Jose Mourinho sacked after 17 months & the European Super league

 

Jose Mourinho sacked after 17 months & the European Super-league (all thanks to Levy).

So, Mourinho has been sacked. Are we surprised? One of the reasons he was picked to manage our club in the first place wasn’t so much because of his trophy achievements, but such a renowned name would help Levy get top naming rights for the club (which still hasn’t happened).

There has been speculation of his dismissal for some months in the press, amongst the fans etc., and now on the day that a European Superleague was announced, well, it seems too much of a coincidence.

Yes, Jose Mourinho has been sacked by Levy after just 17 months in charge. He replaced Mauricio Pochettino as manager in November 2019 and guided the club to sixth in the Premier League last season. We are now currently seventh, having picked up two points from our past three league games, and were knocked out of the Europa League in March. For a club the size of Tottenham, our decline is unacceptable. But how much is this to do with Mourinho, rather than Levy? A lot of our problems are down to Levy’s firm grip on the purse strings. Levy doesn’t compete in the same way as the other top five clubs do, oh, no! He has said in the past that such payouts (for elite players) aren’t sustainable. But that hasn’t stopped the top five from splashing out for players to get the Trophies and club glory.

Now with no manager at our club, we face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final on 25 April, this Sunday.

Not only Mourinho, who has been given the push but also his coaching staff of Joao Sacramento, Nuno Santos, Carlos Lalin and Giovanni Cerra have also been sacked.

Daniel Levy issued a statement soon after he sacked Mourinho. "Jose and his coaching staff have been with us through some of our most challenging times as a club," he said, “Jose is a true professional who showed enormous resilience during the pandemic. On a personal level, I have enjoyed working with him and regret that things have not worked out as we both had envisaged. He will always be welcome here, and we should like to thank him and his coaching staff for their contribution."

Mourinho - who previously managed Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Porto, suffered 10 league defeats in a single campaign for the first time in his managerial career. No Premier League side has lost more points from winning positions this season than us, who have dropped 20. His last game in charge for us was a 2-2 league draw at Everton on Friday.

Ryan Mason, who has been working with the club's academy, will take first-team training on Monday.

So, what went wrong for the mighty Jose?

We had enjoyed an excellent start to this season, including a 6-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford. Then there was a  2-0 home win over the Gooners in early December, which saw us go top of the Premier League. Mourinho became only the second Spurs manager in history to win his first two Arsenal derbies. But that glory of being top of the league didn’t last long. We dropped back to second when we were beaten by Liverpool.  Since then, we have won seven of 19 league games, losing eight.

In February, we were knocked out of the FA Cup in a 5-4 quarter-final defeat by Everton, marking the first time a Mourinho side had conceded five goals since 2010. It wasn’t looking good. Then we were beaten 2-1 by the Gooners on the 14^th March, and four days later, we were eliminated from the Europa League, losing 3-2 on aggregate to a poor Dinamo Zagreb side, having won the first leg 2-0. Mourinho, who had previously earned a reputation as a major tactician and defensive-minded coach (and don’t forget he is also a former Fifa world coach of the year) refused to accept the blame for Spurs' dropped points. It was everybody else's fault, apart from his (he seemed to be saying).

When it was pointed out to him how his teams are good at defending, he made a curious comment, "Same coach, different players." In which I drew from that; if Levy doesn’t invest in competing like the other top five teams do, what do you expect.

Let us have a look at Jose Mourinho's managerial honours

Club Major trophies

Porto (2002-04) Primeira Liga (x2), Champions League, Uefa Cup (now Europa League), Portuguese Cup

Chelsea (2004-07 and 2013-15) Premier League (x3), FA Cup, League Cup (x3)

Inter Milan (2008-10) Serie A (x2), Champions League, Coppa Italia

Real Madrid (2010-13)       La Liga, Copa del Rey

Manchester United (2016-18)    Europa League, League Cup

Tottenham (2019-21)          Bugger all!

