Jose Mourinho’s past comments hint he’ll sell Christian Eriksen as Tottenham boss

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New Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho was asked about the dwindling contract situations of stars including Christian Eriksen last month.

On Sky Sports, via the Mirror, Mourinho didn’t name any players by name but said he would try to sell players who didn’t want to play for him and used the example of Arjen Robben during his time at Chelsea.

He said: “I don’t like to keep players that don’t want to stay at the club. I think it is always really difficult. I am not thinking about the economical perspective, I mean from a motivational point of view.

“We sold Robben to Real Madrid, Chelsea didn’t want to or need the money. But he didn’t want to be there and wanted to go. There are some moments where motivation affects performance and it is difficult to keep players happy when they have other dreams.”

TBR’s View – Mourinho has no loyalty to these players and will demand ruthlessness

Mauricio Pochettino might have demanded an overhaul at Tottenham but the loyalty he demanded from his players complicated matters.

Jose Mourinho has none of those problems and if Eriksen – or anybody else – don’t want to be there, he will be well within his rights to demand the club sell them at the earliest opportunity.

How that mixes with Daniel Levy’s insistence on getting the best deal, however long it takes, remains to be seen and losing a player such as Eriksen for next to nothing will likely hamper the funding made available for Mourinho to shape this squad to his will.