Am I jealous of Liverpool and City? No way – Jose

JOSE Mourinho (right) is not jea lous of Ma nc heste r C it y or Liverpool after hinting that Tottenham is his toug hest job si nce managing Porto.

While City and Liverpool have an embarrassment of riches in their squad, injuries to key players at Spurs have left Mourinho having to pick players who are going to be leaving the club – namely Christian Eriksen.

Mourinho has been dealt a harsh hand with long-term injuries to Harry Kane, who could be out until next season, Hugo Lloris, Ben Davies and Moussa Sissoko, while record signing Tanguy Ndombele has often had niggles.

Mourinho is accepting of the situation and knows Spurs have a different profile.

“Come on, it is what it is,” he said. “We cannot have a squad like some other teams. It’s not us.

“Yesterday, I was watching Man City and I looked to the bench – Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Nicolas Otamendi. You know?

“Liverpool, you see the team, you see the bench. And they have injured Joel Matip, Dejan Lovren, Naby Keita, Fabinho.

“I’m not jealous, I have an amazing job but they are different jobs. This is a different club.”

Four years ago under Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs ran both Leicester and Chelsea close to the Premier League title, with a young, hungry side looking to make their mark on English football.

Things have gone south since then as the squad has been allowed to age and – up until this season – never refreshed and they have not reached those heights since.

And Mourinho knows he is in a transitional phase.

“Do you want to compare Eriksen’s situation four years ago then Eriksen’s situation now?” he said.

“It’s easy to compare. Four years ago he had four years of contract and now he has six months of contract.

“The situation is very, very, very difficult. Players are older four years. Players, in this case and some other cases, they don’t have four years of contract, they have six months of contract.

“Some players players come.

“The players that come – Giovani Lo Celso, Ryan Sessegnon, Ndombele – you see the young boy is in a process of developing and we are giving him time to do that.

“Giovani comes from a different football culture. Played in Spain, Argentina and France, now he comes again.

“You can feel that he is coming. Ndombele not even coming. Injured and with lots of problems, so you cannot compare what was four years ago in the cycle of four years to what it is now.

“So we have to work.”

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