The arrival of Mourinho at Tottenham was met by some fans with what can only be described as a campaign of blind suspicion, with sceptics picking and choosing anything they might lay their hands on from the serial winner’s decades of success that could be fashioned in order to debase him.
The front runner in this baseless abuse was undoubtedly that José would soon be at loggerheads with Daniel Levy over transfer money, After all, the Portuguese had more or less always been used to spending absolute fortunes on whomever he wanted. That would all end at Spurs.
Fast forward to the Special One’s first big window, and all the Mourinho signings were inexpensive and precisely what was required to improve the side. Daniel Levy appeared in the All Or Nothing documentary without a black eye, and José was even in great humour when being chewed out by the disgruntled Danny Rose. None of the forecasted dark skies materialised. The scuffle never happened.
Instead, the gaffer did precisely what any rational person might have expected. Football isn’t about ‘faith’ or ‘philosophy’ or any other crazy mumbo jumbo, it’s about recruiting the best people and supporting them – or as José calls it, ‘courage’.