JOSE MOURINHO IS sensitive to criticism like the rest of us, it seems.
In the new Amazon Prime behind-the-scenes show on Spurs, the Portuguese boss tells a TV pundit to ‘fuck off’ before switching off the set.
Mourinho was filmed in his new office soon after he succeeded the hugely popular Mauricio Pochettino, with television experts heard discussing whether the ex-Man Utd coach was the right man for the job.
“It’s incredible. Personally, I’m surprised they got rid of him. But I’m more surprised by Jose coming in,” one voice from the Sky Sports discussion says.
“Is that really the football that Tottenham want to play?”
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The producers of All or Nothing have revealed, meanwhile, how they had to pinch themselves when Mourinho arrived at the club.
Mourinho was appointed less than 24 hours after Pochettino was sacked in November and it was all captured on camera as production company 72 Films were on site at Tottenham’s training ground in Enfield.
The Portuguese’s arrival features in the first episode of the documentary, which lands on the streaming site on Monday, and he goes on to be a brilliant leading man in the series, giving a unique insight into the methods of one of the most successful managers of all time.
Series producer Clare Cameron told the PA news agency: “I don’t think we were rubbing our hands gleefully, but we were in an incredibly privileged position to be able to cover someone like Jose, to come in and film it literally from day one.
“We did pinch ourselves when we turned up in the morning and saw Jose walking across the car park in front of us.
“At no point are you sort of gleeful about the drama, you are just trying to react to think about how we cover this story sensitively.
“Obviously the club was going through a huge change, it was obviously going to be difficult for the players, we wanted to just be as sensitive as we possibly could while following the story.”
When he first arrived at the club, Mourinho gave the outward perception to the press that he was not comfortable with the cameras filming him, but the producers were surprised by how open everyone at the club was, including camera-shy chairman Daniel Levy.
“We didn’t really know what to expect with Jose or the players and Daniel,” executive producer John Douglas said. “What comes through more than anything is that he and the players are people who just absolutely love football.
“I think us building up that trust with them and us understanding that we really wanted to tell the story of the club in an honest way, they really responded to that, and once they knew that we were surprised at how open everyone was.”
The coverage of Pochettino’s sacking may leave viewers wanting more as none of the key conversations are featured and the Argentinian’s presence in the show lasts less than 25 minutes.
Douglas insists, contrary to reports at the time, that the cameras were not present at any of those meetings and they stand by their decision to introduce Mourinho so quickly.
“It was in the press at the time that we had been filming all of that and we were in the room when it happened,” he added. “The fact is it was during the international break, the players were all away, we had a light footprint at that time and we weren’t there.
“We hadn’t filmed that meeting, we had filmed a bit of Mauricio in the weeks before and were happy to get that in, but in all honesty we didn’t have loads of really explosive sensational material that we either couldn’t, didn’t or weren’t allowed to put in the series.
“It felt important once that happened, knowing we were going to cover the whole season, we had so much material we had to make some brutal editorial decisions sometimes.
“Jose coming in and there being the start of this new era for the club felt where our centre of gravity should be. Editorially we made the right choice.”
