IRELAND DEFENDER MATT Doherty says it’s been “a pleasure” to play under the watchful eye of Jose Mourinho since his summer arrival from Wolves.
The Dublin-born right-back made the move last month, and says he has been won over by the Portuguese boss’ sense of humour. The persona Mourinho presents publicly is very different to the one Doherty and his team-mates work with on a day-to-day basis, he says.
“He has been even better than I expected,” as the Irish international told The Guardian over the weekend. “He has that relationship with players on a personal level where he has a great sense of humour, he can joke around with them. He cares a lot for his players.”
Expanding on that snippet in a press conference ahead of Spurs’ Europa League play-off with Maccabi Haifa, Doherty said: “From the outside, you just see the interviews, you see him in the media and on the sidelines.
“But you don’t know him, and you don’t realise the sense of humour that he has, the bond that he has with his players.
“In terms of that, I was pleasantly surprised. Before I had even signed, I had a little bit of contact with him and his sense of humour was very good, he can have a joke with you.
“He made me feel incredibly welcome as I was signing. So there’s a lot of different things, and obviously the stuff he does on the training pitch is exceptional.
It’s great for me to be able to learn off him and find out what he thinks I need to do to improve my game and play under him. It’s been a pleasure.
Asked to delve deeper on their interactions before he signed for the White Harte Lane outfit, he continued:
“Once I knew there was some interest, it was pretty straightforward that I wanted to come to Tottenham and play for Tottenham this season. Fortunately for me, it’s managed to happen.
“But we were just talking and he sent me a video of the changing room saying, ‘The changing room is waiting for you’, and stuff like that. He sent me a picture of the top. Just nice little things like that, that he didn’t have to do.
I have to say the club’s been absolutely exceptional since I’ve been here. Not just him but general staff. When I came here, people tried to help me settle in, find places to live, etc. They’ve really gone above and beyond so it’s made the experience really, really top class.”
While Doherty also discussed Tottenham’s “crazy” week of fixtures and the prospect of playing in different defensive positions at the club, he delved into Ireland fans’ favourite debate of late: Coleman or Doherty at right-back.
Boys In Green boss Stephen Kenny yesterday left the door open to playing them both in the same team after announcing his latest squad, and the 28-year-old Swords native hinted at his agreement towards that idea.
This came after he was questioned on his switch from Wolves, and whether playing for a “higher-profile” club would help him on the international stage where he battles for a starting berth with captain Seamus Coleman.
“I’ve settled in really well, I absolutely love it here,” Doherty noted. “I’ve been down here about a month now and I couldn’t be happier with the move that I’ve made. Things are going pretty well.
On the international front… look, I played the last few games. It’s always going to be a constant battle between me and Seamus, and that’s fine. Whoever plays, we have the full support of each other. We’d obviously both like to play and we feel like we can play in some way together but that’s not really up to us, that’s up to the manager.
“I don’t think being at a bigger club than Wolves will necessarily guarantee me to play. He’s the captain at the end of the day, we all know the credentials that he has and we know how good and consistent he has been in the Premier League and for Ireland for the last eight or nine years.
“It’s probably a 50/50 of who plays. I know he’s in pretty good form at the moment so I might have to up my game over the next couple of days.”
You can watch the full press conference here:
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