Spurs have had a great window & Levy rightly deserves credit for negotiating some excellent deals. But I think we need to recognise the role José Mourinho's has played in identifying the profile of player we needed. With that in mind, a little thread on his previous transfers. 1

Mourinho has been backed in the market to the tune of £1,500,000,000 in his career, signing 106 players for an average fee of over £14,000,000. On the surface it would appear he's largely bought his success but a closer examination reveals something interesting. 2/23

With the exclusion of Porto, he's been the victim of managing clubs with a high profile or those with a profligate chairman. The profile of player he signs are not usually recognised as world class at the time of signing nor playing at another elite club. 3/23

When Mourinho took the helm at Porto they were a mess. He went to the market and bought in players from Vitória Setúbal and Leira clubs with which he had a previous connection. The biggest signing in his first year was Nuno Espírito Santo at £2.7m. 4/23

In his second season he bought Benny McCarthy for £3.15m. Within 2 seasons Porto, had won back to back league titles including a domestic double in 2002/03, the Europa League in 2002/03 and the Champions League in 2003/04. His total spending at Porto was just shy of £20m. 5/23

His first spell at Chelsea saw him add £334m of spending but this was largely down to Roman Abramovich's largess. He requested Drogba from Marseille, who exploited Chelsea's new found wealth to extract £34m. Essien came from Lyon a year later for a similar fee. 6/23

Other signings during this period were Ricardo Carvalho & Paulo Ferreira from Porto, Mateja Kezman & Arjen Robben from PSV, Petr Cech from Rennes, John Obi Mikel from Lyn. Most of these were inflated fees but the profile of player & club were quite specific. 7/23

The largest transfer during Mourinho's first period at Chelsea was a fee of £39.5m paid to AC Milan for Andriy Shevchenko, who was an Abramovich signing. Other than Ashley Cole & Juliano Belletti from Arsenal & Barca respectively, no player came from an elite club. 8/23

He won 2 league titles, an FA Cup & 2 League Cups in this period before being sacked & later moving to Inter Milan. At Inter he spent £142m but this was offset by selling Zlatan Ibrahimovic for £62m to Barca. 9/23

His main signings were Diego Milito & Thiago Motta from Genoa for fees of £25m & £9m. Ricardo Quaresma moved from Porto for £22m & Samuel Eto'o joined as part of Ibrahimovic's transfer for £18m. Sulley Muntari joined from Portsmouth. 10/23

Wesley Sneijder was one of Mourinho's rare raids on an elite club joining for a modest fee of £13.5 from Real Madrid. He won back to back league titles adding the Coppa Italia and Champions League in 2009/10 to win the treble before moving to Madrid. 11/23

Even at Madrid, where it's likely he had less control over transfers he still had a preference for signing a particular profile of player from non elite teams. His £167m spend over 3 years not high for a club that had spent £232m the year before he joined. 12/23

Luka Modric joined from Spurs for £31.5m. Ángel Di María and Fábio Coentrão moved from Benfica for £56m. Three players moved from German clubs Mesut Özil, Sami Khedira & Nuri Sahin - the first two from SV Werder Bremen & VfB Stuttgart. 13/23

He was reunited with Essien & Carvalho again both coming from Chelsea, the former on loan. Perhaps the best transfer from Real's perspective during this time was Raphaël Varane from Lens for £9m. Mourinho was able to break Barca's dominance winning a league and cup in the 3 years

Interestingly his Real Madrid outscored Pep's Barca in two of this three years in charge at the Santiago Bernabéu. 15/23

In his second spell at Chelsea his spending accelerated but again it was either for very specific types of player Diego Costa (Atlético Madrid £34.2m) or a particular profile Willian (Anzhi Makhachkala £31.9m). 16/23

He broke with his previous aversion of signing from big clubs signing Cesc Fàbregas & Pedro from Barcalona. Juan Cuadrado (Fiorentina), Nemanja Matic (Benfica), André Schürrle (Schalke), Filipe Luís (Atlético Madrid) & Mohamed Salah (Basel) all moved for big fees. 17/23

One of his major flops was Abdul Rahman Baba from Augsburg for a fee over £23m. The point is looking for value in clubs like Augsburg when managing a team that went on to win the Premier League and League Cup in 2014/15. He spent £324m in this 2.5 year spell. 18/23

His biggest spend was during his time as manager of Manchester United, spending almost £420m - £94.5m on Paul Pogba alone from Juventus. However, other than Nemanja Matic from Chelsea his other signings were from a familiar profile of club... 19/23

Romelu Lukaku (Everton £76m), Fred (Shakhtar Donetsk £53m), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Borussia Dortmund £37.8m), Eric Bailly (Villarreal CF £34m), Victor Lindelöf (Benfica £31m), Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal £30m) & Diogo Dalot (Porto £19m). 20/23

His time at Manchester United brought another Europa League and League Cup and a second place finish in the league, which he has described as his biggest achievement in football to date. 21/23

Looking at the headline figure of £1.5 billion certainly doesn't tell the whole story. Mourinho has been at his best when identifying talent in non elite clubs, buying players from the Portuguese league and less glamourous teams of French, Dutch and German football. 22/23

I am therefore supremely comfortable with Mourinho driving our recruitment. The only difference between now and his previous clubs is Levy will drive a bargain rather than paying whatever is demanded, as has been the case in the past with Chelsea and Man Utd. 23/23 [end]