Jose Mourinho has opened up on his difficult first season as the manager of Tottenham as he helped the Lilywhites end this season in Europa League place.
The club had made a poor start to the season, and they were stranded in 14th position when Mourinho was brought in to replace the very popular Mauricio Pochettino.
The former Chelsea manager tried his best to get them into the top four, but they ended the season outside and he has revealed why he believes that happened.
He is currently back in Portugal relaxing after a very long season that was prolonged by the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking to Correio da Manhã via Portuguese paper, Record, he revealed that suffering from so many injuries to the point that they didn’t even have a striker at one time is the reason why they failed to end this season inside the top four.
“Without that dramatic phase of injuries, in which we didn’t even have a striker, we could have scored a few more goals and got a few more points and ended up in the top 4. But it turned out not to be bad,” he told Correio da Manhã (via Record) as quoted by Sport witness.
Speaking about taking over a troubled club when the season has already started, he added:
“It was all complicated. It was only the second time in 20 years that I took charge of a team in the middle of the season. The other had been at FC Porto and also at Benfica, but early on. Adaptation wasn’t easy. Then Covid-19, the stop of the leagues, the limitation of training. It was an accumulation of difficult situations for us. The good thing was that in these last nine games we were able to attack the goal that was possible.”
What Mourinho says is correct, however, the excuses will only go so far and he has bought some time by finishing in the top six and qualifying for the Europa League but he has to do better next season.
I think he is being disingenuous here.The problems he mentions are those that affected every team with injuries playing a lesser of greater part in the overall scheme of things.
The main reason we didn’t make top four is that he inherited a squad that had been criminally underfunded and not refreshed.This put enormous pressure on the first team because the bench was so weak.
We know where the fault for that lies.
Liverpool are not the same as the other 3. Klopp was backed, but over a number of years and they sold a prized asset. City and Utd spend what they like without selling their big players. Chelsea, sold Hazard but they have loads of dough. Liverpool will have to sell big to buy big again. If they don’t buy a big player this summer, that will be 2 years without a major signing. I know they are doing well, but it is always good to refresh with quality. I’m sure Klopp would love Werner, Sancho and Mbappe but they have to do things slightly differently to the 3 moneybags.
Agree. Werner would have been great for us as happy to play LW with Kane or CF when Kane has a rest. Dele or Ndombelly should have been traded if needed.
What seemingly takes us multiple windows or years… City, United, Scouse and the Chavs need a player then they are signed and done either before the transfer window, or in the first few days.. The chavs signed Werner ages ago for a good example.
Maureen is right. But the reason we were so short and picking up injuries was because of two years complete neglect signing noone. Followed by two poor transfer windows where we went backwards even further.. Levy could have bought a striker but instead chose to get in Ndombenchbum, gedson ‘worth 60mil in his dreams’ fernandes, Lo celso. Also Sessy who seems to be snubbed… How hard is it to buy a quality striker. We needed one under poch and he was given Llorente. Apart from him for one season, how many years has Kane been doing it alone? Its no wonder he started picking up injuries late every season.
Imagine that, our squad wasn’t big enough, particularly with strikers. Who’d have thought! Time for Levy to stop leaving our managers without resources, but I won’t hold my breath. The teams above (not to mention those below) will build and we are playing catch up, therefore Levy will have to show intent, otherwise we will keep slipping.