By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
All may not be well in the dressing room of Tottenham Hotspurs even though the London club is doing well in both Premier League and Europa.
This became manifest during Spurs’ 2-0 Europa League group-clinching win over Royal Antwerp on a cold Thursday night in North London, when Harry Winks, who was replaced by Tanguy Ndombele at the hour mark went right into the locker room, while unused sub, Dele Alli, did the same after Spurs made their fifth sub.
When Spurs boss, Jose Mourinho, was confronted on the issue, he attributed it to cold weather.
Besides, he admitted that there was more to it than temperature in one case.
He said via Football.London: “I told them to go; some prefer to stay even with cold they prefer to stay and participate in the game from the bench.
“Winks decided to go and I am happy with that because I am the one that told him to do it.”
As for Dele, anything involving Mourinho and the slumping playmaker is fit for the headlines but the manager insists this is no big deal as was reported by NBCSport.
Mourinho said that Dele had permission to leave the bench, but credit the Portuguese man for bringing common sense into the equation.
“Yep, but let’s not run away from the reality.
“A player that is on the bench and then realizes that he’s not one of the five players is not a happy player and I wouldn’t expect him to be happy. But every player that is on the bench or every player that leaves the pitch in cold weather, with me, they can go to the dressing room and I even prefer if that happens,” Mourinho said.
Dele has only played 333 minutes for Spurs this season and has not been in a Premier League squad since October 4.
But Mourinho had good words for a different midfielder, however, as Giovani Lo Celso played well and scored Spurs’ second goal.
The manager repeated his claims that Lo Celso’s inconsistent playing time was down to still working his way back to full fitness.
His words: “He played the last match well and he played tonight very well.
“It’s like Gio is back to normality because he’s a very good player and when his physical condition is good he can express all of his quality. ”