Jose Mourinho

[SpartanSpur]

It's funny, when Jose came in the general consensus (myself included) was that Jose was here to try and get our squad at the time over the line and winning trophies. We'd come close before so brought a serial winner in to hopefully get us to the promised land.

The feeling was that he was not the right person for a rebuild if that ended up being necessary, that if the squad was indeed going to be overhauled then we'd have been much better off with a modern 'system' manager. I was in total agreement with that at the time.

Yet here we are right now with 5 fantastic signings (plus a HG backup keeper with a strong mentality) in areas that badly needed strengthening, and not on an oil money budget! We may yet add a top CB in Skriniar. We've effectively had a rebuild whilst keeping all the family silver and all in one window! I don't think any other manager would have the pull (over players or Levy) nor the connections (Mendes) to actually achieve all this.

Personally I like Jose a lot and I'm hopeful we will have a very good season now. That said even if it doesn't work out the squad is in such great shape that I feel much more optimistic about our capabilities going forward. It's almost been worth having him just for what he's done this window.

 

[sausage]

his accent does my head in. It’s like bacon pretending to be sausage. Confusing

Yeah, bacon can fuck off and get its own gig.

 

[Who’s our next manager?]

It's funny, when Jose came in the general consensus (myself included) was that Jose was here to try and get our squad at the time over the line and winning trophies. We'd come close before so brought a serial winner in to hopefully get us to the promised land.

The feeling was that he was not the right person for a rebuild if that ended up being necessary, that if the squad was indeed going to be overhauled then we'd have been much better off with a modern 'system' manager. I was in total agreement with that at the time.

Yet here we are right now with 5 fantastic signings (plus a HG backup keeper with a strong mentality) in areas that badly needed strengthening, and not on an oil money budget! We may yet add a top CB in Skriniar. We've effectively had a rebuild whilst keeping all the family silver and all in one window! I don't think any other manager would have the pull (over players or Levy) nor the connections (Mendes) to actually achieve all this.

Personally I like Jose a lot and I'm hopeful we will have a very good season now. That said even if it doesn't work out the squad is in such great shape that I feel much more optimistic about our capabilities going forward. It's almost been worth having him just for what he's done this window.

We can add to the 5 fantastic signings as we also have Ndombele who is like a new signing as he did nothing last year. Lo Celso also has really blossomed during the last few months. With that elusive centreback to come in we have a team/squad not just to finish in the top four but to win the league. Jose has bought well, not spending huge amounts but addressing weakness in the squad.

 

[Timberwolf]

It's funny, when Jose came in the general consensus (myself included) was that Jose was here to try and get our squad at the time over the line and winning trophies. We'd come close before so brought a serial winner in to hopefully get us to the promised land.

The feeling was that he was not the right person for a rebuild if that ended up being necessary, that if the squad was indeed going to be overhauled then we'd have been much better off with a modern 'system' manager. I was in total agreement with that at the time.

Yet here we are right now with 5 fantastic signings (plus a HG backup keeper with a strong mentality) in areas that badly needed strengthening, and not on an oil money budget! We may yet add a top CB in Skriniar. We've effectively had a rebuild whilst keeping all the family silver and all in one window! I don't think any other manager would have the pull (over players or Levy) nor the connections (Mendes) to actually achieve all this.

Personally I like Jose a lot and I'm hopeful we will have a very good season now. That said even if it doesn't work out the squad is in such great shape that I feel much more optimistic about our capabilities going forward. It's almost been worth having him just for what he's done this window.

Completely agree with this. I was worried that Jose would demand ridiculous, short term, star signings at ludicrous prices which would damage the club in the long term, but he's actually been really willing to work with Levy and cut his cloth according to our limitations.

While we might not be playing the most exciting football, there are green shoots there, and you have to wonder would players like Bale, Reguilon (and hopefully Skriniar) have come to the club if not for Jose? Or would Levy have been willing to push so hard for another manager?

Regardless it's an exciting time to be a Spurs fan and even if it all goes tits up and Jose gets sacked in 6 months (which highly doubt he will) we'll have a much stronger squad than we had when he arrived.

COYS!

 

[Ionman34]

If you can’t trust a player, he shouldn’t be signed.

To be fair, I think Hart had a good game. Not a single keeper in the World would have got to their first goal and the penalty was well taken. He pulled of a couple of very good saves to other shots too and I felt he looked very assured.

Someone was saying that he can’t dive to his left not so long ago, well I think he put that one to bed with a very good save in the second half.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

It's funny, when Jose came in the general consensus (myself included) was that Jose was here to try and get our squad at the time over the line and winning trophies. We'd come close before so brought a serial winner in to hopefully get us to the promised land.

