Why José Mourinho cannot downplay Tottenham expectations this season
Tottenham manager José Mourinho over the years has proven to be a master tactician not only on the field but in the conference room as well, where he plays his infamous mind games.
Throughout his managerial career, he has shared a love-hate relationship with the football media and has become a figure that pundits and journalists love to hate. This is seen the most in his interactions with the English press; where he has spent the bulk of his career.
He is currently managing high-flying North London club Tottenham, which is his third team in England and second in London. José Mourinho arrived in England with a bang, marking it with a celebratory sprint down the touchline at Old Trafford after knocking Manchester United out of the Champions League on his way to winning it with his famed Porto team.
His success in Portugal earned him the Chelsea job the next season where he labelled himself the 'Special One' in his very first media interaction. He proved himself worthy of his self-declared title by winning two consecutive Premier League titles and challenging Sir Alex Ferguson's dominance of English Football.
José Mourinho then went on to achieve great success at some of the top European clubs such as Inter Milan where he won a historic treble, Real Madrid where he won the La Liga during Barcelona's era of dominance, Chelsea once again and then Manchester United where he lasted for two and a half years before being replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjær in December of 2019.
His stint at Manchester United where he won the Europa League and EFL Cup in his first season; and then finished second with 82 points behind a rampant Manchester City team the next season, is considered to be the most unsuccessful period of his career. This criticism of his time at Manchester United is evidence of his greatness; that a term consisting of two major honours and a second place finish was labelled unsuccessful.
After his dismissal from Old Trafford, José Mourinho took a year's break from managing and served as a football pundit during this time. In December last year, he took over the reins at Tottenham after replacing Mauricio Pochettino.
Tottenham were down in the league table struggling for form when he took over and immediately José Mourinho began his games with the media by claiming that he has to start with minus points in the race for the top 4; thus lowering Tottenham's minimum expectation of securing Champions League football.
Tottenham manager José Mourinho: The Master Narrator
José Mourinho is a serial winner but on top of that he is a man who knows what he and his team is capable of achieving at any point in the season. This leads him to always lower the expectations that people have from him or overplay the position his team has already secured.
These tactics were most seen during his mixed spell at Manchester United where he came across as a man who believed that the media was his enemy. José Mourinho has always tried to control everything that he can whether it is the opponents on the field or the narrative off it.
José Mourinho claimed that finishing second in his second season with ''this United team'' was his greatest ever achievement and this was after his 18 minutes speech on football heritage earlier in the same season after getting knocked out in the UCL round of 16 by Sevilla.
He spent that entire press conference and his whole time at Manchester United trying to make people believe that he is overachieving at Old Trafford given their history since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.
But he can not and should not try to lower expectations or oversell his achievements with Tottenham this season as they have a very good chance of achieving great things this season. José Mourinho should focus his energy and tactics on the field rather than trying to control the narrative off it.
If he does that, Tottneham's trophy drought might well come to an end.
Also read: Jose Mourinho takes a dig at Real Madrid after Gareth Bale's winner for Tottenham Hotspur