Jose Mourinho’s time at Tottenham may have been fairly short in the end, but Ben Davies has revealed the former coach had a big impact during his tenure at the club, and is a manager that Davies very much enjoyed working for.
When Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in 2019, Spurs brought in a big-name replacement, arguably the biggest there is, with Mourinho taking the helm.
Mourinho lasted just 18 months in the role, and was sacked just days before the Carabao Cup final in 2021, a final Spurs ultimately lost to Manchester City under the temporary charge of the inexperienced Ryan Mason.
Tottenham sacked Mourinho days before Carabao Cup final
One thing’s for sure, Mourinho made big changes at the club. He ruffled a few feathers, put the players through their paces, and even had to deal with Covid forcing fans out of the stadium for much of his tenure.
Ben Davies praises Jose Mourinho
Whether Mourinho had a positive impact overall is up for debate, but Ben Davies certainly enjoyed his time with the Portuguese manager.
He told the Business of Sport podcast: “It’s completely unpredictable. We definitely didn’t see the Pochettino [sacking] coming. But when it did, it’s challenging.
“It’s tough, but you realise you don’t have too long to worry about it or overthink it, because we had a new manager, we had a game three days later… underperforming because you were frustrated that a manager left or sad that a manager left is not really going to cut it.
“The next day we were straight in training. Mourinho got us in, told us some harsh truths and put us to work straight away. And he was an incredible man manager.
“He was, he was someone that I really got along with. I had plenty of long chats with him. Sometimes just listening to some of his stories, you were like a fan. You couldn’t help but be engrossed that he just would take over a room with the stories and it was incredible. But yeah, it was another way of working that was completely different, but it was very interesting to be around someone like him.”
When asked about the finer details of how Mourinho operated, Davies added: “It’s more group-led. To start, I think he had a few one-on-one conversations with people, whether they were formal meetings in his office or whether they were on the grass.
“And I remember just a small interaction with him on the pitch before the game on the weekend. And sometimes that’s all you need. Sometimes, as a manager, you’ve got to pick and choose what’s the most important things to come in. And what are your quick wins, because when you have a game three days later, you don’t really have time to sit with everyone individually, listen to their ideas.”
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Ultimately, I just don’t think Mourinho was a very good fit for us, in terms of the football he played at times and the way he operated generally.
It’s a shame it didn’t work out, and the decision to get rid of him days before the cup final will always be a terrible move by the club.