Tottenham Should have Learned from Jose Mourinho's Bitter End to Man Utd Tenure

Daniel Levy has appointed Jose Mourinho as Tottenham manager

Jose Mourinho is back in management in north London after replacing Mauricio Pochettino but the world will be watching for it all to turn sour.

It will end it tears. It always does with Jose Mourinho

In appointing Mourinho to replace Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham have swapped flair for functionality, panache for pragmatism.

It is a bold call from Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, but one that is destined to end in bitterness and self-recrimination, even if there is fleeting success in between.

When Mourinho arrived in the Premier League with Chelsea in 2004, he announced himself as 'The Special One' – but with his once lustrous hair now grey, the mischievous smirk replaced by a perma-scowl and a sense his best days are behind him, a more fitting title would be 'The Stale One'.

Just ask Manchester United fans. After the failed tenures of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, the arrival of Mourinho at Old Trafford in 2016, coinciding with Pep Guardiola'a appointment at local rivals Manchester City, created a buzz of anticipation among United fans.

Here was a serial winner, a man who had won the title at every one of his previous clubs and who would not be daunted by the scale of the task facing him at United. And, for the first season at least, Mourinho justified those giddy expectations held by United supporters.

Victory in the League Cup was followed by Europa League success, a competition Mourinho had prioritised when it became apparent it provided a more realistic route back to the Champions League than a top-four finish, which ultimately eluded United, who finished sixth.

The football was not attractive to watch, in keeping with United's rich, attacking heritage. In fact, it was downright turgid, but it was effective, yielding results and silverware, something United's rivals, including Liverpool and Manchester City, could not boast that season.

The following season, United finished second behind runaway champions City, an achievement Mourinho, showing his customary lack of humility, described as one of the greatest of his career.

That should have been the platform for United to push on and potentially challenge for the title, but, as it always does with Mourinho, cracks began to appear, his brooding discontent surfaced and he was gone a week before Christmas, after a chastening 3-1 defeat at arch rivals Liverpool.

Those on the inside at United described the period leading up to Mourinho's exit as “death by a thousand cuts”, which should have been a red flag to Levy and the Spurs hierarchy before they decided to take the plunge with the 56-year-old and the considerable baggage he brings with him.

Mourinho will undoubtedly haul Spurs, currently 14 and listing, up the table, but the football, although effective, will be insipid and tough to stomach for those fans who have grown accustomed to the expansive style of play under Pochettino over the past five years.

Tottenham's players will have to get used to a more abrasive style of management, with Mourinho unafraid to publicly call out individuals whom he does not feel are producing for him, as he did with Paul Pogba, Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and others at United, hanging them out to dry.

And Levy will have to accept that after a honeymoon period, when results improve and sceptical fans buy into the Mourinho approach, the Portuguese will inevitably throw his toys out of the pram when he feels he is not being backed sufficiently in the transfer market, just as he did at United in the pre-season tour before his acrimonious exit.

It has been a familiar pattern throughout Mourinho's itinerant, turbulent, but ultimately box-office managerial career.

It promises to be a bumpy ride, as it always is with Mourinho, with the football world rubbernecking in Tottenham's direction and waiting for the inevitable moment it all turns sour.

Spurs, you have been warned.