Kids at rivals ain’t so good

JOSE MOURINHO has kicked off his Spurs reign by taking a swipe at his old English clubs.

The 56-year-old Portuguese, who will hold his first Tottenham press conference today, has signed a three-year deal worth £15million a year – double that of the man he takes over from, Mauricio Pochettino.

But in praising the Spurs academy the former Manchester United boss, who also had two spells at Chelsea, suggested rival clubs were not doing enough to produce young players good enough for the first team.

Mourinho said: “I really like this squad. Looking to the young players there is not one manager in the world that doesn’t like to play young players and to help young players develop. “The problem is that sometimes you get into clubs where the work that is below you is not good enough to produce these players. So I look to our history and you see that the academy is always giving the talents that the

BY DARREN LEWIS first team need. I look forward to working with that profile.”

Mourinho’s comments will rankle in particular at Chelsea where, under Frank Lampard and Jody Morris, Tammy Abraham is the Premier League’s second-top scorer.

The Chelsea management have also blooded Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James, with four of the five making it into Gareth Southgate’s England squad.

Mourinho has poached two members of Lille’s technical staff, Joao Sacramento and Nuno Santos, who will be his assistant manager and goalkeeping coach respectively.

Also joining the Spurs boss will be former United scout Ricardo Formosinho and analyst Giovanni Cerra.

It emerged yesterday that Mourinho had rejected a number of jobs in recent months, including the head coach role at Lyon last month, as he felt the Spurs job could become available and wanted to be ready.

The deal to take him to north London was brokered by super-agent Pini Zahavi.