The feeling was that he was not the right person for a rebuild if that ended up being necessary, that if the squad was indeed going to be overhauled then we'd have been much better off with a modern 'system' manager. I was in total agreement with that at the time.

Yet here we are right now with 5 fantastic signings (plus a HG backup keeper with a strong mentality) in areas that badly needed strengthening, and not on an oil money budget! We may yet add a top CB in Skriniar. We've effectively had a rebuild whilst keeping all the family silver and all in one window! I don't think any other manager would have the pull (over players or Levy) nor the connections (Mendes) to actually achieve all this.

Personally I like Jose a lot and I'm hopeful we will have a very good season now. That said even if it doesn't work out the squad is in such great shape that I feel much more optimistic about our capabilities going forward. It's almost been worth having him just for what he's done this window.

Great post spot on.

 

[Ionman34]

You don't have to be anti-Jose to appreciate that Poch's peak years were halcyon days. I agree with Windy that despite not actually winning anything, it was probably the best period supporting Spurs in my lifetime (and I supported Spurs from the late 70's). We had both the best defence and the best offence in the PL, with a home grown superstar at CF, and Dembele and Wanyama eating up midfield, Rose and Walker dominating the flanks with Dele and Eriksen in perfect harmony was incredible. The 1986/87 season is probably the only other season that comes close in terms of football perfection. But .... Poch's time was clearly over. The rot set in before the CL final. And his response after it, and the summer window that followed showed his time was up. As did the player's start to last season. I mourned for Poch, and it stopped me embracing Jose for some time if I am honest., and it did not help that under Jose the football has been quite frankly largely turgid. But his squad management and transformation is exquisite. And if we play a direct, fact paced counter attacking style with players like Bale, Kane, Son, Bergwijn, Vinicius, Moura banging in goals I think we can really reach new heights. It's the hope that kills you isn't it?

You think Poch’s reign was better than Burkinshaw’s?
Jesus.

Poch is now gone guys. We loved him when he was here, I think we all recognise the wonderful job he did, and he’ll always have a place in our hearts in the same way Martin Jol will.

But he’s gone and Mourinho is here. He’s different to Poch, his playing style can polarise opinion, but he’ll get results with exciting matches alongside dull ones.

Pretty much like every manager in the game, and that includes Poch.

Draw a line under it and move on now, as the constant comparisons are getting very tedious.

 

[Ionman34]

How the fuck did this thread end up here in whogivesafuckville?

As far as I can make out, one comment from a 'bearded twat' on Twitter was brought over and before you know it, we have the crowd fight scene at the end of Enter the Dragon

Wish I could fight as well as some of those “lost drunken men with no place to go.”

Some of those bastards were hard as nails.

 

[Ionman34]

I don't know where this debate about who's the better manager out of Pochettino and Redknapp has come from; both managers left us in a better state than they found us IMO, and that's all you can ask really. You can say the same for Martin Jol.

Yes we made huge progress under Pochettino, but you also can't deny that his last 18 months undid much of the good work of his first 3 years. Our league finishes went from 2nd > 3rd > 4th until finally he left us in 14th place with no hope of top 4. However, we were still in a better place on his last day in the job than on his first.

We were nearly-men under Poch. If Jose leaves us in a better state than he found us, then we'll surely have trophies to show for it. And no amount of bearded weirdness will make anyone say "yeah but I still preferred it under Poch" when Hugo's waving the UCL trophy around.

The funny thing is, the last few games we’ve played we have demonstrated some very exciting Football. Tica Taka May be very easy on the eye, but swift, skilful counterattacking Football is breathtaking at its best. There’s something about the anticipation, knowing that we are waiting on them to make the slightest mistake before we pounce and destroy them with powerful and incisive Football.
Maybe it’s just me but I love that, far more than manoeuvring teams from left to right to work an opening.
To each their own I suppose.

There seem to be those that pine for a team that explosively destroys all comers in each and every game, or at least outplay all opponents with eye catching Football. The reality is that no team has really ever done this. Peak City, peak Liverpool, even peak Utd had a plethora of games in a season where they ground out wins by the skin of their teeth.

We’ll get our fair share of them under JM, but we’ll also get our fair share of breathtaking games where we watch the team absolutely destroy opposition.

What is important is that he gets that mentality into the squad where those “grinder” games have us ending up with 3 points instead of none, which has been the story far too often with us.

 

[Wearegoingtowintheleague]

You think Poch’s reign was better than Burkinshaw’s?
Jesus.

Poch is now gone guys. We loved him when he was here, I think we all recognise the wonderful job he did, and he’ll always have a place in our hearts in the same way Martin Jol will.

