da dobrowin： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
da apostebet： Jose Mourinho gave his first interview as Tottenham Hotspur manager on Wednesday and was in charming form.
He routinely referred to Spurs as “we” and “us”, talked up the youth academy and also said that he would help the club climb the table from their current position of 14th. They face West Ham United this weekend.
He said: “I couldn’t be happier and look forward to the challenge. What can I promise? Passion, real passion. Passion for my job, but also passion for my club, that’s the way I have been all my career and I want to try, obviously, everything to bring happiness to everyone who loves the club.”
He added: “It’s a privilege when a manager goes to a club and feels that happiness in relation to the squad he is going to have. It didn’t happen many times. To be honest, the majority of the times we go to clubs and we always think ‘We like some, I don’t like enough’ and you think immediately about what to do to change, what to do to make an approach between your ideas and the profile of the players.”
Can Spurs fans take this at face value?
His first interview as Manchester United manager is remarkably similar.
He said to MUTV, via SportsKeeda: “I feel great. I think I am in the right moment of my career because Manchester United is one of these clubs where you need really to be prepared for it because it is what I used to a call ‘giant club’.
“Giant clubs’ must be for the best managers and I think I am ready for it, so I could say I am happy, I am proud, I am honoured, I am everything. The reality is that what I love is to work and I cannot wait for the 7th of July to go on the pitch.”
He added, in his message to the supporters: “You know, I think I know what they can give me. I think also they know what I can give them. Obviously, the most important thing are the players and the relation of the players is the bridge with them, but I think it is very important and curious that I have played so many times against Man United and I played so many times at Old Trafford with other clubs.”
It didn’t really end well at United. Yes, he won both the Carabao Cup and the Europa League, but he fostered an environment of toxicity and also fell out with star player Paul Pogba.
He was sacked in December with the club sixth in the Premier League but closer to the relegation zone than the top of the division. The BBC stated at the time that United had identified a “catalogue of his failings” which contributed to his sacking.
Think back, too, to his time at Chelsea following his return.
He said, per The Telegraph: “I’m very happy. I had to prepare myself not to be too emotional for my arrival at the club but obviously I’m very happy.”
He added: “When you look at the profile of the Chelsea squad I think it’s what they need at this time. If you look from my time, there are around four or five boys and these are the older ones. It’s very important for this football club and very important for the balance of the squad, but it’s a young squad with a lot of talent and I think they need stability to reach a high point of their evolution and for their careers.
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“They need stability, stability I hope I can give them and between me, the owner and of course the club, we have no doubts about what we want to do and the approach we want to have. I’m very confident I can help the squad and I can help the boys to do better.”
There it is again, that happiness at being appointed, before things go so very wrong.
Mourinho, again, won trophies, including the Premier League, but he was sacked after rounding on his players and privately accusing them of betrayal, per one report.
These words at the beginning, then, mean nothing, really. It matters not a jot if Mourinho is “happy” when he arrives because he usually eventually leaves the club under a cloud of toxic smoke.
It happened at Chelsea and it happened at United; it could well happen at Spurs, too.