Jose Mourinho has stressed that he will not disclose details of the talks that he has held with Christian Eriksen since becoming Tottenham Hotspur boss.
Eriksen, as we all know by now, is out of contract at the end of the season and Sky Sports understands that he has reiterated his desire to leave to Mourinho, as he seeks a new challenge after six years in North London.
While his predecessor skirted around the issue, the Portuguese immediately confronted it head on by admitting, when leaving Eriksen out of his team to play West Ham United, that he needed to understand his commitment to the club before deciding whether to pick him – as The Guardian reports.
And he’s stuck to his word. Eriksen started his first game under Mourinho in Wednesday’s Champions League dead rubber with Bayern Munich.
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The head coach insists he is comfortable with Eriksen’s performances and effort levels. But he isn’t comfortable discussing the Dane’s future.
He then goes on to discuss Eriksen’s future – of sorts – at great length.
“I only know his contract ends at the end of the season and the conversations I have had with Christian are private conversations that I am not going to share”, Mourinho is quoted by Sky Sports as saying.
“I think it is a personal thing. I am not going to share. He was so honest with me and I was so honest with him that our relationship is really, really good.
“We have a very good relationship that started on day one. I am not going to betray that trust and relationship.
“I just share these intimate conversations with the structure of the club, and Christian obviously knows I am an important part of the club and my job is to share with the structure but to you, it is not for me to say.
“It is up to Christian to tell anything he wants to or not.
“Every time I play him I think he shows clearly the quality he has and he tries to help the team when he’s on the pitch, which is an important thing for me, independent of his future,” Mourinho added.
“Every player has ups and downs and sometimes it’s not because of contracts, it’s because of other things. I really don’t feel comfortable to speak about his situation.
“Is he a fantastic player? Of course he is but I cannot say more.”
I’m sick of writing about Eriksen, to be honest. He was a great player for us, but his exit is inevitable at this point and if it happens in January it would save us more half-hearted displays, and me wasting another word on him.
