IN many ways, Jose Mourinho was the obvious option for Tottenham. He’s box office, guaranteed to garner global attention. He only manages the biggest clubs, so his presence will ensure Spurs are perceived far and wide to be among the European elite.
He also guarantees trophies. The most common criticism of the work Mauricio Pochettino did in his five and a half years with the club – reductive as the argument has always been – was that he wasn’t able to deliver any silverware. That has never been Mourinho’s problem. He’s won league titles in four countries, as well as eight domestic cups and two Champions Leagues.
The Portuguese has won more major trophies in his 19-year managerial career (20) than his new club in its entire history (17). But for all his success and glittering track record, Mourinho is a curious appointment for Tottenham.
Mourinho looks like he's already in love with Dele Alli pic.twitter.com/eMPEHs0NQ5
— Goal (@goal) November 21, 2019
Of his eight previous jobs, all but one – Uniao de Leiria, whom he managed from 2001 to 2002 – have been with one of the two or three most financially powerful clubs in their respective country at the time of his reign. And on each occasion he has spent big to secure success.
And the returns Mourinho assures have been diminishing throughout the decade. Just two of his eight career league titles have been won since he left Inter Milan in 2010, and only one in the last seven years. He has not reached the Champions League final since his Inter Treble, either.
Mourinho must be considered Manchester United’s most successful manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, and his supporters still cite his two-trophy haul and second-placed league finish with the club as a significant triumph. But it was a distant second place, finishing 19 points behind Manchester City in 2017-18, and those two trophies – the Europa League and League Cup – are second- and third-tier prizes, relative to the Champions League and Premier League.
Tottenham became top-four staple under Mourinho’s predecessor, and Pochettino’s net spend for his entire time in charge of the north London club was just £109m – a figure Mourinho surpassed in each of his first two transfer windows with Manchester United.
That modest investment might not have secured a trophy for Spurs, but they unarguably got unprecedented value for money. Pochettino delivered four top-four finishes, achieved Tottenham’s highest-ever single-season points total (86 in 2016-17) and reached a Champions League final.
Throughout the Argentine’s tenure, Spurs fans grew accustomed to a high-energy, attacking style of football. And it was played by a cast of home-made superstars, from academy graduates such as Harry Kane and Harry Winks to the likes of Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, bargain buys who were transformed into elite internationals. Nobody came ready-made.
Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen are all now intrigued and open to possibility of signing new contracts following the arrival of José Mourinho at #thfc. | @MirrorDarren pic.twitter.com/tVt6NB5huk
— Daily Hotspur (@Daily_Hotspur) November 20, 2019
Pochettino would gripe about the lack of spending, and the trend was bucked to a degree last summer, with a club-record fee paid for Lyon’s Tanguy Ndombele, and with Giovani Lo Celso and Ryan Sessegnon also brought in as Spurs ended an 18-month transfer drought. But there were times when Pochettino appeared content under the financial constraints, with the lack of signings in large part by his own design, preferring not to spend for spending’s sake.
A perceived lack of backing in the transfer market was one of the main factors which contributed to Mourinho’s demise at Old Trafford. Dating back as far as United’s pre-season tour of the United States in 2017, thinly veiled complaints were publicly aired over the lack of a fourth signing being secured that summer.
The club’s refusal to sanction the signing of one of his centre-back targets last year drove a rift between Mourinho and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward that was never repaired – although the new Spurs boss can be afforded some sympathy here, given United spent £80m on Harry Maguire under his successor a year later.
Mourinho also, understandably, likes his club’s business to be completed early in the transfer window, allowing him as much time as possible to work with his new charges on the training field before the new season. This has rarely been the way Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy operates. It has been suggested the man who controls the purse strings at Spurs believes better value can be extracted via the brinksmanship of dragging negotiations into the final days of the window.
The fact that this is the first time Mourinho has taken a job mid-season since he took the reins at Porto in 2002, and that Spurs have swapped a manager of long-term vision for one who promises short-term gain, suggests a degree of desperation on both sides.
Both parties have diverged from type, and both must be prepared to compromise. If this relationship of necessity is to work, Tottenham and Mourinho will have to meet each other in the middle.
