José Mourinho says he deserved a yellow card for "being rude" during his side's 1-0 loss away to Southampton but added that he was rude to "an idiot".
Yet another abject defensive performance was made worse by Mourinho's booking and the sight of Harry Kane limping off the pitch with 15 minutes remaining. The England striker could be seen clutching his left hamstring as he went off, with Danny Ings goal enough for Southampton to get the three points.
However, as often is the case, it was the José Mourinho show as he was booked for a verbal clash with the opposing bench. The former Manchester United manager wandered into the Southampton technical area to confront a member of their backroom staff and could be seen leaning over goalkeeping coach Andrew Sparkes as he sat looking at a tactics board.
Alerted to what was going on, referee Mike Dean issued the Portuguese a yellow card and a warning about his conduct.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Mourinho admitted he was in the wrong but used the opportunity to insult the subject of his ire: "I think the yellow card is fair because I was rude, but I was rude to an idiot."
"For some reason I was rude. but I was and because I was rude I deserved the yellow card," he added.
While Mourinho would not expand on what the disagreement was over he said: "I basically had bad words with the guy."
The loss to Southampton was Mourinho's fourth loss in 11 games as Tottenham manager and on the match itself Mourinho said it was a "strange game".
"We had no problems defensively. They didn’t create great problems. They scored one goal. Danny Ings did well. We were in control apart from that.
“We didn’t create much but enough to score. They stopped the game and defended well. The centre-backs gave a hard game to our attacking players who were aggressive and didn’t make mistakes.
“In the last part of the game without Harry Kane and another striker, without Son, we were limited in our options. I feel it is too harsh the result but it is what it is.”
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