Mourinho: "If Salah and Mané didn't know Tanganga, they do now..."
José Mourinho said it would be unfair on his players to talk about transfers following Tottenham's 0-1 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday.
Tottenham manager José Mourinho passed off transfer speculation on Saturday amid rumours concerning Gedson Fernandes and Christian Eriksen. Benfica midfielder Fernandes is reported to be close to joining Tottenham on an 18-month loan deal, while Spurs midfield star Eriksen has emerged as a target for Serie A club Inter Milan in January.
With his contract due to run out at the end of the season, Eriksen has been linked to a move to Inter, who denied contact with Tottenham prior to their draw against Atalanta. Mourinho, however, was in no mood to talk about transfers after his Tottenham side suffered a 0-1 defeat leaders Liverpool on Saturday evening.
"Let's smile with Tanganga" - Mourinho
"It's the last thing I want to do after this performance is talk about [new] players," Mourinho told reporters. "I think it's a way to show respect to these guys is to not talk about new players. Can we say [Japhet] Tanganga is a new player? Can we say that? He never played a match for Tottenham in the Premier League. Today he played and today he proved that he can play for us. It's a pity that he's not a striker, it's a pity that he's not a midfield player, but he's one more player that we have. So I think [Sadio] Mané and [Mohamed] Salah, they know who Tanganga is. They didn't know before the game. I think when they saw the list they wondered where this guy plays. I think now they know. The kid was really good so instead of speaking, or crying about Harry Kane and [Moussa] Sissoko and [Hugo] Lloris and Ben Davies, let's smile with Tanganga."
Tottenham are eighth in the Premier League and four points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea after three matches without a win.