Tottenham Hotspur have named Jose Mourinho as their new manager on a contract that runs until the end of the 2022-23 season, the Premier League club said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.
The 56-year-old Portuguese returns to management for the first time since being sacked by Manchester United in December. He replaces Mauricio Pochettino, who was sacked by Spurs on Tuesday. Pochettino took the club to their first Champions League final last season, where they lost to Liverpool, but was sacked after a poor run of form in 2019, during which the team have won six of their last 24 league games.
Spurs, who currently sit 14th in the league, are the third Premier League club that Mourinho will manage having won the league title three times with Chelsea in two separate stints. Mourinho has won trophies at every major club he has managed — including two Champions League titles with Porto and Inter Milan — while Spurs have not won silverware since the 2008 League Cup.
The Portuguese won the Europa League in his first season at United and finished second in the Premier League the following season — marking their highest finish since Alex Ferguson retired. He was sacked last December following a 3-1 league defeat by Liverpool that effectively ended their title hopes.
Tottenham Hotspur sacked manager Mauricio Pochettino on Tuesday, six months after he led the club to the Champions League final and after five years in charge, saying that it was a move made reluctantly after a disappointing start to the season. Pochettino, appointed by Tottenham in 2014, had turned the perennial under-achievers, who had been through a series of managers, into a Premier League force, with finishes of fifth, third, second - their best for over 50 years - third and fourth. They also reached the League Cup final in his first season.
The Argentine oversaw a remarkable Champions League campaign last season, beating Ajax Amsterdam on away goals in the semi-final after trailing 3-0 on aggregate at halftime in the second leg but losing 2-0 to Liverpool in the final in Madrid. With the club also moving into a wonderful new one billion pounds ($1.29 billion) stadium, everything was looking rosy, despite concerns about a lack of transfer market activity.
However, the first few months of this season have been disappointing, as the team have won only three of their opening 12 Premier League games and are in 14th spot. They were also thrashed 7-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League and knocked out of the League Cup by fourth-tier Colchester United.
Pochettino’s assistant Jesus Perez and the rest of his backroom staff have also been relieved of their duties, the club said in a statement.
The statement said an update on the new coaching set-up would be made in due course. Since joining from Southampton, Pochettino has become a hugely popular figure at Spurs, bringing some much-needed stability to a club that averaged almost a manager a year over the previous decade.
Pochettino’s five-year stint made him Spurs’ longest-serving coach since Keith Burkinshaw who was in charge from 1976-84, and, until Tuesday, the third-longest serving Premier League boss behind Eddie Howe at Bournemouth and Burnley’s Sean Dyche. Tottenham Hotspur’s decision to sack Mauricio Pochettino six months after leading them to the Champions League final has sent shockwaves through the football world, with pundits saying the club should have given him more time to turn the season around.
Spurs sit 14th in the Premier League with only 14 points after 12 games, a situation that prompted club chairman Daniel Levy to make the “extremely reluctant” decision in an attempt to salvage their campaign. Pochettino led Spurs to four consecutive Champions League finishes despite a relatively small transfer budget and former Spurs striker Gary Lineker said the club would be hard-pressed to find a suitable replacement.
However, with only 25 points from their last 24 games stretching back to last season, former Spurs manager Harry Redknapp said the sacking was inevitable.