Mourinho’s exit comes at a price
Jose Mourinho’s sacking by Tottenham Hotspur means he has now earned £77.5 million (NZ$150.9m) from losing managerial jobs during his career — more than £60m of which has come from English clubs.
Including bonuses, Mourinho’s contract at Spurs was worth up to £13m per year and was due to run until the end of the 2022/23 season.
Chairman Daniel Levy prefers to place sacked managers on gardening leave which, by law, can only last 12 months, although it is believed that Mourinho could be eligible for up to 18 months’ worth of salary as compensation. Without bonuses, that would be around £15m-16m.
That represents yet another enormous payout in a career that has seen Mourinho routinely given astronomical sums to lose his job.
His first severance package came in 2007 when he was paid £18m when given the boot by Chelsea. He then earned £17m from Real Madrid in 2013, £12.5m from Chelsea in 2015 and £15m from Manchester United in 2018.
His removal at Tottenham comes after the continuation of a marked decline in his managerial output over the course of his career. From a 71.65 win percentage at Porto, where he made his name, Mourinho’s win ratio has steadily fallen at every club he has managed, aside from his spell at Real Madrid.
From 67.03 per cent during his first stint in charge at Chelsea, his win percentage fell to 58.33 at Manchester United and he departs Spurs having won little more than half the 86 games he presided over.
Mourinho was hired by Spurs in November 2019 to replace Mauricio Pochettino, who unexpectedly led the London club to the Champions League final before the team collapsed the following season.
Mourinho failed to get Tottenham back into the Champions League and has overseen another collapse this season. The team was in first place in December but a run of poor results has seen it fall to seventh place.