Serge Aurier has revealed that he has found Jose Mourinho to be a completely different person compared to how the 58-year-old has been portrayed in the past.
Mourinho is often perceived as being quite hard-headed and unforgiving, owing in part to what we have heard about his management style from some of the players he has managed in the past.
The Tottenham boss is not someone who minds pushing people’s buttons and has thus fallen out with several players in his career.
For example, during his time at Manchester United, the Portuguese coach did not seem to get along with the likes of Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial.
Even though Mourinho announced in his first press conference as Tottenham boss last season that he now realises he needs to “work well” with people he does not like, some would say that he has had similar issues at Spurs with Tanguy Ndombele and Dele Alli.
However, Aurier believes that the 58-year-old is a changed man and is now much more friendly with his players than he has been in the past.
The right-back told Soccer Stories – Oh My Goal (as relayed by Football.London): “What’s good with him and what makes him a good coach it’s that he has a group and he tries to create a nice atmosphere in it.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“Me, like you, I heard what people said from the outside but it’s not the same person that I see here.
“I also think with the sabbatical year he took, he questions his methods. We are all humans, so questioning yourself is not bad.
“Maybe he managed to erase his flaws. Today, regarding what I heard about him before, he is not the same coach any more.
“He is a bit more with the players and he hangs out a bit more with the players and I like that.”
Aurier admitted that he is very close with both Pogba and Martial but revealed that he has found his experiences with Mourinho to be completely different from the Man Utd pair.
He added: “They are people I know well (Pogba and Martial) , personally, they are like family. Today you can’t compare what he did before and now.
“I’m mostly concerned with what’s happening in the present and what’s coming in the future.
“Perhaps he doesn’t have a good relationship with certain players and it hasn’t gone well with others, but he is still a good coach.
“I mean he won a lot of trophies. He is one of the best coaches in the world. So whatever you can say, no matter if it’s good or bad, he has the CV to back him up.
“Even if people say ‘I worked with him and he wasn’t good, he was bad and he said this..’, you need to make your own experience.
“You need to say ‘okay, thank you for the message but I have to see it for myself’.
“What I hear from the outside and what I see when I’m with him, it’s not the same thing. It’s not the same person. You really need to experience it for yourself.
“Imagine if you just listen to what people said, I would have started with bad intentions.”
Spurs Web Opinion
There have been some suggestions in the media that Mourinho might have lost the Spurs dressing room. However, I personally do not see any evidence of that as of yet. Based on how most players speak about the Tottenham boss, it is clear that they have fully bought into his methods. Only time will tell if it will bring us success.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
