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Jose Mourinho has been sacked as head coach of Tottenham, less than a week ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City on Sunday.

The club confirmed Mourinho and his coaching staff Joao Sacramento, Nuno Santos, Carlos Lalin and Giovanni Cerra had all been “relieved of their duties” on Monday morning.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, said: “Jose and his coaching staff have been with us through some of our most challenging times as a club.

“Jose is a true professional who showed enormous resilience during the pandemic. On a personal level I have enjoyed working with him and regret that things have not worked out as we both had envisaged. He will always be welcome here and we should like to thank him and his coaching staff for their contribution.”

Mourinho had been in charge at Spurs since November 2019, replacing Mauricio Pochettino, signing a deal until the end of the 2023 season.

In his first campaign, Mourinho took Tottenham from 14th in the Premier League to finish sixth – securing Europa League qualification – but were knocked out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage by RB Leipzig.

Mourinho leaves Spurs seventh in the table, five points off the Champions League places.

The club crashed out of this season’s Europa League at the last-16 stage following defeat to Dinamo Zagreb.

Mourinho had criticised his players in recent weeks, notably accusing stars of “hiding” in the defeat to Arsenal.

He said: “No intensity, no pressing. In terms of creating attacking football, some important players were hiding. In the second half we only had to improve which we did.”

Asked after a draw against Newcastle about Tottenham’s tendency to let points slip from winning positions, he gave the barbed reply: “Same coach, different players”.

He told Sky Sports after the Newcastle game: “It was not a problem of fight, it was not a problem of attitude, the players wanted to win but I have to be honest and say I saw things on the pitch, not in terms of attitude but in terms of profile, vision, balance, which belongs to the top players, I didn’t see in every position.”

Mourinho had appeared to try and take a different tack before the departure was confirmed, shutting down questions from the media about his side’s frailties.

Asked about their continuing tendency to drop points, Mourinho said: “That’s what I’m not ready to discuss with you. I think it has to do with some of our qualities as a team, but I’m not ready to discuss with you.”

When pressed on when he would be willing to discuss this matter, Mourinho said “maybe never”. – Sky Sports