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.