Jose Mourinho takes centre stage in All or NothingIs it any surprise that manager Jose Mourinho takes centre stage in a new documentary about Tottenham Hotspur?
Well, maybe, when you consider that All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, charts a season in which the London club navigated their way through a house move, dramatic change in personnel, injuries to key players… oh, and a global pandemic.
We’ve seen the first three episodes of the documentary, which come to Amazon Prime on Monday, 31 August.
The opening episodes include some incredible revelations… not least that the ‘Special One’ keeps a signed photograph of ex-Wimbledon midfielder turned actor Vinnie Jones in his office.
Here is a flavour of what else is to come.
Levy hopes he and Poch can still be friendsSome Tottenham fans may be surprised by the haste with which Mauricio Pochettino’s services were dispensed. Just 20 minutes into the first episode, he’s gone. The Argentine’s story precedes the main action and the former Spurs manager is pretty much always referred to in the past tense.
Chairman Daniel Levy talks about his decision to sack him as if he’s discussing a break-up.
“My heart was telling me, ‘don’t do it’. My brain was telling me ‘I need to’ – it was more than just an employer-employee relationship,” he says.
Mauricio Pochettino and Daniel Levy celebrate Spurs reaching the Champions League finalHe even trots out a variation of the old “I hope we can still be friends” line when he says: “We went away together – we had a lot of fun times. I’m sure after a little while, maybe we’ll continue doing that – I think at the moment things are a little bit raw.”
Back in May, Pochettino saidexternal-link “always Daniel will be my friend”. So, it seems like the feeling is mutual.
Does Kane have inside knowledge of the sacking?One of the most revealing scenes is when Harry Kane discusses Pochettino’s dismissal with other players in the canteen. Mourinho was hired by Spurs in November 2019, the day after Pochettino was sacked.
Speaking soon after that, defender Jan Vertonghen asks captain Kane: “Apparently they knew already?”
“No,” responds Kane, explaining that he spoke to Poch the previous night. He relays that exchange by saying: “The chairman came in and said, ‘can I talk? You’re being sacked – you need to pack your things and you leave tonight’.”
Mourinho is sensitive to criticismOK, so we knew that already.
But still, there’s a brilliant example of this in the first episode. Mourinho is busy working in his new office when the TV in the background picks up a conversation on Sky Sports.
One pundit mentions their surprise at the Portuguese’s appointment by saying: “Is that really the kind of football Tottenham Hotspur want to play?”
Cue a mid-shot of Mourinho peering up over his spectacles, lips pursed, brow furrowed.
A second pundit disagrees: “He’s won trophies at every club he’s been to.”
Is that a slight nod of agreement from the ‘Special One’?
“No, I’m telling you, Mourinho is past his best – look at what happened at United.”
And with that, the ‘riled one’ marches over to the TV to switch it off.
Mourinho had to check Harry Winks’ first name”Which do you prefer, Walker or Peters?” Mourinho asks Kyle Walker-Peters in training. The answer, “Walker-Peters” is dismissed as unsatisfactory. “Too long, man,” says the 57-year-old.
There’s a similar moment involving Harry Winks.
“This kid Winks – it’s ‘Harry Winks’, no?” Mourinho asks in training. “So, what do you call the guy, because the other one is Harry [Kane]?”
Poor Winks, hey? Not only does he miss out on first dibs on his own forename but his new manager has to clarify who he actually is!
We’ve been saying ‘Jose’ wrong this whole timeWhilst we’re on the subject of names, it turns out that a lot of us have been saying Jose wrong for some time now.
“Everybody says my name wrong,” he reveals. Apparently, the pronunciation is “Jo-say”, not “Ho-say” – the latter being the Argentine variant.
Fergie told Mourinho to sign Dele AlliThe dynamic between Dele Alli and Jose Mourinho is fascinatingMourinho quickly moves to get Harry Kane on side, telling him he can be a “movie star” of football with the manager’s help. If the captain gets the carrot, Dele Alli is more a recipient of the stick.
Mourinho gives a fairly frank, public assessment of Alli after his first training session.
“You are a lazy guy,” he tells the player.
Despite that, Mourinho is clearly a fan. He also reveals at one point that the only piece of advice former manager Sir Alex Ferguson gave him in his two and a half years at Manchester United was to sign Alli.
The situation with Christian Eriksen is mysteriousOne of the major subplots of Tottenham’s 2019-20 campaign was the contract situation over some key players – most notably Christian Eriksen after he publicly agitated for a move last summer.
There’s a revealing exchange between Mourinho and Levy, where the latter says: “The problem we have with Christian is that none of us know what the real truth is. His agent controls everything. There’s been no dialogue between the club and his agent at all.”
We now know how it was resolved – with the Danish midfielder joining Inter Milan in January for about £16.9m.