‘ERIKSEN ON WAY OUT FROM DAY 1’

JOSE MOURINHO said he made no attempt to talk Christian Eriksen into staying at Spurs as he told him he was off on his first day at the club.

In the end, Mourinho felt he simply had to get rid of the

Denmark star this month “for the future of the club”.

Eriksen (right) had been praised constantly by Mourinho for showing professionalism and positivity in his final few weeks at the club.

But in a parting shot after chairman Daniel Levy sold him to Inter Milan for £17.5million this week, the Tottenham boss finally admitted that he felt the player was well short of his usual standards at times. Mourinho said: “Christian was being a good professional and having respect for the club and his teammates, but I knew that he was doing so with some limitations. “There are always limitations with a player in his situation – that until his last day he tried to help the team and be positive in the dressing room, which he was. “But you could feel in some matches he was not Christian. “We were happy to have him here until the end of the season, but it then becomes about the future of the team and the future of the team needs the deal that Mr Levy made.

“It is a fantastic deal for a player that is free in a few months and again that money was reinvested in the purchase of Steven Bergwijn, who is young and has a five-and-ahalf-year contract with us.

“The Christian situation was very well managed by Mr Levy.

“On my very first day, Christian told me the decision was made.

“From that moment I was just trying to build the team without him. That was the reason why I didn’t play him many, many times.”