{"id":541229,"date":"2020-01-23T15:15:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T20:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=541229"},"modified":"2020-01-23T15:50:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T20:50:30","slug":"tottenham-hotspurs-long-road-to-glory-jose-mourinhos-greatest-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/01\/23\/tottenham-hotspurs-long-road-to-glory-jose-mourinhos-greatest-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham Hotspur&#8217;s Long Road to Glory &#8211; Jose Mourinho\u2019s Greatest Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/tottenham\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s<\/a> long road to glory started over five years ago. Now, after a bright start under <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2019\/11\/21\/jose-mourinho-tottenham-hotspur-win-premier-league-next-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Mourinho<\/a>, just two league wins in 7 has dented hopes of a top-four finish. Now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/sport\/football\/news\/jose-mourinho-already-danger-losing-21332043\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rumours<\/a> of unrest amongst players are surfacing. Jose Mourinho only knows winning and despite another lethargic performance, victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/norwich-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Norwich City<\/a> at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium might go a small way toward kickstarting a new era.<\/p>\n<h2>Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s Long Road to Glory<\/h2>\n<p>To work out what has been going wrong at Tottenham Hotspur is no easy task. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2019\/11\/20\/analyzing-tottenham-hotspurs-decision-to-sack-mauricio-pochettino\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mauricio Pochettino<\/a> lifted the club from the occasional top-four finish to regular top-four finishes. A strategy of youth and high pressing saw the club finish the 2017 season undefeated at the closing White Hart Lane. Semi-Finals came and went. Tottenham just could not get over the line. An improbable run to the 2019 Champions League Final in May ended in defeat after a lacklustre performance against a well below par <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/liverpool\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Liverpool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tottenham\u2019s long Road to glory has come close but is now starting to head off toward the distance once more. Jose Mourinho is the man that must change that.<\/p>\n<h3>Has Jose Mourinho\u2019s Time Passed?<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jos%C3%A9_Mourinho\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">25 trophies<\/a>. Some less prestigious than others but 25 trophies. That is the fact of what Jose Mourinho does. He wins trophies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/manchester-united\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> decided to call time on Pochettino\u2019s time at the helm and heralded \u2018winner\u2019 and self-titled \u2018humble one\u2019 Mourinho as the man to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/sport\/football\/jose-mourinho-tottenham-chairman-daniel-levy-insists-special-one-has-energy-and-belief-to-lift-spurs-a4291466.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">inject energy<\/a> into a floundering squad.<\/p>\n<p>Questions have been raised as to whether Jose Mourinho is still in tune with the modern game with the Telegraph\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/football\/2020\/01\/22\/had-concerns-jose-mourinho-joined-spurs-has-done-little-convince\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alistair Tweedale<\/a> suggesting Mourinho is not the manager he once was;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis triumphs became more sporadic in his later posts, the football at Manchester United was less convincing than anywhere else he has gone while everywhere, without exception, things eventually turned toxic.\u2018<\/p>\n<h3>Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s Long Road To Glory &#8211; Jose Mourinho Can Bring It Back<\/h3>\n<p>The media have often sought to question Jose Mourinho whenever they can. The stories in the British media about unrest may well be true. They are also just as likely to be troublemaking; attempts to get the old Mourinho to provide the sound bites that sell newspapers.<\/p>\n<p>For Tottenham Hotspur, hiring the former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/chelsea\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chelsea<\/a> manager was always a risk. His style of play isn\u2019t always what Spurs fans would want to watch. Recent games have proven that with some lacklustre performances against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/watford\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Watford<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/southampton\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Southampton<\/a> and in the FA cup away to Middlesbrough. Against Norwich in the Premier League on 22\/01\/2020, it was another tough watch that at last saw Tottenham\u2019s first goal of 2020 and three vital points.<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho\u2019s tactics can be questioned. Yet with injuries to Moussa Sissoko, Harry Kane and Tanguy N\u2019Dombele not fully fit to play 90 minutes, the manager has his work cut out. He was left with a squad that had become apathetic and players such as Christian Eriksen that simply no longer want to play for the club. Not even Jose Mourinho can suddenly change those attitudes.<\/p>\n<p>Jose Mourinho does not walk away from challenges. If he gets sacked he gets sacked from his jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s long Road to glory is ongoing. Glory has felt close at times but now it seems a distant hope once more.<\/p>\n<p>Delivering the success that this great club and its passionate fans desire may just prove to be the biggest challenge of Jose Mourinho\u2019s managerial career.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1201423240\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1201423240?et=gTer9MptRNNtOFyYRNXLUg&amp;tld=co.uk&amp;sig=dMCiMjDjU8NLuFcx2Tsn5ixb-WUqiFfCIBFuUNg9nV0=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s long road to glory started over five years ago. Now, after a bright start under Jose Mourinho, just two league wins in 7 has dented hopes of a top-four finish. Now rumours of unrest amongst players are surfacing. Jose Mourinho only knows winning and despite another lethargic performance, victory over Norwich City at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2488,"featured_media":541326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[378,11,2,1828,1829,30,3,24,28],"tags":[291,138,40,96,136],"class_list":["post-541229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","category-chelsea","category-featured","category-fixtures","category-history","category-news","category-premier-league","category-tottenham","category-transfers","tag-daniel-levy","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-premier-league","tag-tottenham-hotspur","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Declan Wiseman, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}