Jose Mourinho is unhappy that some of his Tottenham players may have leaked negative stories about his training methods and has ordered a mole hunt, according to reports.
Spurs endured a miserable run of form earlier this year, with Mourinho losing three successive Premier League games for the first time ever as his side were beaten by Liverpool, Brighton, Chelsea, Manchester City and West Ham.
They appeared to turn a corner, winning five straight matches on the bounce, but then lost the north London derby against Arsenal before being kicked out of Europe in embarrassing fashion against Dinamo Zagreb.
Those miserable results have seen Mourinho’s future at the club called into question – with RB Leipzig’s Julian Nagelsmann named as a possible replacement – while stories also emerged of discontent within the squad.
After the defeat to West Ham, a report in The Athletic claimed players were questioning his overly reactive and defensive approach in games and felt training sessions were too geared towards negating the threat of the opposition.
It was even suggested that Mourinho had spent ‘hours’ in the build-up to facing Liverpool simply working on defending throw-ins.
Now The Daily Mail claim that Mourinho is so unhappy with the complaints about his sessions that the club are seeking to identify the players who may have been behind the stories.
The Portuguese coach – who conducted a similar investigation to weed out ‘rats’ at Chelsea – was asked about his coaching methods during Spurs’ poor run of form and hit out at suggestions they needed changing.
Questioned on whether he had any doubts over his methods, Mourinho replied: ‘No, not at all. Not at all. Zero.
‘Because sometimes the results are the consequence of multiple situations in football and mine and my coaching staff’s methods are second to nobody in the world.’
Mourinho doubled down on his defence during a virtual event organised by Spurs’ sponsors AIA this week, saying: ‘I don’t think anybody is going to discuss rocket science with the guys from NASA, with everybody around the world.
‘They think they can discuss football with one of the most important managers in the game. That’s the beauty of football. I got used to it. I appreciate that. So that’s fine for me.’
MORE : Manchester United star Luke Shaw takes dig at Jose Mourinho after England recall
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