Premier League
DOWNBEAT JOSE MOURINHO IS PICTURED LEAVING SPURS’ TRAINING BASE FOR THE LAST TIME
Jose Mourinho has been spotted leaving Tottenham’s training ground hours after the axe was wielded on his tumultuous reign.
The 58-year-old was dismissed on Monday morning with the club on course to miss out on the Champions League and having exited the Europa League in humiliating fashion.
The 2-2 draw at Everton proved to be the final straw for Daniel Levy and now, soon after being told of his sacking, Mourinho has been snapped being driven away from the Hotspur Way complex for the final time.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid coach, who has been sacked four times in England, was seen in the passenger seat of a sleek vehicle.
It looked as though dismay was etched across the face of the crestfallen Special One as he left.
He was seen leaving the Spurs training complex just after 3.30pm on Monday morning and arrived back in his west London home later on Monday afternoon.
Mourinho was seen taking his belongings from his Spurs office back into his home with goalkeeper coach Nuno Santos helping him. The items included several large images of the Portuguese coach’s career highlights.
As he arrived back at his home, Mourinho refused to open up on his Spurs exit, but insisted he is ready to take another job in football straight away.
He told Sky Sports: ‘No need for breaks and (recharging) batteries. I’m always in football.’
When asked by Sky Sports whether it was unfair he had been sacked just before a cup final, he stopped for a moment and grinned but made no further comment.
The bombshell announcement was made by Tottenham less than a week before they take on Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final.
Mourinho also departs as the fallout continues following confirmation that the north London club will join a number of top-flight peers in the European Super League.
Mourinho will walk away with up to £20million as part of a hefty compensation package.
The amount will not surpass that figure, sources have said, due to the performance-related clauses written into his contract.
Mourinho will be placed on gardening leave, which means Tottenham will continue to pay him as normal until he takes up another job elsewhere.
Tottenham are seventh in the Premier League which, combined with failures in Europe, effectively means Mourinho is not entitled to his full compensation.
A statement confirming the sacking read: ‘The Club can today announce that Jose Mourinho and his coaching staff Joao Sacramento, Nuno Santos, Carlos Lalin and Giovanni Cerra have been relieved of their duties.’
‘Jose and his coaching staff have been with us through some of our most challenging times as a Club,’ chairman Levy said.
‘Jose is a true professional who showed enormous resilience during the pandemic. On a personal level I have enjoyed working with him and regret that things have not worked out as we both had envisaged.
‘He will always be welcome here and we should like to thank him and his coaching staff for their contribution.’
Ryan Mason, the former Tottenham and Hull City midfielder, will take the reins, assisted by Chris Powell, until the end of the season.
Mason, 29, took charge of first-team training on Monday.
The search for Mourinho’s permanent successor is now underway.
RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann has been identified as the favourite to take over.
Tottenham have been long-term admirers of Nagelsmann, who is widely deemed as one of the most talented young coaches in world football.
It is believed that Naglesmann, who is only 33, was under consideration for the Spurs hotseat after Pochettino’s departure in 2019, although Mourinho was later handed the job.
Leipzig will not allow Nagelsmann to leave this summer, however, without receiving a compensation package worth £17m.
Former Manchester United and Real Madrid coach Mourinho’s last game in charge at Tottenham came in the 2-2 draw against Everton on Friday.
Despite Harry Kane’s leveller at Goodison Park, the dropped points dealt a major blow to their hopes of securing a spot in the Champions League.
Sources have claimed that the underwhelming display proved to be the final straw.
Talisman and vice-captain Harry Kane paid tribute to Mourinho after the news broke.
‘Thank you for everything boss,’ Kane wrote on social media. ‘A pleasure to have worked together. I wish you all the best for your next chapter.’
The cup final next weekend represents a chance for Spurs to lift silverware for the first time since their triumph in the same competition in 2008.
Mourinho will no longer lead them out at Wembley, though, with little tangible progress made over the last season and a half.
He could only guide Tottenham to a sixth-placed finish during his first campaign in charge, albeit after taking over halfway through with the team languishing in 14th.
This term has been a step back, with the north London outfit knocked out of Europe in humiliating fashion by Dinamo Zagreb and reeling from other poor results.
For the first time in his managerial career, Mourinho was made to suffer 10 league defeats in a single season.
The on-field misery also saw Tottenham drop 20 points from winning positions this season. No other top-flight club has lost more when leading.
