Jose Mourinho has been fired by Tottenham after 17 months in charge, as the legendary coach has left Spurs immediately.
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Amid the fury over the planned European Super League, this is the ultimate news dump by Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.
Mourinho, 58, took charge in November 2019 and led Spurs to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League last season and the UEFA Champions League last 16.
This season Spurs have reached the final of the League Cup, were dumped out of the UEFA Europa League at the last 16 stage and currently sit seventh in the table, five points off the top four with six games to go.
Tottenham released a statement confirming the departure of Mourinho and his staff and announced that former Spurs midfielder Ryan Mason would take charge on an interim basis until the end of the season, while Ledley King would remain with the club and Chris Powell would also be involved.
Statement from Tottenham
“The Club can today announce that Jose Mourinho and his coaching staff Joao Sacramento, Nuno Santos, Carlos Lalin and Giovanni Cerra have been relieved of their duties,” Tottenham said. “Ryan Mason will take First Team training today and a further update will follow in due course.”
Chairman, Daniel Levy, added: “Jose and his coaching staff have been with us through some of our most challenging times as a Club. Jose is a true professional who showed enormous resilience during the pandemic. On a personal level I have enjoyed working with him and regret that things have not worked out as we both had envisaged. He will always be welcome here and we should like to thank him and his coaching staff for their contribution.”
What now for Spurs?
As shocking as the timing of this announcement is, this had been coming.
Mourinho has seen Tottenham make the same mistakes time and time again and he has consistently blamed a lack of quality defensive options for Spurs dropping points from winning positions. No PL club dropped more points (20) than Tottenham this season.
With the future of Harry Kane and others up in the air (Dele Alli and Gareth Bale are out of favor and Heung-min Son is stalling on signing a new contract), this move needed to be made by Daniel Levy.
13 - José Mourinho has lost more games in all competitions in 2020-21 than he has in any other season in his managerial career (13). Regression. pic.twitter.com/BO7G1P0rZl
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 19, 2021
Quite why it needed to be made ahead of a League Cup final remains to be seen, but it is clear that Max Allegri, or another coach of that ilk, has been lined up by Spurs for this summer.
These are intriguing times for not only Tottenham but the whole of the Premier League and European soccer and Mourinho is now on the outside looking in.
