Tottenham Hotspur: Reviewing ‘All or Nothing’ Episode 3

In the new Amazon series on Tottenham Hotspur, Episode 3 of ‘All or Nothing’ provided new insight into life as a player and continued to highlight Jose Mourinho.

Episode 1 of “All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur” looked at the end of Mauricio Pochettino and the beginning of Jose Mourinho at the club.

In the second episode, fans were provided an unprecedented look into the first minutes, hours, and days of Mourinho’s reign as coach at Spurs.

While players were still apparent in the first two episodes and Jose is still a major part of episode 3, the third episode looked deeper into the lives of the players and the ups and downs of being a professional footballer.

Mourinho and getting over United

The episode began as the team was returning and recovering from the loss to Manchester United in December. There was insightful film from both Jose Mourinho and Harry Kane questioning the mentality of the team, with Kane saying some people hide and hope others will make a play. Mourinho had a clear response to Kane’s questions, noting how the answer was to improve, and the way to improvement was “enraging” as he snorted like a bull.

Enraging to Mourinho means to “go and win” on that 50/50 ball and to “go and win” on that dual, and to “go and win” that second ball. To do this the players need to be “bastards” in Jose’s colorful language.

The gaffer wrapped up the discussion with a simple request for “no more sadness” and off the team went to practice. As practice started with some team-building exercises, Mourinho reminded the players of his place in the coaching hierarchy noting that if anyone had previously played this game, it was stolen from him.

Players and contracts

A major part of any sports franchise, particularly football clubs which are so expansive, are player contracts. Last season at Spurs, three contracts in particular captured the headlines for much of the season, or at least half of it as Amazon began to chronicle the three diverging paths of Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld, and Jan Vertonghen.

Mourinho described the situation with Vertonghen, which was really a great description of all three players’ situations. Mourinho noted that when the club, player, family, and agent all want it, it happens, if any one of them do not, then no deal.

Eriksen’s situation was both the most perplexing, yet most straightforward of the three. Eriksen apparently had a blank check in terms of being re-signed by Tottenham, however, the Dane was determined to do something else. Ultimately, from the moment Eriksen said he wanted to do something new, his time at the club was dated and it was only a matter of time.

The problem for other perspectives was the big question of why, and speculation has run rampant, but ultimately it is his decision and we just have to respect it, because it was the player’s decision.

Alderweireld and Vertonghen were in different situations from Eriksen in that they both wanted to stay at Tottenham, but the reality of the business side of the club meant only one would be kept. It was just three years ago that Vertonghen was in the exact same situation as Alderweireld and signed a three-year extension.

Now at 33, the club was looking to move on from Jan and it was clearly tough as he talked about not knowing and the potential impact on his family. The fact he had not said anything to his daughter about something people were speculating openly about in the papers was telling about how tough this was for Jan and his family. Sometimes the business side of football sucks and for all Jan did for the club, this was one of those times.

Alternatively, Alderweireld was now the 30-year-old veteran looking for stability and agreeing on a new three-year contract with the club. Whereas Jan was in a position of holding back things from his family, there was Toby taking pictures with his then-pregnant wife and their daughter. This is where you see the great side of the business knowing their lives are changed forever.

Maybe everyone knew exactly how things were going to play out with these three and on paper, it is just assets and money moving from club to club. However, this inside look reminds you these are just people living their lives with many of the same struggles we all have. Where am I going to work next year and how am I going to tell my family? That is a question most people have asked at some point or another.

Other observations from Episode 3

Tottenham‘s matches against Burnley and Wolves were covered in the episode. If you have not seen them seeing Heung-Min Son’s goal of the year in the Burnley match from a pitch-side camera, it is worth the investment in the episode. Interestingly, Tottenham actually scored the most goals of any Mourinho team with five in that match.

It is quite evident outside of Mourinho, Son is the most global icon in the squad and it was highlighted in this episode. There was a short clip of a young Korean fan who stood along the side of the road with a Son jersey waving and smiling as people drove by.

The long story short was the fan was expressing the joy of Korea found in Son and sharing it with all. It was funny hearing the fan say that if a Korean “don’t like Sonny, they are not Korean”. I would change it to say if you are a Spurs fan and don’t like Sonny, you don’t like Spurs, but the point is well taken.

Okay, I am from the States and Dele Alli lost me with these candy bars. I have grown up with Milky Ways, Snickers, KitKats, and Butterfingers. I am not sure what a Dime (Daim), Curly Whirly, or Drifter is, but it is clear no one should eat a Bounty if they want to be on Dele’s good side.

Having done a little looking and found that a Bounty is essentially the same as a Mounds bar, I’m in total agreement, coconut flavored filling is not for me. Based on my limited research I would go with the Crunchie bar, just as you should go with Episode 3 if you have not already.