But he’s gone and Mourinho is here. He’s different to Poch, his playing style can polarise opinion, but he’ll get results with exciting matches alongside dull ones.

Pretty much like every manager in the game, and that includes Poch.

Draw a line under it and move on now, as the constant comparisons are getting very tedious.

You do realise that telling people to draw a line under it and move on actually serves to do the opposite?

If you read his post more clearly you'd see that he said Poch time was over and after struggling to embrace Jose originally he was then giving Jose praise. This shows the poster has indeed moved on, but in then telling him to move on you're more likely to have the opposite effect.

 

[jay2040]

There was a program on channel 5 yesterday highlighting feud between Pep and Jose, we got mention in the end too. Not much substance though still good watch. One of the quotes I liked from the journo when talking about him taking over at RM was that he filled the players veins with venom!

 

[jay2040]

Yeah I was thinking about this earlier. Both Poch and Redknapp were guilty of canning off one of the cups early on. Though they did both get to a couple of finals and semi finals. I feel both their sides should have at least one a league cup. Really feel like we have a chance in one of the cups this year.

I was at the semi v Portsmouth! Such a shit day!

 

[spids]

You think Poch’s reign was better than Burkinshaw’s?
Jesus.

Wow - you’e nice! ?

Didn’t say better - said I enjoyed it more.

Context - I was 9 when Burkinshaw was our manager, only went to one game, and rarely got to see us play.

I really enjoyed Pleat’s 87 team.

I watched us live in the stadium most in the 90’s and 00’s ... that was very much a labour of love.

I am in my late 40’s now and watched pretty much every game under Poch. And it was by far the closest we’ve come to winning the title in my lifetime, and for 18 months it was ******** brilliant.

I have ‘moved on’ and am very much behind Jose.

 

[tiger666]

I wonder if Mourinho knew all along that Levy was going to bust out 7 figures this summer and that they’ve been planning this since last November?

It seems Covid has worked in our favour somewhat, as awful as that sounds. There's a lot of opportunistic deals to be had around Europe at the moment and these are just the kind of things Levy excels at. He seems pretty ruthless and will take advantage of any weakness to get a good deal. I'm sure he planned to back him but we're certainly being helped by the uncertain financial times we're in.

 

[hellava_tough]

It seems Covid has worked in our favour somewhat, as awful as that sounds. There's a lot of opportunistic deals to be had around Europe at the moment and these are just the kind of things Levy excels at. He seems pretty ruthless and will take advantage of any weakness to get a good deal. I'm sure he planned to back him but we're certainly being helped by the uncertain financial times we're in.

Tbh, we wouldn't be in the Europa League without Covid.

That's the nature of disastrous, unprecedented events; winners and losers are created overnight!

 

[buckley]

Myself I was very much against Jose as manager . Now having seen him in full flow add to that the best window since we signed Jimmy Greaves I am fully aboard the good ship Jose and I say get aboard or find another team to follow .

 

[Kiedis]

We'd never had this window without Mourinho and the Mendes links.

But we probably wouldn't have Ndombele and Lo Celso without Poch being picky, and him raising his own and our profile by making us good and getting to that CL final.

 

[NEVILLEB]

The best thing Mourinho has done is to pressure Levy to get these transfers done.

It’s been a great window.

 

[RichieS]

Wasn't because of funds. It was because Poch wanted an incredibly short and difficult list, and nothing else would do. We tried to get everyone of Pochs players and managed to get 3.

Can't blame Levy if the others were well out of our reach or wanted to go to other clubs instead.

Ndombele (who we waited a year for having been unable to hijack his permanent move from Amiens to Lyon iirc), Lo Celso and ...?

As I was writing, I remembered you saying that it was de Jong or no-one for CM, de Ligt or no-one for CB etc. But, as an example, I also believe we could've got Pereira (as we were told Poche wanted by, I think, JJetset) the summer we swapped Walker for Serge if we had been willing/able to overpay. As it was, we had c.£25m to spend on a RB and Porto can't have been willing to sell him for that until the summer after, else we would surely have bought him. I'm fine with that personally, I just don't think 100% (or even the majority) of the blame lies squarely at any one person's door.

 

[chelmyid]

You think Poch’s reign was better than Burkinshaw’s?
Jesus.

Poch is now gone guys. We loved him when he was here, I think we all recognise the wonderful job he did, and he’ll always have a place in our hearts in the same way Martin Jol will.

But he’s gone and Mourinho is here. He’s different to Poch, his playing style can polarise opinion, but he’ll get results with exciting matches alongside dull ones.

Pretty much like every manager in the game, and that includes Poch.

Draw a line under it and move on now, as the constant comparisons are getting very tedious.

This post x1000