NEW LOW We all knew this was coming and Mourinho has a bumper pay-off to cushion his latest fall

Chief Sports Writer

THE undisputed master of the pay-off has struck again.

And even for the compensation king, this was a beauty, a tour de force, his piece de resistance, call it what you will.

When did we all know this was going to be the outcome of his tenure at Tottenham?

It was blindingly obvious early doors, as they say.

From when he started referring to Spurs as the minnows of the Big Six.

From when he started questioning his players in public.

From when he began parking the bus and throwing his men under it.

Familiar stuff. And on the face of it, familiar, risky stuff. But if and when it fails, there is always the plump cushion of a gigantic severance cheque to ease the fall.

Who knows what sealed the deal? Humiliating Gareth Bale, a prodigal son brought back to the club at huge expense by Daniel Levy, must be high on the list.

Capitulating against Dinamo Zagreb? Adopting an increasingly dull style in the Premier League? Making Harry Kane’s departure seem inevitable?

As he takes his golden handshake balance towards the nine-figure mark – conservatively, it must now be in excess of £80million – there cannot have been a soul out there who thought he would see out a contract that ran until the summer of 2023.

There is no suggestion Mourinho STARTS a job with a pay-off in mind but he does not start a job without an extremely comfortable safety net in place.

So is there anyone else out there still in thrall to Mourinho’s celebrity, as Levy clearly was? Probably, although the other half of the slimy Super League six who have yet to employ Mourinho will surely not see him as a future manager.

There will be jobs for Jose, for sure. Unlike the teams he fields, he still has charisma.

It would be intriguing to see him in charge of a very talented Portuguese national squad at some stage.

But whatever the top table of European club football might look like, it is hard to see how Mourinho – for all his extensive past glories – can continue to dine at it.

Failing so early at Spurs does not make him a busted flush, yet even in this insane footballing world, surely this is Jose’s last redundancy jackpot.

Maybe. But as the last few days have shown, there are plenty of filthy rich fools out there in the sport of football.

Mourinho as Spurs go out in Europe