Jose Mourinho Admits Some Tottenham Players Are Unhappy

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Jose Mourinho has admitted that a number of players, including Dele Alli, aren’t happy because they’re not playing.

Spurs are top of the Premier League and qualified for the knockout rounds of the Europa League top of their group after beating Antwerp on matchday six. But Mourinho has said that it has been impossible to keep everyone happy, despite the good results as a club.

Mourinho saw the game against Antwerp, who surprisingly beat Spurs in the reverse fixture, as an opportunity to rest key starters, presenting opportunities to the likes of Carlos Vinicius, Giovani Lo Celso, Joe Hart and Japhet Tanganga instead.

But Alli stayed on the bench, even when Mourinho made changes in the second half and brought on players like Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Tanguy Ndombele.

“I can't keep the squad happy. I believe they are happy because we are winning but they're not happy because they're not playing,” the Spurs boss told BT Sport.

“Every player that left the pitch I told them to go to the shower because it was cold. Some decided to go and some decided to stay. It's an impossible job to keep every player happy and if you go to every club people who don't play aren't happy.”

Alli has scarcely featured for Spurs this season. Mourinho’s frustrations with his work rate in training were highlighted in the club’s ‘All or Nothing’ series on Amazon Prime and the midfielder hasn’t started a Premier League game since opening weekend in September.

He hasn’t even made the bench for a Premier League squad since early October and only started twice in the Europa League group stage. For one of those – the defeat against Antwerp – he was hooked by Mourinho at half-time.

“Let's not run away from reality. A player on the bench who realises all five subs have been used of course is not a happy player and I would not expect him to be happy,” Mourinho said of Alli.

The Spurs boss previously hinted in October after the loss to Antwerp that he had lost faith in a number of fringe players, which is likely to have included Alli.

“Blame me because I am the boss and it is my responsibility who plays. But I have to admit that the game confirmed to me a few things, opened other question marks and will help me in the future with my decisions,” Mourinho said at the time.

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