In case you missed it, José Mourinho is the new Tottenham manager.
It’s a story that has gone largely under the rada… No, we can’t do this.
The Portuguese’s appointment has been the talk of the town around the European football media, and it didn’t take long for him to ruffle a few feathers with his early backroom staff appointments.
One of his first moves was to bring Joao Sacramento and Nuno Santos to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from Lille as assistant manager and goalkeeping coach respectively, and that hasn’t gone down well over in the north of France.
Christophe Galtier sat down for his weekly press conference on Thursday, and one of the first questions asked was how he felt about Mourinho poaching his two coaches.
He said, relayed by RMC Sport: “Each has their way of doing things. He called Luis (Campos). I don’t know if it’s [a knife in the back], but (read in sarcastic tone) it’s very classy to do things like that… I was annoyed, frustrated because the timing isn’t good. Each will judge the way things are done. What’s most important is that I agree with the decision the president took.
“To be totally transparent, my president informed me of the situation and told me he would let Joao and Nuno go. After a long talk, I understand his decision. It’s a shame, the timing is very bad. That’s how football is these days but what can he do against two people who want to leave and exit the project for live something else? He gave them that possibility. He could’t do anything else”.
Despite being annoyed at Mourinho and Tottenham, Galtier made it clear he didn’t hold a grudge toward either Sacramento or Santos because he had been in their boots in the past, and assured he would have allowed them to leave if it were up to him.
He just didn’t like how the new Spurs manager went about things, and, more importantly, the fact he did it just before their game against Paris Saint-Germain.
