Ledley King reveals what Jose Mourinho was really like behind the scenes at Tottenham

Ledley King has opened up on his experience working as a part of Jose Mourinho’s coaching staff, admitting that he enjoyed his time together with the Portuguese coach. King joined Mourinho’s staff after the Special One took over from Mauricio Pochettino in 2019, and the Tottenham legend returned to being a club ambassador following the […]

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Ledley King has opened up on his experience working as a part of Jose Mourinho’s coaching staff, admitting that he enjoyed his time together with the Portuguese coach.

King joined Mourinho’s staff after the Special One took over from Mauricio Pochettino in 2019, and the Tottenham legend returned to being a club ambassador following the manager’s exit.

The 42-year-old admitted that he could not afford to turn down the opportunity to try his hand at coaching when the job was offered to him.

King told FourFourTwo: “Jose came in and said that he’d like me to be part of his staff. I wasn’t even coaching – I’ve never been a coach.

“It’s one of those things that you simply can’t turn down: this is Jose Mourinho. It was an unbelievable experience. I enjoyed it.”

Tottenham looked on course for a title challenge during the initial part of Mourinho’s first full campaign in charge but the team eventually crumbled in the second half of the campaign, leading to the 60-year-old’s sacking in April of 2021.

Ledley King was hoping for a Premier League win

Speaking about the 2020-21 campaign, the former Spurs centre-back said: “In the first part of the season, everything was going well. We were top of the league in December and I thought we were going to win it!

“But sadly we fell off in the second half. We got to a cup final, beat Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford, and beat Arsenal and Manchester City at home.”

King also revealed that, unlike the intense individual that fans get to see on matchdays, Mourinho was quite a relaxed character in his daily life, usually cracking plenty of jokes.

He added: “The one thing about Jose is that, away from the cameras and the training ground, he’s a lot of fun to be around. He genuinely is.

“He loves to have a laugh and tell stories – he’s got so many great stories. At dinner time, he makes everyone laugh, but then when it comes to the football side it’s very serious.

“There were two sides to Mourinho that not everyone gets to see, and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to see them.”

Spurs Web Opinion

While Mourinho evidently was not a good fit for Spurs, he was certainly extremely entertaining.

There was never a dull moment in his press conferences, although his inclination to protect himself and his image eventually led to him losing the dressing room, which was the same thing that happened at Man Utd, Real Madrid and his second spell at Chelsea.

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