Jose Mourinho gets comfy at Spurs

Jose Mourinho spoke of comfy pillows and expensive bed linen as he addressed the media for the first time as the Tottenham coach.

Jose Mourinho dressed for training as he settles in as Tottenham manager

There were no fireworks, no picking of fights, no bombshells, no pointscoring, no overt digs at his previous clubs, their managers or players. Instead, Jose Mourinho spoke of comfy pillows and expensive bed linen as he addressed the media for the first time as the Tottenham Hotspur head coach.

Mourinho had stayed late on Wednesday having held individual chats with senior players throughout the day. He chose to stay the night in accommodation at the club’s Enfield training ground, north of London, rather than return to his home in Chelsea.

“If you are trying to find a six-star hotel you couldn’t find better than here, absolutely amazing,” the 56-year-old said. “Great beds, huge pillows. Huge pillows. Amazing, you sleep in the middle of five or six huge soft pillows. Very good. Expensive duvet. So good. This morning I woke up with all my guys, seven o’clock and started working. So that’s what I did and I’m really happy.”

This was a fluffier and lighter Mourinho but with the same charm. He knows how to play a crowd at a time when Tottenham are being captured in detail in a fly-on-the wall Amazon documentary and the club want to present themselves as a global player, perhaps to attract a new owner.

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The rows of camera crews from around the world show that he remains box-office. Mourinho paced into the room joking about the silence and whether he would need to be prepared for difficult questions. He opened by expressing empathy and respect for Mauricio Pochettino, his predecessor, who left on Wednesday after 5½ years.

Mourinho had consciously dressed as a manager ready for matches by arriving in his training gear and a sleeveless puffer jacket rather than his customary navy suit.

He made clear that he was ready to unify a disaffected squad, to work within his financial constraints and that he did not need new players, all lines to please his chairman, Daniel Levy, and transmit belief to his players that there was a clean slate.

“Happiness-wise, I am convinced that my choice was a great one and 10 out of 10, I couldn’t be happier,” he said.

He was asked about whether he had got his mojo back. “When I don’t win I cannot be happy and I cannot change that in my DNA,” came Mourinho’s reply. “I hope I can influence the players in not being happy without winning football matches. If you are happy by losing football matches, it’s difficult to be a winner.”

Some of the melodrama may be yet to come, of course, especially given what has come before. His relationship with some players became fractious in his last stints at Chelsea and Manchester United.

“Don’t ask me what are the mistakes, but I realise that during my career I made mistakes,” he said. “I am not going to make the same mistakes, I am going to make new mistakes. I had time. I think I am stronger. From an emotional point of view I’m relaxed, I’m motivated, I’m ready and the players they felt that in these two days.”

He chose to speak about experiences rather than trophies, which may be telling as Tottenham most recently won silverware in 2008. At least four times he said it was “not about me” by which he meant he did not want Tottenham to be his show.

“I am in a period where it’s not about myself at all,” he said. “It’s about my club, my club’s fans, my players, it’s not about me,” he said. “I’m just here to try to help everyone.”

With the stars and egos at Real Madrid, he felt he needed to enter with a swagger. Tottenham have different characters and he wanted to show empathy with the players, many of whom have not won silverware and lost the Champions League final in June.

“I don’t know (what it feels like) because I never lost a Champions League final, but I can imagine it’s not easy,” he said. “You reach one of the biggest moments that you can achieve in football. You are one step away from it, you cannot do it, I imagine that is not easy.”

When at Chelsea he was adamant that he would never work at Tottenham out of respect for the fans and the rivalry. “That was before I was sacked,” he said.

“I can be happy here, make people happy and there’s not a bigger, let’s say fan than me in the world who wants Spurs to win and be successful. Chelsea is the past, a great past, two periods, two periods with titles.”

THE TIMES