Jose Mourinho reveals he agreed to pay for £500 Spanish ham after innocent Tottenham wager with Sergio Reguilon
JOSE MOURINHO insists he is no fair-weather Instagrammer.
The Tottenham boss has vowed to continue posting on the social media site – whether it is good news about expensive joints of meat or bad news when things go offal.
The Special One wowed the web when he published on Monday a photo of him and Spurs defender Sergio Reguilion next to a massive leg of ham.
Mourinho included the message: “A promise is a promise. It costed me £500 but I keep my promises.”
It was widely claimed to be the result of an innocent wager between the pair before Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Manchester City on Saturday.
But Mourinho explained yesterday: “It’s just a simple thing that sometimes happens. The players wanted Spanish ham and it’s quite expensive. So who pays and who doesn’t pay?
“We said Reguilon has to pay because he’s Spanish. I then said ‘OK, if we win I pay’. That’s it.
“Of course the players were happy that I had to pay for the ham.”
Victory over City took Tottenham top of the Premier League.
Their manager is also becoming a must-follow on Instagram – where he posted a photo of him looking glum and eating crisps after his team’s 1-0 Europa League defeat at Royal Antwerp last month.
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Asked if his recent appearance on the platform is proof he is enjoying himself in his role more now, he said: “No, no, no.
“I don’t think the post after Antwerp celebrated anything. The posts are what they are.
“I posted ten minutes after the game against Antwerp, which was awful and a defeat.
“I didn’t post after Man City, a very good victory and we were all happy. I just try to open our world to the world.
“People say many times, they love the insight, what they don’t see. The success of that Amazon series was exactly that everything was open. It’s good fun for people.
“A big Formula One team, let’s say Red Bull, the pilots, the boss, I would love to know how things work inside.
“I think Instagram in this case is an opportunity for little things that don’t hurt anyone, is not a problem at all and sometimes it’s funny.
“Other times it’s not funny at all when you post because you’re upset with a bad result and bad performance.
“It’s just little things for the people to know our world.”
Tottenham will be hoping they do not get themselves into a Euro pickle again when they host Bulgarians Ludogorets Razgrad tonight.
Spurs, with six points from their opening three matches, are currently top of Group J on goal difference from Antwerp and Austrians LASK.
Mourinho will be without Toby Alderweireld against pointless Ludogorets – although the muscle injury the Belgian defender suffered against City is not as serious as first thought and he should be back within a month.
Mourinho said: “If we don’t take it seriously we know what is going to happen because it happened to us in Antwerp.
“We spoke about it this morning with the players and it’s a dangerous group. It’s a group where you will need a lot of points to qualify. It’s not one of these groups where sometimes eight or nine points is enough to qualify.
“So we need results, we have three more matches to play, and if possible we need three points here.”