Lucas Moura reveals his favourite Spurs manager

Former Tottenham Hotspur versatile forward Lucas Moura is back where his career started –  at Sao Paulo in Brazil. He recently received his first national team call up and caps since back the 12th of October 2018, more than six years ago, when he was of course playing for Spurs.

During his time in North London, Lucas played for Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, Antonio Conte, Cristian Stellini, and Ryan Mason. Six managers (four permanent) in his five and a half years at the club, pretty turbulent. The 32-year old has recently revealed which of those six were his favourite throughout his time at the club.

Speaking to GiveMeSport, the forward said: “The manager I liked working with the most was Mourinho. He looks you in the eye and he’s very transparent. Sometimes he’d ask me, ‘How are you’, and I would tell him ‘I am fine’. He would say ‘Really? Because in the last game, you were s**t’.”

There was a lot of talk that the Portuguese manager lost the dressing room in his final few months at the club. That was probably true in the end, though you could tell the few players that did like working under him. Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane, and of course Lucas, were players that appeared to be the saddest to see him go.

You could tell that Kane was desperate for that illusive first trophy of his career, and saw someone with Mourinho’s track record as the best possible chance for him to do exactly that. It was not to be, and three and a half years later, the England captain has still not been able to get that trophy, despite consistently incredible performances on an individual level.

Winning a trophy under Mourinho was not for the want of trying for Mourinho, who had navigated Spurs to the final of the Carabao Cup final, only to be removed from his post just six days before the final, amidst all the chaos and controversy of the Super League.

At the time, Mourinho was the only manager who had ever beaten Pep Guardiola in a final. A month later, Thomas Tuchel did the same. For three more years, Mourinho remained the only manager to beat Guardiola in a domestic final, until Erik Ten Hag managed to do so in the 2024 FA Cup final, saving his job – even if only for a few months.

Still, pretty interesting from Lucas, with most probably expecting him to have chosen Mauricio Pochettino.