JOSE MOURINHO has laid into modern football stars, blaming ‘selfishness’ and ‘agents’ for some of Tottenham’s recent poor performances.
Spurs managed to get back to winning ways on Sunday, beating a toothless Aston Villa 2-0 away from home.
But after the game, the grumpy 58-year-old hammered the psyche of young footballers.
He said: “Football nowadays is not easy. Selfishness is around, the individualism is around, the connection between agents and the press is around.
“You need time to develop team empathy because the psychological profile of young people now is not an easy one.
“I want to be proud of my players, doesn’t matter the result. During my career I was proud of my players many times after defeats.
“I was not proud last Thursday [against Zagreb] and I was not proud at the Emirates [against Arsenal last Sunday].”
The Portuguese, attempting to absolve himself of blame once again, challenged his players to ‘develop a spirit’ in the coming weeks.
He continued: “More than thinking in this moment about which position we are going to end, whether we are going to win the final, is to develop this spirit we need.
“But I cannot do it alone. I have to do it with the club, with my players in the dressing room.”
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Spurs crashed out of the Europa League in woeful fashion against Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday night.
And Mourinho labelled last night’s win as the response of ‘ashamed’ players.
He added: “Thursday will be a scar for a long time. It is not going to heal just because we won.
“The challenge is to have these human qualities [we showed at Villa] in every match. It was the win of a group that felt ashamed with what happened in the last week, and to be ashamed, I think, is a man’s reaction.
“Don’t care, don’t’ give a s***, is not for men. To be ashamed is a man’s emotional reaction which they have and I’m very happy for them.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
