‘This is a joke’ – Jose Mourinho on Tottenham’s hectic schedule

Jose Mourinho has described Tottenham Hotspur’s hectic fixture schedule as a joke which could see his side play a staggering nine matches in 22 days.

After facing Lokomotiv Plovdiv on Thursday, Mourinho’s side now travel to the south coast to face Southampton on Sunday with both sides looking for their first Premier League win of the season.

Spurs have little time to recover after facing the Saints when they will make the short trip across London to take on Leyton Orient in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday before yet another European trip when they head to Macedonia to square off against KF Shkendija in the third round of Europa League qualifying.

While Mourinho is far from expressed by the scheduling, he did admit that he prefers for his side to be competing for silverware and wants his side to fight for everything which is on offer.

Spurs are without a competitive trophy since they last tasted success back in 2008 with a League Cup win against Chelsea.

Mourinho told Football.London when asked if his squad is ready for such a hectic schedule: “I hope it is, I wouldn’t like to be knocked out of Europa League or even Carabao Cup. The people that make these decisions that one English, not Tottenham, one English club, could be Wolves, could be Sheffield United or another, they forgot that this situation is not possible,”

“This is a joke, a total joke, but here we go. We were very lucky that Leyton Orient beat Plymouth because Plymouth would be very, very far for us.

“In this moment, we are in Bulgaria, Sunday will be Southampton, Wednesday we will be flying to Macedonia and so on and so on. It is dramatic but I prefer this drama and to be in the competition so let’s fight for everything we can.”