Mourinho will need his big hitters to be firing on all cylinders if he is to bring silverware back to the Spurs this season, let alone fight for Champions League football with the potential for a top four finish seemingly slipping out of his grasp.
The list of star players felt spurned by the Portuguese seems to be an ever growing list, Tottenham not withstanding. It’s not the first time that Mourinho has upset the applecart, with a number of casualties in recent years.
Cast your eyes back just a couple of seasons to when Mourinho the miserable was wallowing in his £600 a night luxury hotel suite in Manchester. Problems with star player Paul Pogba broke the headlines and a viral Youtube video on the training ground appeared to show the World Cup winner taking serious exception to a Mourinho comment.
Fast forward a few weeks to an abject Pogba sitting out a dismal defeat on the bench at Anfield. United’s star player didn’t even have the chance to make his mark. Cue Mourinho losing the dressing room, sitting adrift in the Premier League, and promptly getting the boot.
If it sounds familiar then that is precisely because it’s happened whenever Mourinho has set up shop in the last decade of his football career. Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United all sacked The Special One after he was seen to be upsetting key players and results were on the slip.
In fact Inter Milan where he won the treble back in 2010 was the last place Mourinho hasn’t been asked to collect his things and leave. Could we be seeing the same thing happen at Spurs?
The bookmakers certainly think so. A number of betting sites with the latest betting offers are backing Mourinho to be the next Premier League manager to be out of a job. Following a spate of poor results in the league Mourinho is currently around 3/1 (4.0) to leave his post.
Out of ten matches played in the Premier League so far this year, Mourinho has only put down 13 points on the board out of a possible 30, leaving Spurs wallowing in mid-table no man’s land.
Silverware is still on the cards with an April League Cup final against Manchester City down in the diary and fast approaching, as well as a Europa League round of 16 tie against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb.
Spurs are currently sitting nine points off the Champions League places in the league and ensuring a berth amongst the European elite next season is a must. Mourinho may have to choose what his priorities will be, and fast.
Former Chelsea and Brazil defender Felipe Luis now playing his football at Flamengo has revealed in an interview how he felt betrayed by Mourinho after he was uprooted from a happy and successful spell at Atlético Madrid only to be dropped immediately on arrival in West London.
Luis reiterated that he was partly to blame for his failure to make an impact in a Chelsea side where he still won the league. But then how do you explain the leakage of serious talent during Mourinho’s reign that has directly benefited rivals down the line.
Both Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah were cast aside during Mourinho’s tenure, only to reappear as fundamental components and star players at Liverpool and Manchester City who have carved up English football over recent years.
Throwing serious talent to the side or under the bus seems to be a distinctive Mourinho problem. Two of Britain’s most talented attacking assets in Dele Alli and Gareth Bale would attest to that in the present day.
Whatever the case, Mourinho needs to get a tune out of his current squad or the bookmakers will have the odds set just right.
