Mourinho has already created a toxic atmosphere at Spurs.
It’s absolutely staggering that more Arsenal fans didn’t react with absolute horror at the time, but remember when Jose Mourinho was being quite strongly linked as a replacement for Unai Emery?
Shortly before winding up replacing Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham, there seemed to be growing whispers that we might be considering the controversial former Chelsea and Man Utd boss, with the Times even reporting he’d had dinner with Raul Sanllehi.
Who knows how accurate this speculation really was, but it’s frightening to think we might have considered it, and fans should now be very grateful we came to our senses and allowed Tottenham to make this massive mistake.
The Portuguese tactician is quite clearly not the force he was, with the end to his spells at Chelsea and United showing how much he can demoralise a squad, while the quality of his teams’ football has been sub-par for arguably even longer now.
Spurs are now finding that out the hard way, in what is surely going to be the Special One’s last chance in a big Premier League job. Of course, he’s a big enough name that links with big names around Europe will probably continue for some time, but I can’t stress how relieved I am that we didn’t fall into this trap.
Consider this – in less than four months Mourinho already has his side making zero progress in the top four race, out of the FA Cup at home to Norwich, facing a likely Champions League exit at the last 16 stage with a side not too dissimilar to the one that reached last season’s final, playing dire football leading to players questioning his methods (as per the Sun) and facing the very real prospect of losing star player Harry Kane, who unsurprisingly doesn’t seem keen to stick around, according to the Telegraph.
On top of that, he’s now taken some bizarre and needless pot shots at exciting youngster Troy Parrott, and it’s no surprise his attitude is alienating the club’s fans, as detailed in the clip below from talkSPORT…
Arsenal may not even necessarily finish above Spurs this season, but it’s already clear we’re building something under Mikel Arteta in much the same way Pochettino was building something at Spurs.
Let’s hope we can win a bit more in the way of silverware than Pochettino did, but most Gooners would be lying if they weren’t envious of the smart work in the transfer market and the superb style of play across north London while the Argentine was in charge.
As Jurgen Klopp has shown at Liverpool, it’s a long process now – the competition is too good for overnight success like Arsene Wenger enjoyed when he took over. Like Pochettino, Arteta looks the ideal modern, forward-thinking tactician ideally equipped to take us forward. Let’s learn from what Tottenham did under Pochettino, and learn not to make the huge mistake they’ve made by hiring Mourinho to undo all his good work.