I WILL DO MOUR FOR LESS
JOSE MOURINHO is relishing the challenge of trying to outwit bigger-spending rivals and get Spurs back into the Champions League.
Mourinho (above) was a chequebook manager while in charge at Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United, but accepts Tottenham will not break the bank this summer.
Instead, his squad will be rebuilt with cheap deals, swaps and free transfers, while rivals Chelsea have already spent more than £80million on Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech.
The Tottenham boss faces his former club United tonight under pressure to get into the top four, but he already feels handicapped now, let alone in the future.
Mourinho said: “The battle for the top four would be amazing if we all started on the same number of points. Unfortunately that is not the case. We start with minus seven or eight with Chelsea, minus 14 to Leicester.
“We start with minus in relation to many teams. It’s a strange battle to fight, but at the same time it’s a great challenge, a great motivation.
“I’m not expecting, of course, us to be in a position of great spending, I’m expecting my club to be very balanced and very honest in that kind of approach.
“We know we are going to be in the same league, in the same world, as clubs that are going to do completely different to us.
“You have examples already of clubs investing and making important movements in the market and we are still nine matches away from the end of the season. But we are going always to be very balanced, which is what Tottenham normally is.
“Would I expect us not to do anything and stay exactly with the same squad? My answer is no.
“I expect us to do some little important things and if we improve in two, three positions that we need to improve in the squad, I am completely open to the challenge, I am completely supportive to the board, to the owners.
“And let’s go for it. But in this moment I am not even thinking about that because I am focused on these nine matches.” This is a huge test for Mourinho, but also a chance to re-establish his reputation as one of the world’s best coaches by working with what he has got. Spurs want Paris Saintgermain’s Belgium defender Thomas Meunier on a free, Southampton’s Pierreemile Hojbjerg is also on their hit list along with Bournemouth winger Ryan Fraser.
But Harry Kane and Heung-min Son (above) are back after surgery and Giovani Lo Celso is close to fitness.
Mourinho added: “Harry hasn’t played football for more than six months. He’s going to start. Does Harry have 90, 80, 70, 60 minutes, I don’t know. Only the game will tell us that.”