Mourinho faces fight to save his job
► Manager must keep Spurs in the hunt for a top-four finish ► Leipzig’s Nagelsmann tipped to take over in summer switch
Jose Mourinho is fighting an uphill battle to keep his Tottenham Hotspur job past this season, and not even success in the final of next month’s Carabao Cup will guarantee his safety.
The head coach also faces a fight to keep his Spurs squad united behind him, as they attempt to bounce back from their Europa League humiliation.
The shock defeat by Dinamo Zagreb in the last 16 on Thursday night, after leading 2-0 from the first leg, was a massive blow to Mourinho’s hopes of surviving the threat of the sack, and it exposed divisions between his players. As reported by
The Daily Telegraph last month, RB Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann would be Tottenham’s preferred choice to replace Mourinho if chairman Daniel Levy was forced to act. Tottenham could win their first trophy in 13 years if they beat Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, but that alone would not be enough to guarantee Mourinho’s job is safe, if his team cannot drag themselves back into the race for the top four in the Premier League.
Spurs are six points behind fourth-placed Chelsea with a game in hand, which they play tomorrow at Aston Villa, and victory in that match and at Newcastle United after the international break could see them revive their Champions League qualification hopes. But a defeat in either would leave Tottenham’s league campaign on the brink of collapse.
Winning the Europa League and qualifying for next season’s Champions League would have almost certainly been enough for Mourinho to continue past this season, but he must now give Levy cause for optimism through their league position. It remains unlikely that Tottenham will take action during the season, unless the situation deteriorates dramatically, and the finances involved in making a managerial change could be an issue, given Mourinho will still have two years to run on his £13million-a-year contract at the end of this season.
Levy initially put former manager Mauricio Pochettino on gardening leave and the likelihood is, at least in the short term, he would take similar action in Mourinho’s case to avoid paying an immediate lump sum in compensation.
It is believed that Nagelsmann
could be significantly cheaper to appoint than Mourinho was, and the highly-rated German is thought to be interested in working in the Premier League.
Mourinho and his squad returned to England late on Thursday night and stayed together at Tottenham’s training ground before starting preparations for the trip to Villa, which are likely to include an inquest over what went wrong in Zagreb. Captain Hugo Lloris laid bare the dissatisfaction and splits of opinion within the squad, which Mourinho must now wrestle with as he attempts to guide Tottenham back on course, following their European exit and last weekend’s north London derby defeat.
Back-up goalkeeper Joe Hart was forced to apologise for the actions of his “social media team” after a message was posted on Instagram that said “job done” apparently under the impression Tottenham had beaten Zagreb 3-0, rather than losing by the same scoreline.
Mourinho retains the support of some of Tottenham’s key players, but others are understood to question his training methods and his handling of various situations.
Three of the players who were part of the defeat in Zagreb, Gareth Bale, Dele Alli and Harry Winks, have been frozen out by Mourinho for spells of this season, only to be recalled for big games.
Serge Aurier stormed out of Tottenham’s stadium at half-time of the defeat by Liverpool in January, after being substituted, while Eric Dier rejected Mourinho’s claim that he had suffered a crisis of confidence.
Danny Rose, who remains friends with members of Tottenham’s firstteam squad, is still at the club and being paid, but he was not given a squad number and has trained with the youth teams this season.
Some sources are suggesting Mourinho needs “a miracle” to hold on to his job, while others are more cautious and believe Levy remains desperate for his gamble to somehow pay off. He has remained supportive of Mourinho, but he will have been shocked by the brutal assessment from goalkeeper Lloris of where Tottenham currently find themselves.
“It’s just the accumulation,” said Lloris. “We are a club full of ambition, but the team at the moment is just a reflection of what is going on at the club.
“We have a lack of basics and lack of fundamentals. All our performances are in relation to that. Mentally, we should be stronger and more competitive.
“To behave as a team is the most difficult thing in football. Whatever the decision of the manager, you have to follow the way of the team. If you only follow the way of the team when you are in the starting XI, it causes big problems for the team.”