WHITEWASH

Jose refuses to reveal reasons for lost leads

JOSE MOURINHO may have tried to gloss over things – but Tottenham are very much a club in turmoil.

It would take more than a tin of brilliant white trade diamond eggshell – or the Special One’s determinedly blank expression – to cover up the fact that there are some worrying structural cracks in the Tottenham project.

The jokes about the empty trophy cabinet – Tottenham have not lifted silverware since they won the Worthington Cup in 2008 – could be answered next weekend if they beat Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.

First, though, is a Premier League trip to Goodison Park tonight which could end any faint hopes of achieving what is the top objective handed down to Mourinho from Daniel Levy.

Not silverware, qualifying for Champions League.

If they fail, Spurs themselves to blame.

After allowing Manchester United to come from behind to win 3-1 last week, it is 18 points that Tottenham have surrendered from winning positions.

About the only joke not doing the rounds after the Dulux announcement was that the reason there was an old English sheepdog bounding around their stadium was because once again Spurs had let go of a lead.

Mourinho claims he knows the reasons but was keeping tight-lipped with his pantomime of a press conference yesterday.

“I know why it happened and I know also you can look at it in a different perspective,” he said. “A team that starts will only the have matches well and starts winning matches means something positive that you like to forget, the positive aspect of that.

“But I agree with you in the sense of when you are in winning positions and you lose points, there are negative things to it.

“That’s what I’m not ready to discuss with you. I think it has to do with some of our qualities as a team but I’m not ready to discuss with you, maybe never.”

He was also not ready to discuss the Dulux thing either.

It is inconceivable that a man who last week was able to question Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s comments about Heung-min Son, moments after he said them, was really not aware of the backdrop to his press conference.

If anything, his innocent “What’s Dulux?” intervention was as convincing as his acting in any of his Paddy Power commercials.

Last week he wanted to talk about Son’s paternal upbringing rather than the football.

Now he wanted to talk purely football rather than discuss a few home truths.

Perhaps it is time he got his players to do the the talking instead of himself. Where it matters, on the pitch.