Jose Mourinho To Spurs, Or Crossing That Bridge That No One Has Built Yet Five Miles Before We Get To It

Fabio Capello's resignation from the England national team job has caused a lot of people to leap to really ridiculous chain-reaction conclusions. Harry Redknapp could leave Tottenham Hotspur for the England job, which would cause Tottenham Hotspur to find a new manager. Tottenham Hotspur, if they finish in Champions League places, would be able to attract an experienced, big-name manager or a rising star.

Jose Mourinho is rumored to be leaving Real Madrid by mutual consent at the end of this season. Jose Mourinho has said that he would like to return to English football. Tottenham Hotspur is a club in English football that will likely be looking for a big-name manager, and Jose Mourinho is a big-name manager who might be available.

JOSE MOURINHO IS COMING TO TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR!

Have we done a sufficient amount of conclusion-jumping, or did I miss a step?

Thanks to the newly created England drama, we have transfer rumor madness in February. It doesn't involve rumors about Brazilian No. 9s or disgruntled Premier League defenders, but it's just as compelling. Despite the ridiculous leaps of logic that we all have to take that Jose Mourinho could potentially become the next manager of Tottenham Hotspur, we've all proclaimed him a realistic target.

Fine, I'll play along. Let's enter a fantasy world in which Harry Redknapp takes the England job, Jose Mourinho decides to leave Real Madrid, and Daniel Levy pulls the trigger. Mourinho accepts the offer, and he becomes the new Tottenham manager.

Let's tackle some misconceptions about Mourinho. I was going to build a series of strawmen, but you guys built them for me! The premise for this piece is already incredibly illogical -- bordering on truly stupid -- so it really shouldn't matter to me. I should strawman away. But you guys said these things for me, so I can avoid at least one logical fallacy. Thanks, bros!

I just don't know if I could come around to being used to having a big name manager at the helm of Spurs. - Edward Francis

Spurs have their own identity. And it's bigger than any manager. I don't want Mourinho trampling our identity, even if it brings success. - Lennon's Eyebrow

It is quite possible that I cheer for teams for entirely different reasons. I "chose" Tottenham about ten years ago because I liked the way that they played and I liked Robbie Keane. Once they became "my team", I wanted them to win. I don't care if their manager is a pompous prick with a gambling problem who cheats on his wife. I don't care if they win the title with bargain-basement players or if they go all Chelsea/City with their transfer spending.

As long as the club isn't going to suffer long-term damage because of the reckless actions of the manager and board (Hi, Portsmouth!), I want them to do what they think is in the club's best interests. I think that Jose Mourinho, if he becomes available this summer. will be the best manager available for hire. So I want the club to hire him, unless they find some prodigy who they are convinced is as good as or better than Jose Mourinho. End of.

"Mou is a rigid tactical coach[.]" - Lennon's Eyebrow

To be fair to Ben, he continued with "But he lets CR9 roam", so this is not to pick on him. I simply saw this sentiment echoed over and over during the discussions on this site, and he said it first. I think that, while Mourinho is more tactically rigid than Harry Redknapp, this is a bit of a misrepresentation.

First of all, we have to establish what the phrase "tactically rigid" means. I can assume that there are one of two things that Ben (or anyone else) could mean by this. One way they could mean it is that he has a system that he sticks to, which is demonstrably false. He has used short passing and direct versions of 4-3-3, 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 setups, while occasionally dabbling in two-striker systems. I'm going to assume that this is NOT what Ben meant, because it's simply absurd. If anyone categorizes Mourinho this way, please inform them of how wrong they are.

What I assume Ben meant is that, when he sets up his team, Mourinho gives his players very defined roles. I think that this is, for the most part, true. However, this will often mean that one player's role is to drop off into spaces and create. One player's role could be to "f--kin run around a bit" and create havoc by doing as much moving off the ball as possible. Telling a player that their job is to run around quite a bit or find space to receive the ball is different from, but might produce similar results to, just sending the players out and giving them no real instructions.

I can understand fans not wanting Gareth Bale or Luka Modric confined to a rigid role, but do we really think that some bad is going to come out of BAE, Kyle Walker, Sandro and Aaron Lennon being given a specific role by a real coach? REALLY?

When he leaves, teams suffer - Lennon's Eyebrow

Chelsea went to the Champions League final after he left and have won the Premier League as well. I think that the core players like Drogba, Lampard, Essien, Terry, Cole and Makelele getting old/injured has WAY more to do with Chelsea's "lack of success" than Mourinho leaving a mess. When it comes to Inter, this is not incorrect, but I fail to see how Mourinho has anything to do with that.

Though...if he's a great manager, aren't teams SUPPOSED to get worse when he leaves?

Mourinho is ... known for playing negative football. Even when he has the tools, his teams seem much less inclined to really cut it loose and play positive, attacking footie. - Uncle Menno

Apologies for singling out Dustin, who admitted that he had not really seen enough of Mourinho's teams to make an evaluation, but this a prevalent view of Mourinho's style. Mourinho is a guy who is willing to play negative football, but his teams are not negative. When playing against inferior opposition, they're always very attacking. When playing against similar opposition, they're pragmatic, but only actually negative when playing Barcelona.

Perhaps his teams were defensive against Manchester United, Arsenal and Milan in big derbies, but I fail to see the problem with this. First of all, because they're not always defensive. Second of all, because Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello and Carlo Ancelotti have also been willing to do this when necessary. And what would you call our second leg performance against Milan last season?

And honestly, how often have we given up 3-4 goals because we tried to attack obviously superior opposition? I like results more than moral high ground, and I'm surprised that a fanbase that despises Arsene Wenger doesn't feel the same way. Are you guys Cules now? I hope not.

I don't think Mourinho would work If only because of his tradition of liking to splash the cash and Levy not being that kind of guy. - Willman

Inter were not huge spenders in his time there. The players that they brought in the year they won the Champions League cost less, combined, than they got for the sale of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. None of the players bought in the previous season were big time contributors, and he didn't have control over all of these signings.

Most of his key players -- Zanetti, Samuel, Chivu, Maicon, Julio Cesar, Cambiasso, Stankovic -- were already there. Lucio and Pandev were very inexpensive. Sneijder is Sneijder. This situation is extremely similar to the one Spurs will be in this summer. They (will hopefully) already play in Champions League and have a solid core of players. They just need some mid-level spending to become a contender, and will have the money to do it.

Any manager that comes in will have a great core and some money to spend, but will not have huge money to overhaul the squad. This was Mourinho's exact situation at Inter. It is also worth noting that his team at Porto was not one that was built expensively. He should not be punished for being good enough to take jobs at two of the richest clubs in the world.

Part of the reason teams struggle when he leaves is that he spends crazy stupid money on aging players that are past it or close to it by the time he goes. - Skipjack

Michael Essien, Ricardo Carvalho and Didier Drogba were not old when they arrived at Chelsea. Claude Makelele was aging, but you will be hard pressed to find a single Chelsea fan who did not think that was a brilliant, brilliant signing. I'll give you Diego Milito. However, at Real Madrid, he's signed Mesut Özil, Sami Khedira, Angel di Maria, Fabio Coentrao, Nuri Sahin and Jose Callejon. Pretty much debunks that argument by itself.

In conclusion, Jose Mourinho is awesome. All of the criticisms of him are unfounded. Most of them come from Cules or disgruntled fans of Chelsea/Inter rivals. If he becomes the next manager of Tottenham Hotspur, I will be the happiest man on the planet.