Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho predicts different transfer market in wake of coronavirus
Jose Mourinho believes the transfer market will look a lot different in a post-coronavirus world.
Football has been suspended indefinitely since March in the wake of the global pandemic.
Premier League clubs are moving closer to agreeing upon a restart date with key votes on return to training protocols expected on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
How the summer transfer window will play out is a lot less clear with the financial impact of the crisis significant even in the top flight.
While admitting that other aspects are rightly taking precedence, Mourinho believes that clubs are going to have show prudence.
“It is normal you are going to have a different market, I don’t see the world – especially the football world – ready for some crazy numbers we used to have,” he told Sky Sports.
“The first questions after that will be when will be the transfer window? I don’t think it will be in July or August anymore, it has to go further than that.
“I would like my club to be what I know what we will be, sensible, balanced and not going to spend rivers of money. We are trying to respect the situation, not just the football but the situation in the world and society overall.
“But it is the last thing we are thinking, we are not thinking about it. There are no talks about it. We think about safety and following every rule.”
Tottenham Hotspur are one of the teams who have returned to training after the enforced hiatus with Mourinho forced to use a bicycle to help divide his time between all of his groups of players.
The Portuguese is delighted to be back on the field with his team and can’t wait to do so for real sooner rather than later.
He added: “Honestly, since the moment Bundesliga started, the Portuguese league and Spanish league announced a date to start, I think it is the most difficult moment for us, because we want to play. It is hard to see other countries playing football and we don’t do it.
“I always loved, and always tried to make my players love the Christmas period, where instead of being sad, we were always happy to give people what people love. In this moment we are feeling a bit of the opposite.
“German professionals are giving the world something that they love, and we are not, and we want to play, but of course we are respectful of the authorities and we trust them and the Premier League. We just have to wait for the decision; when they tell us the moment to start, we want very much to do it.
“Obviously it was an amazing feeling for everybody to be back on the green carpet, because I think we all miss even the smell of it!
“There was a period where we were starting training and 9am and finishing at 5pm, because by having players train individually, we had to have different slots. Some people were coming at 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm.
“To be honest, my boys in the staff were really, really tired for a certain period. You could find a funny picture of me riding a bike, because we had the pitches at a huge distance, and without a bike I couldn’t control every training session at the same time!”
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