Jose Mourinho's unfortunate time at Tottenham Hotspurs
Jose Mourinho has always been associated with winning because of the massive success he gained with the likes of Porto, Chelsea, and Inter Milan, oftentimes instilling a winning mentality in the teams he has been coaching. Moreover, he has also become known for his charismatic and controversial personality, which has led him to a lot of issues throughout his career.
When he was hired as the London club's new manager in November of 2019, the former Real Madrid manager was supposed to lead this team to success, because of very specific reasons. However, that would prove not to be the case.
The context of Jose Mourinho
After a controversial ending in his Real Madrid tenure, Mourinho returned to Chelsea in the summer of 2013 and it seemed that it was business as usual, with the Portuguese winning his third Premier League title in the 2014/15 season. However, the defending champions would have a massive collapse during the following campaign, prompting Jose to be sacked in the middle of the season.He would not be unemployed for long though, he was hired the following season by Manchester United, and while the manager started well, winning a couple of titles in his first year with the Red Devils, he would begin to have issues with both the players and the fans. The Portuguese's defensive style, coupled with major disappointments and clashes with high-profile players such as Paul Pogba, led to his sacking in December of 2018.
But only almost a year later, Mourinho would be back in the Premier League for a third time in a row and it would Tottenham Hotspurs the ones who would hire him. This was a controversial move considering the Portuguese's ties with Chelsea in the past, but that would prove to be the lesser evil in his tenure.
The context of Tottenham
Tottenham has built a reputation as an underachieving team in recent decades, oftentimes mocked for its lack of trophies won during that timeframe. Therefore, when Mourinho was hired in November of 2019, the perception was that he was going to instill that winning mentality that the team was sorely lacking.Moreover, this was after the Mauricio Pochettino era, with the Argentinian manager successfully turning Spurs into a constant UEFA Champions League participant and even the final of the competition in 2019, where they lost against Liverpool. This was coupled with a second-place finish in the 2016/17 season of the English Premier League and playing a brand of football that was both exciting and effective.
However, Pochettino didn't have a lot of backing in terms of signings during his almost six years at the club and the project was in its last legs during the 2018/19 despite reaching the Champions League final. This came to explode in the following campaign, which prompted his sacking and the arrival of Mourinho.
Tottenham Hotspurs CEO Daniel Levy felt that this was the moment when the club had to compete for major titles and Mourinho, with his vast experience, seemed like the man to do it. Moreover, a lot of people assumed that his struggles at United were mostly related to the Red Devils and not him, although reality would prove to be a lot more different.
What went wrong for Mourinho at Tottenham?
Jose Mourinho was sacked from Tottenham in April of 2021, a few days prior to his team's EFL Cup Final against Manchester City. He didn't get the team to qualify to the UEFA Champions League during his time there and would be the only club, as of this writing, where he didn't win a title since 2002.
Harry Kane
Moreover, there were multiple instances where Mourinho had issues with his players. There were some officially reported, such as his fallout with Wales superstar Gareth Bale, but the Amazon "All or Nothing" documentary, covering the team's 2020-21 season, featured massive rows with the likes of Serge Aurier, Danny Rose, and Dele Alli, highlighting the manager's conflictive nature.
It is also worth pointing out that the fans and Mourinho never got truly along, with the Portuguese even stating years later he felt no connection with that club. The fans, on the other hand, were left frustrated by his defensive and reactionary playing style, especially after the years with attractive football under the Pochettino era.
There were even statements in press conferences, such as blaming his players for throwing away leads, that made what was a toxic situation even more complicated. This is something that he has done for quite some time and the manager ended up paying the price.
Conclusion
Jose Mourinho and Tottenham Hotspurs were a combination that simply didn't work and it is very likely that both sides would agree with that. Moreover, it became obvious that Spurs could no longer compete regularly at the highest level and the same could be said of the Portuguese since his time at AS Roma was filled with the same issues.This case, if anything, serves as a prime example of how not every manager works with every single team, to the point of being regarded as Mourinho's worst tenure during his career.