Jose Mourinho ‘didn’t bother much with sports science’ while at Tottenham, reveals Harry Kane

Harry Kane has revealed how Jose Mourinho ‘didn’t bother much with sports science’ during his failed 17-mont stint at Tottenham – but insisted that he had a great relationship with the Special One.

Mourinho was sacked last month just days before Spurs’ Carabao Cup final against Manchester City with a fractured dressing room failing to get results having led the table at Christmas.

Mourinho’s negative brand of football was heavily criticised by pundits and fans alike, while the Portuguese boss claimed his coaching skills were ‘second to none’ before being shown the exit by Daniel Levy.

Harry Kane has opened up on his relationship with former Spurs boss Jose Mourinho (left)

Kane has opened up on life at Spurs in an reveal-all interview with Gary Neville (right)

In an reveal-all interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap YouTube channel, Kane explained how Mourinho wasn’t big into sports science and preferred to focus on what happened on the pitch instead. 

In a massive contrast to former boss Mauricio Pochettino, Kane has said Mourinho instead left the Tottenham players to their own devices during his time as manager.  

‘It was pretty much completely different if I’m honest,’ Kane told Neville when asked about the two managers’ way of doing things. ‘Just in the style of play, the way they set up, tactical training we would do. 

‘Obviously Mauricio we do a lot of gym work, it was a lot gym base whereas Jose wasn’t so much into that but Jose obviously expected us to be men and act like men on the pitch, have leaders on the pitch. 

Mourinho was sacked as Tottenham boss last month just days before the Carabao Cup final

‘To be honest, that’s probably where it didn’t quite work out with Jose we didn’t quite have enough leadership that we needed at the time. Obviously the club was in a difficult stage, with Mauricio getting sacked it’s never easy a new manager coming in. 

‘I think with Jose I had a great relationship with him, we got on from minute one. I think we understood each other, we had a similar mentality and how we saw stuff on the pitch, off the pitch and mentality in training so we kind of built that relationship. 

‘Again it’s a shame we couldn’t go on to win things but I’ve been lucky enough to work with Mauricio and Jose, they’re two incredible managers that’s only helped me in my career for sure.’

When asked about Mourinho’s approach to sports science, Kane explained how the Portuguese boss wasn’t exactly against it and never wanted to ‘babysit’ the squad. 

‘It’s not like he’s against it [sports science],’ Kane added. ‘It’s not like he says I don’t want you to it but it wasn’t what he thought of doing first and foremost. It was more on the pitch, this is what we need to do, this is how we need to set up. 

Kane insists he had a ‘great relationship’ with Mourinho as they both shared the same mentality

However, Kane admitted that many of his Spurs team-mates didn’t get on with Mourinho

‘Training on the pitch then he almost left you to be professional outside of it, he didn’t kind of look after it and babysit it. 

‘We still had gym sessions that sports science guys would put stuff on but he wouldn’t, he kind of expected that almost. You know, we’re professional footballers, he shouldn’t have to tell us to do gym it should be a given.

‘Jose’s got so much experience in the biggest of games at the biggest of clubs and that’s what I mean by saying we had a similar mentality in that aspect in doing anything to win. And that’s the game. Jose just wanted to win. 

‘That was the mentality he was trying to put into the players at Spurs, do anything to win and I think like you said we did become more streetwise, but maybe there was relationships that didn’t quite work there but from my point of view, he was great for me.’

The Overlap is a new YouTube channel from Gary Neville in partnership with Sky Bet.