Mourinho's Spurs stats

Jose Mourinho won just 51% of his games in charge at us in all competitions (44/86). Only with Leiria (45%) has he posted a lower win ratio with a single club during his managerial career.

We have lost 13 games in all competitions this season, which is the highest number of defeats Jose Mourinho has suffered in a single campaign as a manager.

During Mourinho's time managing our club, only Man City (130), Liverpool (117) and Manchester United (116) picked up more Premier League points than Spurs (95).

Only during the 2015-16 season with Chelsea (0.9) and 2018-19 with Man Utd (1.5) has a Mourinho side averaged fewer points per game in a league season than us in 2020-21 (1.6).

Only Brighton (31) and Southampton (30) dropped more points from winning positions in the Premier League during the period Mourinho was in charge (at Spurs) (27).

Eleven of the 20 points dropped from winning positions this season have come from goals conceded in the final 10 minutes of matches.

Mourinho leaves us with a record of 27 wins, 14 draws and 17 defeats from 58 Premier League games.

Of all managers to take charge of 10 or more matches for Tottenham in the Premier League, only Tim Sherwood (1.91), Mauricio Pochettino (1.89), Andre Villas-Boas (1.83) and Harry Redknapp (1.74) have averaged more points per game than Mourinho (1.64).

My thoughts

When he came to our club, many questioned Levy’s choice of manager. His style of play wasn’t our traditional way of playing. However, I felt that his failure was mainly down to Levy. First; Levy brought him to the club because of his potential pulling power (in getting expensive naming rights for the club). Secondly; Levy wasn’t prepared to invest in the players as the other top six clubs have done (always putting us at a disadvantage). If you look at managers like Pochettino or Sherwood, they were basically novices in management when Levy got them, those that weren’t hadn’t really achieved great heights. Mourinho being the exception. However, at his last lot of clubs, he was sacked.

Whoever Levy picks to manage the club, they will struggle to win any decent trophies or even the League/ European Champions League with the peanuts he is expected to work with.

Levy may be a great businessman (building the club and developing the North London area), but he is a novice where running a world-class football club/ team is concerned.

There have been rumours that Joe Lewis had found somebody to purchase the club, however, they didn’t want Levy having control, so they walked. Levy wants to be in total charge and nothing less.

Mourinho’s career from here onwards: I think he will have to settle for a lower status club or think about retiring. His sell-by date seems to have passed. But that isn’t our problem; he has gone. Our problem is our club.

Whoever comes to our new Tottenham stadium won’t be of the calibre of Manchester City, Liverpool or Barcelona or even Real Madrid managers, but another fly-by-night who has done miracles with the little, he has been given.

All the top five clubs have been hit by COVID-19 (restrictions etc.) but still managed to give their managers the money to challenge for top honours, not our Commander-in-Chief, though. Levy’s priority seems to be a top-four spot and a token trophy (League or FA Cup), which will – he hopes – get the fans off his back. European Champions League and Premier League titles will come at a price, a price Levy won’t entertain.

Under Levy’s reign, the longest-lasting manager was five years. Whoever takes over, I am sure that the bookies will give odds on how long the poor bastard will last. Whatever; he won’t get sufficient funds to compete with the elite of football. This beggars the question; a European Superleague will make Spurs stick out like a sore thumb.

As for the Superleague; it is possible that the announcement today might be a ploy to force UEFA to make changes; don’t forget that on Monday (26^th), UEFA are announcing changes to their European structure.

Before making my judgement, I would like to see more information.  For a start, it should have relegation. Plus, what will happen if they get kicked out of their domestic leagues? And will the fans back it and gain? Without fans, it could be just a dead financial dodo.

And what about the Cup final this Sunday? Will the sacking of Mourinho and no manager (so far) damage our chances of us winning the trophy? If we win, Levy can say he made the right decision; if City win, then…

Take care, Glenn

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