DANIEL LEVY and Jose Mourinho have finally taken Tottenham to the top of the league.
That is, the table for the number of cock-ups made by a Premier League club during the coronavirus crisis.
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Daniel Levy – who earned £7m as Spurs chairman last season – cut the pay of 550 non-playing staff and furloughed othersCredit: PA:Press Association
Jose Mourinho appeared to lead a training session in a public London parkCredit: PA:Press Association
First, chairman Levy announced last week he would be one of 550 non-playing staff taking a 20 per cent pay cut in April and May — with 40 per cent of those furloughed.
That came on the day it was revealed Levy had been paid £7million in wages and bonuses the previous year in which his club have posted record profits of £69m.
And that was also before Levy had made any attempt to ask his well-paid players to help out their behind-the-scenes colleagues on vastly lower incomes.
But unwilling to upset a dressing room already unhappy with his investment in new signings and the sacking of former manager Mauricio Pochettino, Levy opted to make cuts at the blunt end first.
It meant stars like Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris continued to trouser their £200,000-a-week wages while the two-bob a week tea lady would have to rely on a Government relief scheme designed for the employers of small businesses.
While Liverpool, in the wake of similar criticism, have received acclaim for reversing their decision to furlough staff, Spurs continue to press ahead with their wage aid – branded by many as “immoral”.
Then just this period could not get any more disastrous for Spurs, boss Jose Mourinho and his players trained in a public park – breaking every rule on lockdown and social distancing.
Photos were posted online of the Stupid One, dressed in full Spurs training kit, conducting a training session on Hadley Common in Barnet with midfielder Tanguy Ndombele and two others.
Sanchez and Sessegnon were seen running side by side under Mourinho’s orders at a London park
Separate footage showed Ryan Sessegnon and Davinson Sanchez jogging too closely together around the same parkland.
Spurs’ initial response was to claim the two pieces of footage were entirely coincidental – that at the same time Mourinho was doing drills with Ndombele and two others on the common, Sessegnon and Sanchez just happened to be running nearby.
Admitting the pair were not the required two metres apart as they trotted along, Tottenham issued a statement reminding players to social distance.
As for Mourinho’s session with Ndombele and the two others, club officials first tried to claim it was not illegal.
When it was pointed out that meetings of more than two people were viewed as a gathering which the police had laws to disperse, Tottenham said two other men pictured in the impromptu illegal session were not their players and had just joined in.
That still does fit with social distancing guidelines and, even it was just a catch-up, why was Mourinho letting two strangers join in with the session, especially during the current climate?
With only essential trips allowed, what possessed the Spurs boss to make a 40-mile round trip from his west London home to work with Ndombele?
And if Mourinho has to travel all that way to ensure the club’s record £65m buy keeps himself in trim, what does that say about the French flop and Spurs’ recruitment?
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The so-called Special One could yet get a knock on the door from the law, who are cracking down on lockdown violations.
For such a savvy fella, you have to wonder why Jose did not use the club’s training ground.
But it seems everything Mourinho does is intended to be in the public glare.
It is the last thing Levy and Tottenham needed as they continue to lurch from one disaster to another.
Tottenham stars Sessegnon and Sanchez ‘jog side-by-side together in London amid coronavirus social distancing warnings’
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
