Jose Mourinho raised a few eyebrows when he claimed his second place finish with Manchester United in the 2017/18 season was his biggest achievement in football.
After all, this is a man who won Champions Leagues with both Porto and Inter Milan, oversaw the rise of Chelsea, and managed Real Madrid to a league title. Despite that, he insisted that finishing as runner-up to Manchester City trumped all of those.
It was a bit of a mad thing to say at the time, but this is probably worse.
The Portuguese manager currently finds himself at Spurs, where a few injuries have depleted the numbers in his squad. Harry Kane could miss the rest of the season, as could Heung Min-Son. Moussa Sissoko is also out at the minute.
For those of you counting, that's three injuries. Strap yourself in for this one.
Speaking ahead of the game against Chelsea this weekend, Mourinho claimed that leading this injury ravaged team to a top four finish would be top the second place finish with United, making it his greatest achievement. Not only this, but he believes Spurs are the most injury hit team in Europe (h/t The Guardian):
In these circumstances, yes (top four with Spurs bigger achievement than second with United). We have to face that. Again I repeat the boys did fantastic to put themselves back in the positions where we belong; these positions fighting for the top four.
The situation is difficult. I think nobody else in the Premier League for sure, but even in European football, is in such a difficult situation as we are in terms of injuries in specific positions.
Sonny and Harry, they score the majority of goals that Tottenham score. This season was so negatively special that we’ll be without them both at the same time for a lot of matches.
So yes, not for me, my achievement, but collectively for this group of boys if we manage to finish fourth without Harry and Sonny it would be something incredible, incredible achievement for the boys.
In terms of the Premier League, according to Trasfermarkt the other clubs that have three or more players currently out injured include Manchester United, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, and West Ham. That's a quarter of the league. Not only a Spurs issue so.
While there is no doubting Kane and Son are big losses, this all seems a bit daft from Mourinho. After all, he did sign both Gedson Fernandes and Steven Bergwijn, two players who operate in forward areas.
It's not as if they have a mountain to climb to move up the table either. They currently sit in fifth place, one point behind this weekend's opponents Chelsea.
When you consider the form of Frank Lampard's team in recent weeks, you could make a compelling argument that Spurs should actually be favourites to finish in the top four.
To be fair, it wouldn't be like Mourinho to make over-the-top statements such as this one.
