What has Mourinho said?
“I have no plans,” he said when asked about returning to management. “I am going on with my normal life. I feel fresh. I feel calm.
“I am on holiday. I have more time to be doing my homework and analysis. I’ll wait to be back in football. Not just for the right club, but for the right culture.
“Maybe next season is premature, we will see.”
The former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Inter Milan manager will be working as a pundit for this summer’s Euro 2020 tournament.
Why did Spurs decide to sack Mourinho?
Tottenham saw Mourinho as their way to get back into the Champions League but when that became increasingly unlikely, he was on borrowed time.
The club were also unhappy with Mourinho’s constant criticism of the players in public, and very conscious of how the fans had turned on him.
They knew that if the fans came back to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium they would make their feelings on Mourinho very clear. His position at the club therefore became untenable.
How did Mourinho perform at Spurs?
Mourinho was brought in to take Tottenham to the next level, to do what Mauricio Pochettino could not do and win the club a trophy.
But Spurs finished sixth in the Premier League last year and although his second campaign started brightly, a disappointing second half of the season saw Spurs plummet from the top of the Premier League to outside the European places.
The Portuguese manager departed with the club sitting in seventh, with almost no chance of Champions League qualification for next season.
At the time of Mourinho’s sacking, they were also out of the Europa League and only had a Carabao Cup final against Manchester City as a chance to win a trophy. They lost the final 1-0 to City on April 25.
Ultimately, Mourinho left the club further away from the elite than they were under his predecessor Pochettino.
Where can I find out more about Mourinho’s tenure at Spurs?
For more exclusive insight into how Mourinho’s Tottenham spell unravelled, Go Deeper below.
(Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
