You can almost start to feel sorry for Jose Mourinho, a somewhat beleaguered manager of Tottenham Hotspur.
At one point, he briefly felt like Spurs might have a shot at the title this season, only to see a horrific run of form see their odds go from 3/1 to 10/1 in a matter of days. Then he thought he could probably move Dele Alli on to Pochettino in Paris – only for injuries in the squad to put that plan on ice.
And then this week, he has to waste time talking about Gareth Bale’s social media activity whilst getting over the fact that his side came out as losers in a nine-goal thriller versus Everton in the FA Cup.
Mourinho understandably took a little offence to a post on Bale’s Instagram showing off ‘another great session’ in the gym ahead of the FA Cup clash against Carlo Ancelotti’s men. The post suggested that Bale was fit, ready and willing to head up to Merseyside and play a big part in Tottenham progressing in the oldest cup competition in the world.
The only problem was, that wasn’t really the case at all.
Bale had complained of some kind of injury which led to a scan – a scan that showed nothing, despite the player still not feeling right. And, as a result, Bale stayed at home – you know, despite such a good gym session.
Mourinho was keen to make the truth known;
“I have to admit that his post created something that needed to be addressed because there was a contradiction between the post and the reality,” said the Spurs boss. “Since the beginning of the season, in relation to everything, I tried to be very, very private and tried to keep everything indoors but I’ve felt that I needed to address the situation.
“Probably the post was not even his responsibility, I don’t know … but the post was: ‘Training session great,’ so I’m ready and it was totally wrong. When I was questioned, I had to say the reality of the things which I [will now] repeat for the last time and I hope there are no more questions about it because the situation was exactly the way I told [it].
“He was not feeling good, he asked for a scan, he had the scan, the scan did not show an injury but his feelings were still there and coaches and sports science and medical people … we can never go against those feelings because a player’s feelings are much more important than all of us so he was not ready for the game. It’s as simple as that. If he’s ready for tomorrow, he’s selected for tomorrow.”
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Bale is not making himself massively popular since his loan move from Real Madrid on what you’d assume to be big, big money.
One goal against WBA is not the finest return on investment in the Daniel Levy era and it is a shame to see a player once held so high in the esteem of Tottenham fans now coming across as someone just picking up the pay-cheque and moving another day towards retirement.
