Jose Mourinho to Spurs is the most exciting news of this Premier League Season. For all the wrong reasons.

Words by Alexi Barnstone

Jose Mourinho will replace Mauricio Pochettino as the manager of Tottenhem Hotspur on a four-year contract. The club wasted no time between sacking the manager that brought them to the champions league final last year and appointing ‘The Chosen one’.

 The ex-Manchester United and Chelsea boss has been one of the most famous football managers for at least a decade. His fame, however, has accrued across multiple two to three-year stints at different clubs. His style is markedly defensive, and he is known to be harsh and extraordinarily demanding of players, and gives unchained interviews.

 His last series of jobs have unravelled in similar formats; impact on the first year, wins something the second year, gets removed the third. He explains failure with the same brazen charisma that defines him, blaming a lack of spending or an issue with the players he has at his disposal. During his second stint at Chelsea he pushed players to the point where some were quoted saying they would rather lose than win for him.

 I confess, as an Arsenal fan his appointment at Spurs makes me ecstatic.  Firstly, because I have hated the man for years. He is pompous, rude and ill-tempered. If history tells us anything, it is only a matter of time before he is caught in a shouting match with Kane or Dele Alli because they aren’t joining the ten-man bus he wants parked on the top of his defensive 18 yard box. Secondly, I am confident Unai Emery is on his way out and his appointment at Spurs ameliorates my impending fear that the Portuguese authoritarian would come to manage my beloved Arsenal. And thirdly, because he plays terrible football.

 Unlike many of the most famous managers in the game, Mourinho is a defensive manager at heart. He sets his teams up to frustrate, counter, and score scrappy goals. He took United to a Europa League cup off the back of the domineering foreheads of Lukaku and Ibrahimović. Wave goodbye to 65% possession and build up play…. Swing it in and hope for the best. Maybe a Steven Gerrard slip will make starting Demba Ba look like a masterful stroke of tactical play….

 I jumped in joy at the news that was unveiled today. I am relieved that Arsenal will have to find someone else to fix the Emery problem. And I hope to god he helps burry the overspent Spurs project of being the  bigger North London club once and for all.