Tottenham Hotspur journalist Alasdair Gold has been speaking on his latest YouTube video about all things Spurs related following their 2-2 draw with Premier League strugglers Newcastle United.
Jose Mourinho’s men blew all three points at St. James’ Park after Joe Willock’s 85th-minute goal earned the Magpies a valuable point in their relegation battle.
Something which took many of the Spurs players by surprise was the absence of Toby Alderweireld from the matchday squad completely.
The Belgian had played all 270 minutes of his national side’s World Cup qualifiers, however, Mourinho did not put his absence down to that.
Do you think Alderweireld is being frozen out?
Yes, looks that way
No, I believe Jose
Discussing the situation surrounding Mourinho and the 32-year-old defender, Gold had the following to say.
He said: “I did a bit of digging. I was told that Alderweireld actually had done his [virus] test on Wednesday, he was back and did all that. So I really don’t understand what’s going on there. A lot of people inside the club [were] confused about it. And like I say, some players not too happy about it, because they kind of feel that it’s almost people being made to be scapegoats.
“I kind of alluded to there the whole Alderweireld and Mourinho relationship is so strange. For me Alderweireld is one of those who absolutely delighted in the fact that Mourinho was coming in. He didn’t have a great relationship with Pochettino, new deal wasn’t forthcoming.
“Always sticks in my head when Pochettino had just gone and I think he was asked about the possibility of Mourinho. I think it was that night, maybe it was an international due to Belgium, possibly. And he was so happy about the prospect of Mourinho you could see and obviously, within just over a month, he signed a new deal when Mourinho came in and there’s some really gushing interviews about him.
“And just somewhere along the line, he has absolutely fallen into this same thing that Mourinho’s done with every and to be fair, he’s that it’s all of them.”
TIF Thoughts on Gold’s comments…
As Gold says, it seems a very strange situation between the pair. Despite Tottenham’s defensive woes, the 32-year-old has only played 1611 minutes for the Lilywhites in the Premier League in comparison to 2,958 minutes last season.
In the draw with Newcastle, Davinson Sanchez was scrutinised after the game for his poor performance by the media which brought further questions as to what is going on between Alderweireld and Mourinho given the defender trained with the squad after returning from international duty.
The situation between the two leaves a lot of questions to be answered at a time where Spurs could do without any off-the-pitch drama given they are still in the fight for a top-four spot.
In other news: ‘Is this a joke?’, ‘Going to be haunting us’ – Many Spurs fans react as player comments emerge