Jose Mourinho explains reasoning for Tottenham man Harry Winks walking down tunnel

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Jose Mourinho has told his press conference after a 2-0 win over Royal Antwerp – as per Football London – that he told his Tottenham players to go down the tunnel after being substitued, after Harry Winks walked straight into the changing room.

Spurs secured a comfortable 2-0 win on Thursday night to finish at the top of Group J and progress into knockout rounds of the competition. Carlos Vinicius opened the scoring, after a beautiful free-kick from Gareth Bale crashed against the bar.

With the score still only 1-0, Mourinho decided to take off Vinicius, Winks and Gareth Bale immediately after scoring. He brought on Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Tanguy Ndombele – prompting what seemed an angry response from Winks.

The England ace has been made to wait for a chance, only being used in Europe of late. Indeed, he has failed to play a single minute of Tottenham’s last six league games – but Mourinho stated that it was not an angry reaction, but instead his instruction.

“I told him to go, I told every player that left the pitch to go because when the weather is cold I prefer they go to the dressing room and shower. Some prefer to stay. Winks decided to go. I am happy with that because I told him to do it,” Mourinho said.

TBR’s view – Is Mourinho deflecting Winks anger?

Winks was clearly fuming. Not only had he been brought off with 30 minutes left, but the England midfielder has been out of the league side for some time – and his chance to play on Thursday would have been his first game in a while.

It was Tottenham’s last Europa League group game, meaning Winks is now set for an indefinite spell on the sidelines – every second his chances of breaking into the England Euro 2021 squad dwindling away. Winks is angry and has every right to be.

Whether Mourinho is telling the truth or not, could come out in the coming weeks in terms of whether Winks decided to stay or go in the January window.