Report: Tottenham have made contact with Jose Mourinho

The international break for October is just about over, and while we’re all eager to get back to club football to see if Tottenham Hotspur can pull themselves out of the tailspin they’re in, the news regarding the turmoil isn’t going away.

A report from France from Soccer Link (via Sport Witness) has stated that Tottenham have at least made contact with former Chelsea and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho. If this news is true, there’s little doubt as to the subject matter of the discussion:

While making it clear that ‘for now, he isn’t threatened, Soccer Link in France report the Tottenham board are ‘prospecting’ in case they have to find an eventual ‘successor’ to the Argentine.

With that in mind, the French website go on to claim that according to their information, José Mourinho, whose last job was at Manchester United, ‘has been contacted’ by the London club, who hold him in ‘high esteem’.

Let’s pump the brakes on this entire story for a moment and take a deep breath. The report from Soccer Link makes it clear that this is Spurs just having a “Plan B” in the wings in case things truly go south and Daniel Levy is forced to sack Mauricio Pochettino. The “high esteem” comment isn’t hard to swallow either, given that Mourinho has had success everywhere he’s gone, even at Manchester United where he won the Europa League with the Red Devils at time where they are in chaos themselves.

The report itself doesn’t have much substance, but the reason I’m not stamping Bat Country on this is because there’s very few scenarios I’m willing to throw into a wood chipper. Soccer Link aren’t a terrible source, either. We included them during the Victor Wanyama rumors this summer and they seemed to have some information that was later confirmed by other outlets. If this report was the standard tabloid garbage of “Spurs contact Mourinho to take over!” then we can drop an entire salt mine on the article. Instead, what’s suggested is quite plausible, even if it was just a quick call to see if he’d be interested.

Mourinho is always going to garner attention until he decides to retire from the game. French side Lyon reportedly reached out to the Portuguese manager last week, but Jean-Michel Aulas confirmed that no meeting took place because Mourinho “had already chosen another club.” This could be foreshadowing that Levy is ready to pull the trigger. Consequently, it could also rubbish the report from Soccer Link, if we’re to believe the Guardian over them.

This rumor has evolved to the point where we’re no longer surprised by it, and the story isn’t going to go away unless Pochettino can right the ship and rattle off some victories, especially on the road. Spurs will take on Watford at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, followed by a Champions League date with Red Star Belgrade before heading to Merseyside two straight weeks to take on league leaders Liverpool and 18th placed Everton.