Arsenal were reportedly lining up Jose Mourinho as one of the candidates to replace Unai Emery before his appointment by Tottenham Hotspur.
Emery was sacked by the Gunners earlier today after 18 months in charge.
Sky Sports understands that Mourinho was the first choice of some some senior figures at the Emirates while Emery’s future was being considered, but Spurs struck first after letting Mauricio Pochettino go last week.
MORE: Sacked Pochettino Releases Pointless Statement
That is further justification, if it was needed, that the timing of Pochettino’s firing was crucial as it would have been sickening to see Mourinho go into Arsenal and give them the same lift he has us in his opening two games.
I am sure that Daniel Levy would have been fully aware of Arsenal’s interest in the Portuguese and that may have forced him to take action.
Sky Sports reports that Arsenal is after a “high-calibre head coach” to succeed Emery, and they don’t get any more high calibre than Jose.
Instead, Arsenal are apparently looking at ex-Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri, who, like Mourinho was, is out of work and may well have been on our radar had we been beaten to ‘The Special One’ by our neighbours.
I know which of the two I’d prefer as our manager.
Levy was right to act when he did. Arsenal must wish they’d shown the same instinct. Mourinho is the bloke you want working for you, not against you.
That is the 64,000 dollar question! Mourinho has denied that he personally
met with Raul Sanllehi (Arsenal director of football), however that doesn’t mean to say that his agent didn’t meet him or that Mourinho didn’t speak to him. I can’t believe, with Mourinho out there unemployed, with Arsenal playing like shit under Emery, that no member of the Arsenal hierarchy contacted either Mourinho or his agent, to sound out if he was interested in the job. I would imagine that they did.
Consequently, I suspect that Levy, who has previously courted Mourinho on two separate occasions, hastened Poch’s departure, with customary ruthlessness, to ensure that his most nightmarish scenario didn’t come true. Whereby Mourinho, who he coveted, would go to Arsenal and effect both a personal renaissance and even worse arrest the inexorable decline of ‘Silent Stan’s’ feeder franchise down at the
Emirates! The upshot, Poch canned faster than a delinquent tuna and Mourinho summarily installed before the ink was dry on his contract. Spurs 1 – Arsenal 0!
Hahahaha really hit a nerve did I
Omg are you that desperate for us to write in is this talksport. Poch to arse no chance and before you get all carried away we haven’t won anything yet
We should be wary of unconsciously giving credence to the old Levy is a Genius chestnut, one beloved of a large section of the media and by extension the Spurs support.
In the past five years it came to be written in stone that levy had brought in poch as part of a determined plan for the stadium building years — a young coach who could deliver on a budget and develop academy players. What that narrative always wilfully suppressed was that levy’s first choice to replace Sherwood had been King Louis Van Gaal.
Now a new narrative is being constructed that levy had an even more cunning and even longer term masterplan, like a Chinese state economic planner. It has starred to be put about by enic surrogates and cut-outs that once the stadium was complete levy always intended to appoint a coach who had won PLs and CLs, hence the arrival Jose Mourinho. What this latest confection ignores is that levy’s first resort was to rob Leicester of November 2019 flavour of the month Brendan Rogers.
Regardless of recorded facts, levy will now be represented more than ever as one of the most longsighted and determined chairmen European football has ever been blessed with.
If Sesseggnon is fit then I’d like to see him start. Long overdue.
Regarding team selection surely the players to be dropped today are Danny Rose and Sanchez and replaced by Verts and Ryan Sessegnon respectively??
Lyon guy may replace Winks.
It would be like your ex girlfriend shagging your best mate…just wrong..
Unless Levy has really pissed Poch off I cant see him going down the road…just as he has said he wont manage Barcelona, he keeps getting linked with them!!..I’m sure I’ve heard him say he couldn’t manager Arsenal, need to hunt that statement down…
The early cockerel catches the-oh never mind.