Jose Mourinho has just thrown his Spurs team under the bus. Again.

Tottenham Hotspur lost to West Ham today, their fifth loss in their last six games. Since the start of the new year, they’ve taken just seven of the available 24 points, which puts them solidly in the middle of the table and virtually ensures their only path to the Champions League next season is to win the League. Europa.

Subsequently, Spurs manager Jose Mourinho made even more news for all the wrong reasons, throwing blame for the poor run of results on his players and backing his training methods even as Spurs slide from more and more in the table.

Here is what he told the BBC right after the sideline game that caused such kerfluffle.

“I feel that we are not in a position relative to our potential. Even though I have thought for a long, long time that we have problems in the team that I cannot resolve on my own as a coach.

“Our potential is higher than where we are so of course there is frustration. We should be in a better position. “

Sounds bad at first glance, right? It sure seems like he’s not only throwing his team under the bus, but backing them up a few times to make sure.

But hey – if you want to read these quotes liberally, and for the sake of argument, let’s do it, you can squint and bow your head to say that what Mourinho was trying to get across is that the team did not reach. its potential even with some staff shortcomings, but also he did not maximize the talent he Is have at its disposal. It is said with art, but it is not English speaking either. So maybe in a weird way he takes some responsibility for the results under his leadership

But then, during the press conference to the assembled media, he said this when asked about his own methods:

What gives you so much belief [in your methods] for the moment, given the series of results?

“Because sometimes results are the consequence of multiple situations in football and mine and the methods of my coaching team are second to none in the world.”

MDR gives up. It comes down to him throwing his players under the bus. Why should he take responsibility when his players are clearly not good enough to do what he asks?

Now if we want to continue to be generous to Mourinho and we have come this far, then why not, he is not completely wrong. Tottenham have been plagued by individual errors in this poor-form series, mistakes which have had rather disastrous results. He’s also not entirely wrong in that some of the players he has at his disposal may not be good enough for what he wants to accomplish with this Spurs side. That’s not a completely crazy thing to think about, especially as Spurs still appear to be recovering from the ‘painful rebuilding’ that never happened all year without a player purchase. Tottenham desperately need help, especially in defense! It is a matter of concern, without a doubt.

But speaking publicly to the media and saying it while defending the same tired tactics and methods that resulted in Mourinho being fired from his last three jobs at this point is just willful ignorance and the height of pride. Throwing your players under the bus will do nothing to motivate those same players to magically turn the tables. And I’m not the only one to think so.

Plus, it’s curious that some of the same players who currently looked down on them for their performances – Davinson Sanchez and Eric Dier leading the way, but even Toby Alderweireld hasn’t escaped criticism this season – were mostly considered solid. defenders on the rise. under Mauricio Pochettino. In fact, you can extrapolate and note that the whole team looks less like an organized unit and more like a collection of individual players who are told to “go out and do some magic”. When that organization breaks down, it puts additional stress and strain on the defense, and any mistakes that are made are magnified.

Good players rarely turn into bad players all of a sudden. It can happen, but it’s unusual. Weird that it keeps happening to Jose in his last two jobs, right? The modified variable in this case is Mourinho itself.

I’m tired of shouting about Jose Mourinho. I wish I hadn’t had to do it so often. People in turn are going to yell at me in the comments and most likely say that I’m unfair and biased against a manager that I admittedly never wanted to start with. But anyone who thinks about situations like this – criticizing players when the results aren’t going well, abdicating personal responsibility – is unique this season hasn’t paid much attention to Jose Mourinho’s career. This same thing has happened over and over and over again.

When Mourinho was hired he explicitly said he was happy with the squad at his disposal, that it was a great group of players who under his leadership had the potential to win the Premier League. He’s been hired as a senior manager who can maximize this talented group and get them where they can win things, immediately. Fifteen months later, he’s arguing with the players again, throwing his team under the bus and saying “hey my methods are great, these are the schmucks that are underperforming.” And if that is true, then why did Mourinho take the job to start, and why are we paying this master tactician £ 15million a year when we could have literally hired someone else to start a new five-year project and rebuild the team under very different expectations?

By all accounts, Mourinho is going to have until the end of the current Premier League campaign to save something from what has become an absolute train wreck of a season. He has the Europa League and the Carabao Cup final in April as the best opportunities to win silverware. Maybe he can do it. I honestly, legitimately hope he can and will encourage him to do so. But he certainly doesn’t make it easy.