Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho is giving Mauricio Pochettino space in the wake of a turbulent week in North London.
Pochettino was sacked last Tuesday, with Mourinho announced as his replacement the following morning.
Spurs welcome Olympiakos to the new White Hart Lane in Group B of the Champions League tomorrow night, as Mourinho seeks his second win in a week.
The Portuguese says he spoke to Pochettino's son, who is with the club's Academy:
"I know what he (Pochettino) is feeling. I have been there. I know that there is a period where the best thing for us sometimes is to process our feelings, to process what happened with us. Then in a couple of weeks, we are open again to the world. We are open again to embrace a different period in our lives, so I want to respect that and to give that feeling to him. I spoke with his son, who is a player in our youth categories. I think through his boy, he can understand my feelings too. Of course I will call him, but I want to let him process. I also told the players in contact with him to make him feel completely free to come to the club anytime he wants. If wants to come to a training session, great, if he wants to come for a dinner at Spurs Lodge with the boys, perfect. If he wants me to be there, I will. If he doesn't want to be there and he wants to be just with the boys, let's do it that way. I just want him to feel that this house belongs to him."
Jose Mourinho says Tottenham can recover from any hangover of losing last season's Champions League decider:
"When you are almost landing on the moon and you don't do it, I believe that the frustration is very, very high, but at the same time, you look to a team like Liverpool. They also had the frustration of not winning a final and then the next season, they reached a final for the second time and they win the competition. So I think it depends a lot on the people's mentality and the way you react to such a big disappointment."
Mourinho also played down speculation linking striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Tottenham:
"I have more than a connection (with Zlatan), amazing player, amazing guy, but I would say no chance. We have the best striker in England. It doesn't make sense to sign him when we have Harry Kane."
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