After beating Manchester City and Arsenal in November there was a real feel-good factor at Tottenham Hotspur. Star strikers Harry Kane and Son Heung-min were on fire in front of goal and Jose Mourinho’s men were flying high at the top of the Premier League table.
Fast forward two months and it’s a very different story for the north London club and their Portuguese head coach.
A poor run of form has seen Spurs slump to ninth in the standings. Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at London rivals West Ham was their fourth loss in five matches.
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With speculation growing in England and Portugal over Mourinho’s future, ESPN reports that the “Special One” is facing a Tottenham “decision day”.
Sources have told the broadcaster that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy wants to “wait until the end of the season before determining Mourinho’s fate as head coach”.
£30m severance package
Even though Spurs are going through a rocky patch, Mourinho has led the team to the League Cup final, where they will face Man City at Wembley on 25 April. The decision to delay the game from February to April has “inadvertently helped Mourinho”, ESPN adds.
Spurs are without a trophy win since 2008 and it will be a “daunting task” against Pep Guardiola’s City, “nevertheless Mourinho was hired to win trophies and he is close to delivering in his first full season”.
Any decision taken by Levy would also have to consider the hefty severance package that would need to be paid out. Mourinho has a contract until the summer of 2023, with no break clause, and sources told ESPN it would cost the club “around £30m” to sack the 58-year-old.
Rodgers is a ‘leading contender’
Should Spurs fail to finish in the top four, they could qualify for next season’s Champions League by winning the Europa League, “something Mourinho did with Manchester United in 2016-17”, FourFourTwo says.
However, if Mourinho fails to turn around the club’s alarming form, and does not win a trophy, this could force Spurs chief Levy to make the expensive decision and change managers.
Leicester City’s Brendan Rodgers is a “leading contender” to replace Mourinho after taking the Foxes to third place in the Premier League this season. Football Insider reveals that Rodgers was in fact Levy’s “preferred choice” to replace Harry Redknapp nine years ago before he eventually took over at Liverpool.
RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann is another highly-coveted head coach and the Daily Mail says both he and Rodgers are “understood to have admirers at Tottenham”.