Jose Mourinho reveals how transfer window will change due to coronavirus crisis

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho believes big-money transfer fees will be a thing of the past in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and expects the summer window to be extended beyond August.

The Premier League has been suspended for over two months, since mid-March, though players have now returned to phased training with plans in place to restart the season next month.

Even if the season is completed, clubs have suffered enormous financial costs during this period that are expected to dramatically alter the transfer window, with player swaps becoming more common, and Mourinho says Spurs, like most clubs, will have to act responsibly and sensibly.

‘To be honest in this moment I think it is the last thing that we are thinking about. In the club we are not thinking about it,’ Mourinho said on Sky Sports’ The Football Show on Wednesday.

‘I can read a few things but no talks about it, because it is the last thing we think about in this moment. In this moment we think about safety, following every rule inside the training ground, we are trying to be perfect, it’s not just about the testing it’s about everything. We are trying just to be perfect in the club and we don’t think about it.

‘But you ask me and I’m not going to run away, I think it’s normal that we are going to have a different market.

‘I don’t see the world and especially the football world, ready for some crazy numbers that we are used to have and some crazy investments that sometimes some clubs, especially some clubs or some leagues, are used to do.

‘But to be honest, the first question after that will be when will the transfer window be? Of course I don’t think it will be anymore July and August. I think it has obviously to go further than that.

‘But if you ask me my club, what I would like in my club, I would like my club to be what I know it is going to be. It is going to be sensible, balanced, we are not going to spend rivers of money and we are trying to respect the situation. Not just of football, but the situation of the world and society overall.’

Tottenham were struggling with a raft of injuries when the season was suspended, but the whole squad – notably Harry Kane – have overcome their issues and returned to fitness to provide Mourinho with a huge boost.

He continued: ‘I cannot say in this moment they are ready to play because one thing is to recover from an injury, another is to be ready to play football. And in Harry’s case, I think it’s about five months since he has played a football match.

‘But all of them, they are not injured anymore. They are training, but of course training is what it is, training has a lot of limitations, we cannot compete, we cannot do one-against-ones, we have to keep a certain distance, we cannot compete.

‘We are in this moment just for a few days in groups of five, before that everything was individual. But Harry Kane, Son, Bergwijn, Sissoko, all of them, they are fine. I think with a couple of weeks of normal training when the authorities tell us that we can train normally, I think the boys will be ready to play.

‘Of course not in the maximum of their potential, I don’t think anybody can do that in this moment, but ready to go and for us it’s a great feeling because we finished the period with that defeat at Leipzig where we were really, really in trouble to have 11 players with attacking players.’

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