JOSE MAKES A FLYING START IN THE SPURS BLAME GAME
EVEN by Jose Mourinho’s standards, the blame game has started early.
Lack of training, intensity and Tottenham players being “lazy”. Of course, it is never Mourinho’s fault.
But to call out the players one game into a new season, as happened after their 1- 0 home defeat by Everton, is a risky strategy.
After all, even Mourinho talked about a “crazy” pre-season disrupted by coronavirus and players’ fitness levels not being where they should be. Harry Kane had just one full training session with the squad, and Moussa Sissoko had two, and yet the manager is already calling them out.
In the past, Mourinho would have expected a reaction, yet dressing rooms have changed in the last 20 years. Gone are the days when he performed miracles to win the Champions League with Porto, when Chelsea’s title-winning teams of 2005 and 2006 would run through brick walls for him, and when jibes would inspire rather than divide.
Mourinho finds himself in a difficult place at Tottenham, where he was brought in to win trophies.
Jose needs players onside and yet, as viewers of Amazon’s fly-on-thewall documentary All Or Nothing will know, he can be combative. And he’s as confrontational as ever.
Danny Rose has been ostracised, not given a squad number after a frank exchange with the boss, who claimed his players are too nice and need to be “b******s” to win trophies.
Last week, Mourinho called out chairman Daniel Levy in a prematch press conference, saying: “I want to make it very clear that the club – or the structure above me – knows I need a striker.” Put simply: buy me a striker, or else. You know what will happen if they do not get him what he wants.
Mourinho won trophies at Manchester United and yet his reign at Old Trafford ended amid anger, acrimony and petty squabbling.
He arrived at Tottenham determined to smile more and show he has learned from his mistakes, and yet, at the first sign of trouble, the old Jose kicks straight back in.
It left rival fans gloating after Tottenham’s defeat to Everton.
That is because calling out players is an old-school tactic, one that does not always work, and it suggests Mourinho’s methods might be outdated.
His CV shows he is a proven winner. He is confrontational and not afraid to upset people.
But usually the rows come after delivering silverware. Jose is calling it on early.