JOSE: I’VE GOT YOUR NUMBER, JURGEN

Mourinho: You’ve had nearly 2,000 days to get things right at Liverpool.. I’ve had 390 at Spurs.. but I haven’t needed such a long time to reach success as a manager MOURINHO v BIG SIX - PREM MOURINHO v KLOPP - PREM KLOPP IN PREM AT LIVERPOOL MOURINHO IN

JOSE MOURINHO calculated the number of days Jurgen Klopp has been in charge at Liverpool – and then said it never took him that long to be successful.

The Tottenham boss came armed with the stats on his managerial rival in what was a throwback to his glory days as a wind-up merchant at the peak of his powers ahead of a crunch match.

Mourinho had done his sums to add up Klopp’s reign to 1,894 days, with the Liverpool chief now top dog in the Premier League having won the title and Champions League since taking over in October 2015.

He said he is only 390 days into his Spurs tenure, but most of those days do not count because of the pandemic and he did not even need that long to be successful at other clubs. “We are a good team that works hard but Liverpool is the result of, if I’m not wrong, 1,894 days of work with Jurgen. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong for a few days. And we are the work of 390 days,” said Mourinho.

“But these 390 days are fake as lots of these days were not even days of work, they were days of quarantine, being at home unable to work.

“So from almost 2,000 to 300, for us to be able to compete at the level we are doing, I can only give credit to the players and be very happy with what they are doing.

“In a certain period of my career and the profile of club I was getting, we didn’t need as much time to reach success. We did it in Porto, Inter, Real, at

Chelsea both times, we did it without need of that longevity.

“And also my desire to try different things and my crazy desire to go to many countries and try to win and get different experiences in many different countries was perfect because it was about winning and goodbye and let’s try another thing.”

Mourinho, who won the title in his first season at Chelsea and has two European Cups on a glittering CV, even managed to get a word in on his time at Manchester United when he did not win the title.

“The first club where I felt I need time and time was not given was at Manchester United,” said Mourinho.

“Now in Tottenham, know the profile of the job that I have in hand and, hopef u l ly, until now I am

I

Mourinho has had a cheeky dig at Klopp ahead of their battle tonight enjoying very much to be in the club. I believe the club structure is also happy to work with me, so I see myself staying for a long time. “But if we can accelerate the process, like we are accelerating, and been doing good things like we are doing, then of course we are not going to waste time.”

It was an astonishing blast from Mourinho (whose side drew at Crystal Palace on Sunday, thanks to Harry Kane’s goal, far left), designed to get under Klopp’s skin. Mourinho then went on to tell his players exactly what they need to win the title this term. He added: “Other teams are afraid of the big matches, they don’t perform, they hide themselves, they lose