His options to take up another top job are likely to be dwindling after his latest sacking, having now been shown the exit door four times in England.
With Chelsea (twice), Manchester United and now Tottenham all choosing to axe him, Mourinho is sure to be running out of choices.
He has enjoyed great success in Italy, Spain and Portugal, so could be forced to take a job in one of those countries and move away from England.
-Daily Mail
Manchester United’s under-pressure coach Ruben Amorim will be given the full three years of his contract to prove himself and the club will become the most profitable in the world, co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said on Wednesday.
Amorim was Ratcliffe’s choice to replace Erik ten Hag last November but the Portuguese coach has struggled to turn around the club’s flagging fortunes, winning only 10 of his 34 Premier League matches in charge.
United endured their worst top-flight finish last season since they were relegated in 1973–74, coming 15th, and they missed out on Europe after being beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.
But Ratcliffe has issued his strongest statement of support for Amorim yet, comparing the situation to when Alex Ferguson struggled in the early years of his reign before becoming the greatest manager in the club’s history.
“I remember the clamouring for Alex Ferguson to be fired in his first two years,” Ratcliffe, who owns 30% of the club and controls the football side of the business, told The Times’ podcast The Business. “You look at (Mikel) Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable time for the first couple of years.
“We’re results-driven at the end of the day, but we have to be patient and we have to see through the results. I think there’s lots of good things at Manchester United. We have to be patient and we have a long-term plan. It isn’t a light switch.
“Ruben needs to demonstrate that he’s a great coach over three years.”
‘WE’VE MADE ERRORS’
While the American Glazer family retain majority control of the 20-time champions of England, Ratcliffe rejected suggestions they could instruct him to sack Amorim.
“It absolutely wouldn’t happen because it’s just a good working relationship. They come to the board meetings. We sit down and we talk about things,” Ratcliffe said.
“We’ve made errors. There’s absolutely no question that we’ve made errors as we’ve gone along and we’ve talked about it. But no one’s perfect.”
Asked to confirm whether Amorim would see out his contract, Ratcliffe said: “Yes. That’s where I would be. Three years, because football’s not overnight.”
Despite United’s stock falling on the pitch, off it they recently posted record revenues of 666.5 million pounds ($892.1 million) in the year to June 2025, albeit with a 33 million pounds loss.
Amorim’s squad was boosted by more than 200 million pounds worth of new signings in the summer.
“The better your squad, the better your football should be. So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing,” Ratcliffe, who completed his acquisition of a minority stake in the club in 2024, said.
“If you look at our results for last year we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest. We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results, and we were not in the Champions League.
“Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.”
Ratcliffe also said he wants to revive the club’s Academy that once churned out the likes of multiple title winners David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.
“The academy has really slipped at Manchester United,” Ratcliffe said. “You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United cruised to a rare comfortable home Premier League victory as goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko secured a 2-0 win over Sunderland on Saturday.
With the pressure growing on manager Ruben Amorim after a disappointing start to the season, Mount calmed the nerves around the ground with a fine early finish to break the deadlock.
United continued to dominate, with a spectacular save from Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs preventing Bruno Fernandes from adding a sumptuous second before Sesko netted his first Old Trafford goal after 31 minutes.
Sunderland were awarded a penalty late in the first half, a decision that was overturned following a VAR intervention, but they never really threatened after the break as United eased to a third home league victory of the season.
The result put United in provisional eighth place with 10 points from seven games, two places below Sunderland on 11.
Wins, especially comfortable ones, have been in short supply for Portuguese Amorim since he took charge in November.
United supporters have slowly started to turn on the new manager as a result, with nothing short of victory over promoted Sunderland, despite the visitors’ impressive start to the season, enough to appease the disgruntled masses.
Mount’s superb control and finish was just what the beleaguered boss needed. The fine strike was the earliest United have scored in the Premier League since Marcus Rashford’s goal at Ipswich Town in Amorim’s first game in charge.
It was only a matter of time until the hosts scored again, such was their dominance. From a long throw, Sesko was alert to the flick-on before steering home his second in as many games.
United thought they had shot themselves in the foot as Sesko was penalised for a high boot in his own penalty area, only for VAR to deem it not to be a foul.
The hosts took their foot off the gas in the second half, but still should have added to their tally, with veteran Brazilian Casemiro blazing their best chance over the bar.
