Twitter when Spurs throw away a 2-0 first-leg lead in Europe against a team whose manager was imprisoned earlier in the week (true story), and whose entire squad is valued at less than £100m:
Major schadenfreude out there. Big schadenfreude energy.
I feel like I’ve been thumping the ‘Mourinho is done’ drum all season, even when Spurs have strung together a few wins. (These wins are misleading, by the way.)
Spurs are going nowhere fast under Jose, with only the League Cup final to play for now – this happens to be against Man City, and whilst there could be a shock in a one-off final, I don’t expect much resistance to Pep’s team.
The acid test of a manager is, are his players better because of his coaching and man management? I look at Thomas Tuchel and in just 13 games he has revitalised or improved half of his Chelsea squad.
Then I look at Spurs, and I’m struggling to name one player who has genuinely gotten better under Mourinho … nope, I’ve got nothing. Tanguy Ndombele, I suppose, but he had set a very low bar for himself. I don’t even want to credit Jose with Tanguy’s improvement – I think it’s mostly down to the player himself.
Then I look back at Tuchel, imagine a scenario where he is Tottenham’s manager, and think about the many under-performing players whose potential he would unleash: Dele, Rodon, Sanchez, Tanganga, Lo Celso, Lucas, Doherty, Dier, Aurier … okay, maybe not Dier.
If I was Harry Kane or Son Heung-min, the only two current Spurs players worth a damn (I like P-E Hjobjerg, but Spurs is his max level), I would be texting my agent on the bus to the airport: GET. ME. OUT.
Take it away, Tom…
Can't believe Jose Mourinho has come across yet another group of players who can't or won't follow his instructions. The guy just has no luck.
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) March 18, 2021
Note to Daniel Levy: this is irony.