Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen has said football needs people like Jose Mourinho ahead of their game against Manchester United at Old Trafford this Sunday. The Belgian’s comments come as a surprise since the Special One’s recent tactics and methods have received widespread criticism from fans and the football community at large.
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It is also surprising that Vertonghen chose to say anything positive about the Portuguese as he had been accused of being a cheat when Mourinho was the manager at Chelsea in his previous term. The current United boss had called him out for pretending to be hurt after he tumbled to the ground from a Fernando Torres tackle and labelled the Spurs player a “disgrace” for faking an injury in order to get the Spanish forward sent off in 2013.
However, the Belgian clearly seems to have put that particular incident behind him as he was all praise for Mourinho and said, “He is a great coach first of all, and he has done great things with different teams. He has shown he is a very good coach and a colourful character – but football needs that. He is a good manager and he says things in the media. Does that wind me up? Not really. It's part of the job and he plays it the way he wants to.
“Would I want to play for him? He's not my manager so I'm not going to talk about this," said the Belgian defender.
Vertonghen’s team were unable to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League this year and came third in their group after beating CKSA Moscow 3-1 and qualified for the Europa League instead.
As one of the stronger teams in the competition, the Spurs player thinks the team has a realistic chance of winning the trophy even though they are joined by Manchester United, their opponents this Sunday in the first knockout round of the tournament.
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“Can we win the Europa League? I believe so, I think we can. Maybe our Champions League experience will help,” said the defender. “We are very hungry to win trophies. It’s a shame it’s not in the Champions League this year but we are one of the better teams in the Europa League and now we have to show it.”
Tottenham had a tough time winning games at the Wembley Stadium, their temporary home till White Hart Lane is renovated. Although Spurs seemed to have turned that bit of bad luck around with their victory over CSKA.
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