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Tottenham Dismisses Jose Mourinho After 17 Months in Charge

by S. Ateljevic  ·  April 23, 2021

After just 17 months on the job, Jose Mourinho was sacked as Tottenham head coach on Monday April 19 following a bad run of results. Appointed in November 2019 to replace Mauricio Pochettino, the 58-year-old Portuguese manager led the club out of the FA Cup and straight to a humiliating exit from the Europa League in March.

Mourinho, who has previously managed Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and Porto, led Spurs through some difficult and challenging times. Despite the club’s best efforts, Tottenham has suffered 10 defeats already this season, losing any realistic hopes of winning the Premier League and dropping dramatically in the betting odds since the start of the season.

Sacking Mourinho along with his coaching staff was unthinkable after Tottenham’s promising start to the season. A mesmerizing 6-1 win against Manchester United, Mourinho’s former club, and a stunning 2-0 home win over Arsenal had commentators heaping praise on the Portuguese master coach.

Tottenham went top of the Premier League on the back of these performances, but began to slide soon after. Defeat by Liverpool led to a run of poor form, with Spurs falling down the table and getting eliminated from the FA Cup in February. Losing to Arsenal and then Dinamo Zagreb in March added insult to injury.

Unfortunately for Mourinho, his tenure at Tottenham has once again seen the club miss an opportunity to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy commented on the abrupt sacking of Jose Mourinho, a former FIFA world coach of the year, saying: “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”.

The team will be taken over by former Spurs midfielder Ryan Mason until the end of the season, when a new permanent coach will be appointed.