A man well known for his stubbornness in previous roles has been bedding in well at Spurs, according to the club’s captain
Harry Kane is hopeful that he can build a strong relationship with new Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho and says that the Portuguese has been leaning on him for advice on the team.
Mourinho took over at the London side following Mauricio Pochettino’s recent dismissal and has overseen an upswing in form in his short time at the helm, bagging a rare away win at West Ham before booking a place in the Champions League’s round of 16 by beating Olympiacos.
The former Chelsea and Manchester United boss is a famously divisive figure, well known for his mind games and fall-outs with players. Kane, however, has praised Mourinho’s work so far and says he has been working closely with him to get the best out of the squad.
“It’s early days,” Kane said after Tuesday’s 4-2 win over Olympiacos. “We have a good relationship so far, we talk, we try to help the team. Obviously with me being one of the leaders he looks to me for feelings and advice on the team.
“When you’re winning games it definitely helps your relationship. Hopefully we can build a strong relationship.
“We know we both want to win big competitions. That’s the team’s aim and that’s the manager’s aim. Hopefully I can help him do that this year and see where we can go.
“He’s a new manager, he’s been here less than a week and he’s had two games. So far it’s been all about trying to save energy, trying not to work too much with the players because of the games.
“But we obviously have a long season ahead so I’m sure we’ll get to know each other well over the next few weeks and implement what he wants on our team. At the end of the day it’s two wins out of two, a positive start, so let’s hope it continues.”
By securing their place in the knockout stages, Spurs will hope that taking some pressure off can see them travel to Bavaria and restore some pride against a Bayern Munich side that hammered them 7-2 in London.
Having reached the Champions League final last year, Kane is well aware of the quality within his team’s ranks and urged his team-mates to keep the intensity high after a poor start to the 2019-20 season.
“It was important we qualified, we didn’t want to leave it until the last game,” Kane added. “After going 2-0 down [against Olympiacos] it was a disappointing start, but credit to the boys for digging deep and finding a great performance in the second half and getting through.
“We know what we did last year in the knockout stages and we have to take that positive energy and try to do similar and go even further. We have got a quality squad, no doubt about that – we have one of the best squads in Europe.
“In football when things don’t go your way it’s easy to maybe drop your levels a little bit and you end up going on a downward spiral and you’ve got to pick it up. Last couple of games we have done that but we know we have a lot of hard work to continue that.”