Tottenham head coach, Jose Mourinho, has insisted that the difficult season the club are enduring at the moment will be worthwhile when they begin their next campaign.
Mourinho replaced Mauricio Pochettino as the Spurs boss back in November after the team made a poor start to the season and found themselves languishing in 14th spot in the Premier League table.
While results initially improved after the Portuguese coach arrived, the team has struggled to pick up wins over the last few weeks with key players out injured.
Drawing parallels with his time at Porto, where he managed to win the league and the Champions League after a difficult start to his time at the club, the Spurs boss insisted that the lessons he learned this season will help him moving forward.
Speaking to the club’s official app ( as relayed by the Evening Standard), Mourinho said: “That half of a season [with Porto] was so, so hard. For some reason, a team changes mid-way and it’s so difficult.
“But at the same time, it’s an incredible preparation for next season: to know the players, know what they can do, their mentality.
“If I came to the club next July, I wouldn’t know what [Japhet] Tanganga can do, what [Oliver] Skipp can do, what [Eric] Dier is as a midfielder or centre-back, or the mentality of certain players.”
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The former Man Utd and Chelsea boss also gave the example of Giovani Lo Celso as someone who completely changed Mourinho’s perception of him in the last few months.
“When I arrived, he [Lo Celso] was not playing”, he said. “I didn’t believe in him or understand him immediately.
“Three or four months later, Giovani is phenomenal. I can imagine that if I came in July, I would again be in a grey area with Giovani. No. Next season I know exactly what Giovani can give.”
The 57-year-old also remained confident that the team will turn around their form.
He added: “You see the matches we lost recently, and you see the margins; it was 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, then 1-1 and penalties. Everything was small margins.
“We will turn – I believe in the boys.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Some of the attacks I’ve seen from Spurs fans towards Mourinho recently have been extremely bizarre. It is almost as if some fans had made their minds up about him the day he was appointed and are just waiting for the opportunity to point out that they were right.
One cannot judge Jose’s tactics until he’s had at least one pre-season to work with the squad and get his ideas across. In the meantime, fans will do well to actually get behind the team during what is a tough period for the club.
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