José Mourinho revealed that he "couldn't believe it" when he was fired from Tottenham just days before the English League Cup final in 2021. The Portuguese coach, then 63, was appointed in November 2019 to succeed Mauricio Pochettino, with Spurs looking to end a title drought that dated back to 2008.
In charge of Tottenham, Mourinho recorded 44 wins in 86 official games (19 draws and 23 defeats), with the team scoring 166 goals and conceding 103. The coach was prepared to face Manchester City in the final at Wembley, but was removed six days before the match, with Ryan Mason appointed interim.
Spurs would eventually lose the final 1-0, and Mourinho maintains that the club put Champions League qualification ahead of the possibility of lifting a trophy. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said on the Beast Mode On podcast. “I know the final was in an almost empty Wembley [due to Covid-19]. But it was a final. At a time when Tottenham had no trophies.”
“For me and the players, it meant everything. I remember that week we were playing Southampton before the final and my focus was completely on Wembley. It was a shock", added the Portuguese, also referring to "a kind of contradiction" between his ambition and the club's priorities.
Mourinho evoked names like Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Hugo Lloris to underline the urgency of titles in that cycle. “For them, the final didn’t matter so much; for me and the players, it was everything", he concluded.