Fenwick: Eur going to be oh so Special
EXCLUSIVE
TOTTENHAM are genuine contenders for Champions League glory – thanks to the shock arrival of Jose Mourinho.
That’s the positive message from ex-White Hart Lane favourite Terry Fenwick following the club’s decision to sack Mauricio Pochettino and bring in the Portuguese super-coach.
Mourinho has already lifted Europe’s most prestigious club trophy twice, with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.
And, according to Fenwick, nobody should rule out the new Spurs supremo claiming a personal hat-trick in May.
Despite their desperate domestic struggles under Pochettino, Harry Kane and Co remain on course for the latter stages of the Champions League.
Victory at home over Olympiakos on Tuesday will secure last season’s finalists a place in the last 16.
Fenwick, who made more than 100 Tottenham appearances between 1987 and 1993, insists with Mourinho in charge his old club are more than just outsiders.
The former England defender, 60 (below) said: “Absolutely, it’s possible he could take them all the way.
“Nobody can dispute the success he has had everywhere he’s worked. Jose’s a winner.
“His Spurs side won’t be easy to play against.
“They’ll be rugged and well-set defensively, and then create space ahead to counter.
“They also have players with great pace to support Harry Kane – one of the world’s very best strikers.
“I like the look of things. New stadium. Young squad. Great manager!”
Even if Spurs fail to conquer Europe, they could still make next season’s competition with a top-four Premier League finish.
That hasn’t been helped by a poor start to the season under Pochettino, which produced just three wins from 12 games before the axe fell.
But Fenwick expects a surge up the table under Mourinho. He said: “It’s going to be tough to make the top four but if anybody’s capable of it, it’s Jose.”
Mourinho’s appointment has divided opinion among the Spurs faithful but Fenwick reckons chairman Daniel Levy has pulled off a major coup.
“It’s a very brave, bold move by Daniel. A huge statement that Spurs are ready for the next big step,” added Fenwick, who runs his Football Factory Foundation in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Poch flirted with Real Madrid and Man United. But once results went the wrong way he seemed to lose the dressing room. Jose is the right man at the right time.”
JOSE MOURINHO is back in his natural habitat — winning football matches.
And as he left the London Stadium pitch with Tottenham’s travelling supporters belting out his name, it’s clear most of them are ready to make the former Chelsea manager feel right at home at his new club.
They made him wait until after the game had finished but as he went to them to celebrate following goals from Heung-min Son, Lucas Moura and Harry Kane had seen their side to victory, they couldn’t resist.
“Jose Mourinho, Jose Mourinho.”
So long Poch, and thanks for the memories.
Asked what it felt like to be back on the touchline, Mourinho said: “The most difficult moments were in my mind this summer, when
I didn’t have a pre-season and was looking at other managers, clubs, teams doing pre-season.
“The most weird feeling was going to stadiums and I was asking myself what
I was doing here, here in the box or the Sky television studios.
“Today is where
I belong. My natural habitat.
“Was I extra emotional?
No. Was I nervous before the game? No.
“When things go your direction, it’s the best.”
Things went largely in Tottenham’s direction from the off and they deserved their lead when their Special Son drilled his effort across Roberto. The South Korean star was heavily involved in the second soon after too, whipping in a tantalising cross which Moura scored from after an outrageous piece of skill from man of the match Dele Alli had set him free. Spurs were in cruise control when Serge Aurier’s brilliant cross picked out Kane and the Spurs skipper headed home early in the second half. West Ham had lost four and drawn two prior to this game and are absolutely shorn of confidence.
But they did spark to life late on. Substitute Michail Antonio’s clever strike gave them slight belief of a comeback and they reduced the deficit to one when defener Angelo Ogbonna found the back of the net deep into injury time.
But they had left it far too late to start playing and Manuel Pellegrini needs things to change, and fast, if he isn’t going to suffer the same fate as Mauricio Pochettino sometime soon.
Mourinho likes his teams to shut up shop at 2-0 and certainly at 3-0 but there were no recriminations that they didn’t this time.
He added: “The feeling is we were closer to 4-0 than West Ham were to 3-1 – but this is the Premier League.
“Their first goal changed things a little bit and also my players paid the price of a very, very difficult week.
“A week where they arrived back from their national teams, some of them arrived from difficult matches, some of them travelling, changed the manager, a new guy arrives, new training sessions and new ideas, the emotional things that surround that.
“I don’t think it’s ever easy for a football player to work with a coaching staff one day and the next other people are there.
“It’s difficult to process. Physically, the team had a break.
“They were probably also a little bit scared of that mental barrier of the bad results away.
“So the last 20-25 minutes were not easy but we played very, very well for about an hour.
“I’m happy for the boys.”
Hammers boss Pellegrini said: “We are playing under big pressure.
“We don’t have the results we want, especially here at home. It was a special game, a derby against Tottenham and we wanted to do it better.
“We couldn’t. The team never gave up until the end and always tried to draw.
“But we are making too many mistakes, especially without the ball, and every time we made a mistake in defending, they scored. “It’s a very tight Premier League this season. “Maybe with three points more we would be in another position in the table.
“But we need to improve in playing, we need to improve in defending and we need to improve in attacking.”