Carlos Vinicius has made an interesting admission about his time working with Jose Mourinho at Tottenham Hotspur.
Mourinho’s appointment was one of many Daniel Levy managerial experiments that backfired badly, with the Portuguese coach lasting just around 15 months in the job.
In hindsight, Tottenham’s decline started during the Portuguese coach’s time at the club, as he took over a side that had consistently finished in the top four for four seasons in a row, and left them a midtable side.
Mourinho had reportedly fallen out with many players and staff at Spurs in his final few months at the club, but one former Tottenham man certainly enjoyed his brief time with the Special One.
Former Tottenham striker says Jose Mourinho understands the game better than anyone
Carlos Vinicius was on loan at Spurs during Mourinho’s second season (first full one) at the North London club.
The Brazilian played second fiddle to Harry Kane the whole season and found starts hard to come by in the Premier League, but he admitted that working with Mourinho at Tottenham was an eye-opening experience.
When asked who was the best manager he had worked with, Vinicius told Globo Esporte (via Sport Witness): “With group management, with knowing how to win, with understanding the game like nobody else, José Mourinho.
“We’d go into a game, and he’d say: ‘This is going to happen, this is going to happen, this is going to happen for the positive, and this is going to happen for the negative.’ Then the game would unfold and you’d already know it.
“To me, he’s the one I respect the most. I realised it’s not only because of the titles, but because of the person, the way he leads, the way he is. For me, Mourinho is top. The greatest of all.”
Vinicius admits Mourinho was very different to how he imagined
The former Spurs striker confessed that his image of Mourinho was of a hard taskmaster, but he was pleasantly surprised by his early interactions with the experienced coach.
Vinícius explained that the 63-year-old had a sense of humour and went out of his way to reach out to him personally even before he had completed his move to Spurs.
The Brazilian added: “When they told me Mourinho was going to call me, I thought it was nonsense. He called me on FaceTime. I looked at the screen and thought: ‘No way’. He asked me how I was and then said: ‘Look, don’t come here wearing flip-flops because it’s cold here’.”
“I imagined the angry Mourinho. The Mourinho we see from the outside. He started sending me messages. Like any other member of the club. Like a coordinator. Then I arrived, and he would talk to me. Sometimes I thought: ‘My God, is this really the real Mourinho?'”