ERIC WAS SAD ..HE HAD A DIER TIME

Mourinho on his attempts to lift a player who has struggled with form and fitness

WHEN Jose Mourinho walked into Tottenham just over three months ago he found a very different Eric Dier to the one he once tried to sign for Manchester United.

In the summer of 2017, the United board baulked at the pricetag of £50million which Spurs supremo Daniel Levy had slapped on a player who looked to be the foundation stone of Gareth Southgate’s young England side.

He would go on to captain his country but a series of injuries and a loss of form took its toll over 24 months of turmoil.

“I found a sad player, a player without confidence, and then I was trying to give him that confidence back,” Mourinho recalled from his early days at Spurs.

But his attempts to reignite Dier’s career by thrusting him back into the first team ran into problems.

With injuries devastating Tottenham’s attacking options,

Mourinho found he needed to use more creative players in Dier’s position.

But despite his disappointment at losing his place once again, Dier caused him no problems.

“I was always happy with his personality,” said Mourinho. “I was always happy with his team concept. He is really a team player. He is not this kind of individual boy.”

While his primary concern on the field is his team-mates, off it family has always come first for

Dier. It is why footballing people are queuing up to back him for his FA Cup flare-up while the authorities deliberate over whether to punish him.

West Ham manager David Moyes has known Dier longer than Mourinho, having invited him for a trial at Everton while he was still a teenager. “He is a great boy,” said Moyes. “A really good

professional from a really good sporting family and background who understands all the issues in sport.

“For Eric to do what he has done, it must have been needed. In many ways I admire him and I like how he stands up for his family, for himself.”

His father Jeremy is a wellknown figure on the tennis circuit. A member of the All England

Club, he was once ranked 220 in the world in singles and played doubles at Wimbledon with a young Jeremy Bates.

Dier’s footballing education was carried out at the Sporting Lisbon academy where, as the only Englishman, he very much had to learn to look after himself – impressing coaching staff enough to earn the armband at various age levels.

He is quietly spoken, polite and affable enough – although strong friendships with players such as Spurs and England team-mate Dele Alli show he is at his best among those he knows best.

Southgate was quick to include him in his leadership group with England and it is why Mourinho trusts him to go again at Burnley this weekend despite the spotlight shining so starkly upon him.

Dier, after losing his place in midfield, is currently trying to reinvent himself as a centreback following a series of heartto-hearts with Mourinho.

“I spoke with him a few times,” said Mourinho. “He was always giving me the idea that his best position would be as a centre-back. And at this moment he is very happy because he is playing and having good feelings.”

Due to ongoing investigations, Mourinho has been advised not to talk about what effect any sort of FA ban would have on Dier and on Spurs.