What Jose Mourinho has said about Michael Carrick amid Tottenham links

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Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly set their sights on Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick.

According to 90Min, the Spurs hierarchy admires the 41-year-old, who previously played for the North Londoners.

Meanwhile, Alex Crook has told talkSPORT that Carrick is “an interesting one to keep an eye on if Boro don’t go up”.

Tottenham have been linked with a multitude of managers since – and even before – Antonio Conte left.

Carrick is a fairly new inclusion in terms of names doing the rounds regarding the Spurs managerial vacancy.

However, you can understand why Tottenham have reportedly set their sights on their former midfielder.

Boro were sitting 21st in the Championship when he took over from Chris Wilder last October.

Carrick has since turned the Teesside outfit into promotion challengers, taking them to fourth.

It’s great to see one of the finest midfielders of his generation doing so well at the start of his managerial career.

‘One of the best’

Carrick has earned praise from many of the top managers in the game for his talent, attitude and intelligence.

Jose Mourinho, who managed him at Manchester United, described him as a “proper man”.

The Boro website quotes the former Spurs manager as saying: “The most important quality is to be a man. M-A-N, capitals – a proper man.

“Football is not full of them, and not just football, society is not full of them. So when you find one of them you have to value and you have to keep.”

Pep Guardiola also lauded Carrick, saying he was in the same league as Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets as a player.

“He’s one of the best holding midfielders I’ve ever seen in my life, by far,” said the Manchester City boss.

“He’s the level of Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets in Barcelona and Bayern Munich.”

Obviously a great player doesn’t necessarily make a great manager, but Carrick’s attitude and football intelligence have certainly transferred over.

It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for Carrick, both in the short-term and long-term.

If he gets Boro back into the top flight, you’d like to think he’d stay put to see what he can do with the team he built and took up.

If they don’t go up, then there could well be plenty of offers from clubs hoping to land one of the best young managers in the English leagues.