Mourinho Wanted Me To Stay: 18-year-old Says He Took Huge January Gamble

Luis Binks has revealed that Jose Mourinho tried to persuade him to stay at Tottenham before he left for Montreal Impact.

The 18-year-old defender moved to the MLS in January because he want to accelerate his path to regular first-team football.

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Speaking to the Daily Mail, Binks told the story of how Mourinho outlined his plans for him in a last-ditch effort to keep him at Spurs.

“I told the academy staff I was leaving and they said, ‘We’ll get Mourinho here’,” the Daily Mail quote Binks as saying. “He said how much he liked me, that I would be going on pre-season and, if I did well, I could play a few games next year.

“That made the decision even tougher, but it also reassured me that, if I’m good enough, I will get to the top. I didn’t want to take the risk of waiting for something that might never come. You then get to 21 and you still haven’t played.

“I play for England with Mason Greenwood at Man United and it’s brilliant to see him getting on and doing so well. But he’s a forward, it’s different for a centre-half, they don’t bring you on for the last 15 minutes, do they? So I needed to push myself, I couldn’t sit around in the 23s, that just wasn’t for me.”

Binks was always considered one of the best prospects within the youth setup and could easily have waited a couple of years to see if his chance came along. Not many centre-backs break into a Premier League first team at 18, especially at a top-six club. Japhet Tanganga’s breakthrough season has come as a 20-year-old and those extra couple of years developing tactically and physically may have prepared him for his initial success.

Hunger is a good thing but this may cross the line into impatience. This isn’t Jaden Sancho moving to Borussia Dortmund, one of Europe’s biggest clubs. Once players go into the minor leagues they can be forgotten about quickly.