Mourinho frustrated by handling of called-off tie

TOTTENHAM boss Jose Mourinho has accused the Premier League of being unprofessional over the handling of their postponed match with Fulham.

Mourinho’s side saw the game called off less than three hours before kick-off due to a coronavirus outbreak in the Cottagers’ camp and he said it was similar to a situation he used to encounter as a youth coach in Portugal.

Mourinho was left frustrated by the lack of communication from the league, having assembled his squad at the club’s training ground expecting the game to go ahead.

“I don’t want to speak too much about it,” Mourinho said ahead of today’s clash with Leeds. “Just to say it felt unprofessional, but that is the way it was. When I was coaching the Under-13s and Under-15s 30 years ago, sometimes we went to the game at 9.30am and the opponent was not there. Or sometimes you arrived at the game on one of the rare Portuguese raining Sundays and the referee didn’t report.

“I grew up with these situations and it was very frustrating for everyone, especially for the kids — you want to play football but don’t play football and you only find out in the last minutes.

“The day before the game, the press was full of, ‘The game is going to be postponed’.

“Even foreign players were coming to me saying that in their own countries the news was very clear that the game was going to be postponed and myself as their boss and Mr Levy (Daniel, chairman) as my boss, we couldn’t tell them anything.

“Of course I am not referring to Fulham, I am referring to the organisation. I don’t think it’s possible (to have) a situation like that. I don’t think it’s possible.”

With Spurs still challenging on four fronts, they are set for a congested fixture list in the second half of the campaign and that is before any more possible disruption Covid-19 could bring.

Mourinho’s side were playing four games in eight days in the early season as they made their way through the Europa League qualifying rounds, but the Portuguese has promised they will not be made to do that again.

“The extreme situation that we had in pre-season and nobody spoke a lot about it because probably people thought, ‘ Okay, it’s a Europa League play-off, Tottenham have two teams, Tottenham can play against Maccabi with the second team and still win,” Mourinho said. “But the situation… we have to refuse to go through it again at all.

“It’s impossible, it’s inhuman. We have to be good in everything and all be professionals.”