The off-pitch respect and friendship between Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho and Manchester United chief Sir Alex Ferguson is well documented, but it seems they also share a healthy respect of Tottenham’s resurgence the past few seasons.
Ferguson has been quoted in the past few seasons bigging up the London club’s chances, and Jose has named them as part of his Big Five as well,
“The champions will come from this group of five teams,” Mourinho told The Sun.
“I look at Manchester in the same way I look at all the others and not as a stronger candidate.
“I’m convinced Chelsea will be a very strong team and we don’t have to have fear about taking on any opponent.
“But there are more rivals than just Manchester.
“At Liverpool there has been big investment in three important attacking players.
“Arsenal have a young, high-quality squad.
“And there’s Tottenham, who have the potential to fight for the title after investment without losing their most important players, starting with Dimitar Berbatov.
“Because of that we are in a very strong league.”
Spurs fans have been telling anyone who will listen that their time has come, and their rivals (especially from Arsenal and West Ham, oddly enough) have been throwing the liberal use of ‘false dawn’ in their faces. It’ll be no small comfort to hear the games’ most high profile managers are sitting firmly in their corner.
Now, there’s just that small matter of not bottling it completely on the pitch.