“Open to dreams” Jose Mourinho sounds like a man with one eye on the cup

Jose Mourinho told BBC Sport this week that “the FA Cup is a competition open to dreams”. Well, the Portuguese has got Tottenham fans dreaming.

For too long, the trophy that we have lifted eight times, but not since 1991, had been an afterthought, and that was particularly frustrating in recent years when a team capable of winning it, was told not to care about it.

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Mourinho does care, about all trophies in-fact, and has named strong if not full-strength lineups throughout this FA Cup campaign, even when our injury-hit squad has been forced to inconvenient replays. Unlike Maurico Pochettino, he is wise enough not to dispense of a chance of silverware when it is the one thing that the players and supporters are crying out for.

Rather than approaching it with the apathy that dripped down from the top of the previous regime, I find myself looking forward to last-16 tie with Norwich City in a couple of weeks time. And not in the hope that we could fluke our way through another round in the same way that Liverpool’s kids have this year, but with an optimism that our best team can go all the way.

It finally feels as though we are going to give the FA Cup a real go, but Mourinho has warned that the road to glory this season will be tough with none of the Premier League’s big boys yet to be claimed as a scalp.

“I think a trophy is what every club wants,” Mourinho told Football Focus. “I think the FA Cup is a competition that is open to dreams. 

“Even teams that are not in the top four, they can dream when they are in the draws because it’s a knockout.

“Again, with the draws, the top teams are all there – they never play against each other in a way, so it looks to me the top eight or the top four, in the final, the top teams will be there.”