any more
And Jamie hates Jose. Note also Keane backing Jose on Shaw treatment. Neville highlighting fact that at the time Shaw was not professional!! But Jose cops it from the media!!
FRINGE PLAYERS unwilling to be part of a team definitely threw that match and others! When the 1st team was fit/not tired Spurs beat City and ManU 6-1. Top of the ladder for several months – we forget very quickly!!
Any domestic cup over 4th for me.
Jamie Redknapp was also quoted as saying that “they’re all fu**ing clowns down there” in reference to the sacking of Mourinho. I seldom agree with Redknapp but in this instance, I couldn’t agree more.
‘This was a manager who could not see us through a second leg against Dinamo Zagreb despite holding a 2-0 lead.’
The players threw that game.
How is Daniel Levy still in his job that’s what I want to know. Throwing a cup final to save a few quid is pretty shocking behaviour from a chairman who alleges himself to be a fan. To make matters worse it was his lousy judgement that allowed him to hire a manager who appeared to be a busted flush dinosaur in the first place. Mourinho was about as far from Levy’s Spurs DNA of “attacking free flowing football” as it’s possible to get. The man lurches from one crisis to another, has no judgement and is a gold plated cluster f*ck in action. How does he sleep at night?
Mourinho ….let it go son….just let it go !
Can you imagine if a tennis player got knocked out in the first round of a grand slam and then boasted about winning the Stella Artois? They wouldn’t do it because they are not as embarrassing as Jose.
Most wins in any sportsman’s life are not of trophies of any merit or value. You have warm up competitions and low value sponsor’s events such as the Stella Artois in tennis and the Charity Shield in football. You have high priority events such as the Olympics, and more meets where you get a ribbon for beating people who are using it as warm up to the major events.
Winning is all about achieving goals, not aren’t about winning some tin-pot nickel-plated sponsors trophy. Coming 4th in the Premier League is worth more to the chairman, the fans, and the players than winning the FA Cup or the League Cup. Winning is not celebrating consolation prizes. That is for the losers.
Some folk could be convinced that Luke Shaw would be even better for England if Mourinho had remained his manager…
Why on earth it’s considered that Mourinho would have done better in the final of a competition against the champions which Spirs reached without beating a Premier team over the course of 90 minutes is beyond me.
Remember that, against teams in the top ten of the table at the time of his departure, his record in his last ten games played was
P10 W0 D1 L9
This was a manager who could not see us through a second leg against Dinamo Zagreb despite holding a 2-0 lead.
How can anyone even consider he would have performed any better against Man City than Ryan Mason did.
A bye against Orient, a win on penalties against Chelsea, wins against Stoke and Brentford in 90 mins and he sees that as success???????
We’d have lost the final under Mourinho as well.
It did look like he’d given up, not that you can entirely blame him for that alone.
Jose gave up on tottenham that’s why levy sacked him instantly.