Sunderland did manufacture a late gilt-edged chance but Senne Lammens, making his debut in the United goal, stood tall to block, completing an assured performance from the keeper and his new teammates.
-Reuters
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Premier League champions Liverpool dropped points for the first time this season when they lost 2-1 at Crystal Palace in the eighth minute of added time as Manchester United and Chelsea suffered 3-1 defeats on Saturday.
United slumped at Brentford and 10-man Chelsea were beaten at home by Brighton & Hove Albion, who scored twice in stoppage time.
Manchester City thrashed Burnley 5-1 thanks to two own goals and a late brace from Erling Haaland while Leeds United were held to a 2-2 draw after Bournemouth equalised in added time through 19-year-old Eli Junior Kroupi.
There was also a late twist at Tottenham Hotspur when Joao Palhinha struck an equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
LIVERPOOL SUFFER FIRST LOSS
Liverpool were on the back foot early on when Palace took the lead in the ninth minute through a set-piece when the ball fell to Ismaila Sarr who smashed it home.
Liverpool would have conceded more if not for goalkeeper Alisson while Jean-Philippe Mateta nearly made it 2-0 when he hit the post.
Although Liverpool equalised through Federico Chiesa in the 87th minute, fellow substitute Eddie Nketiah provided late drama when he scored the winner in the 97th minute, with Selhurst Park celebrating the goal twice after VAR confirmed he was not offside.
“The boys are in really good form and think we can win every game and today we showed that,” Nketiah told the BBC.
Palace ended the day in second place, three points behind leaders Liverpool although Arsenal can go second if they beat Newcastle United on Sunday.
OWN GOALS, HAALAND GIVE MAN CITY WIN
Burnley’s Maxime Esteve became only the sixth player to score two own goals in a Premier League game as City climbed up to fourth.
Esteve scored the first when he tried to deny Phil Foden but Jaidon Anthony made it 1-1 with a shot that deflected off Ruben Dias.
Matheus Nunes restored City’s lead with a close-range effort before Esteve’s second own goal came when he looked to stop Oscar Bobb from finding the net.
Haaland struck twice in the dying minutes to hand Burnley their biggest loss of the season.
MANCHESTER UNITED LOSE AT BRENTFORD
Bryan Mbeumo received a warm welcome from the Brentford fans as he returned to his former club for the first time since his move to Manchester United but the reception paled in comparison to the roars when the home side went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes.
Igor Thiago capitalised on United’s high line for the opener when Jordan Henderson sent him through on goal in the eighth minute, before the Brazilian forward grabbed his second when United keeper Altay Bayindir spilled a save right into his path.
United pulled one back when Benjamin Sesko scored his first goal for the club but Bruno Fernandes had a penalty saved by Caoimhin Kelleher before Mathias Jensen put the game out of reach in added time with a rocket from outside the box.
“We didn’t control the game, we played the game of Brentford. We were really confused (on) second balls, first balls, set pieces,” United manager Ruben Amorim said.
“The crucial moments, they were against us. Tough to lose again.”
CHELSEA SEE RED AGAIN
Chelsea had a player sent off for a second time in as many league games when Trevoh Chalobah saw red for denying Brighton a goal-scoring opportunity at Stamford Bridge.
Enzo Fernandez had given Chelsea a 1-0 lead with a close-range header but Chalobah’s red card in the 53rd minute reduced the home side to 10 men and Brighton made it count when Danny Welbeck opened his account for the season with the equaliser.
Brighton capitalised again in the 92nd minute when Maxim De Cuyper powered home a header and the visitors sealed all three points when Welbeck scored in the 10th minute of added time.
Bournemouth took the lead at Leeds when Antoine Semenyo scored from a free kick but the home side made it 2-1 when Joe Rodon and Sean Longstaff netted either side of halftime.
With Leeds close to taking three points, Kroupi volleyed home from inside the box in the 93rd minute to lift Bournemouth into a group of three clubs on 11 points.
Sunderland moved to 11 points and fourth place by beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 at the City Ground to leave Forest’s new manager Ange Postecoglou winless after five games in charge.
Omar Alderete’s first-half goal was the difference between the two sides with Sunderland mounting a staunch rearguard action as Forest laid siege to their goal.
Wolves were seconds away from earning their first win of the season after losing their opening five games in their worst ever start to a league campaign.
They led through Santiago Bueno’s scrappy goal early in the second half but Palhinha guided in a superb finish to send Tottenham to third place on goal difference.
-Reuters
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