Mourinho admits ‘incredible kid’ may leave Spurs in January

Will Ford

Jose Mourinho admits he doesn’t know whether Gedson Fernandes will remain at Tottenham next month.

The Portugal Under-21 international is over halfway through an 18-month loan from Benfica, but has played just 63 minutes this season and has yet to feature in the Premier League.


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He was also omitted from Spurs’ Europa League squad, which Mourinho confesses has created a “sad” situation.

“If he remains at the club from January, I cannot answer you,” Mourinho said. “I truly believe that we have to respect the player and Benfica.

“The player because he deserves all our respect and Benfica because as a friendly club deserves our respect. So what they decide is fundamental and what they decide will prevail.

“The situation is sad because he was out of the Europa League list and by being out of that list reduced immediately a chance of nine matches that we already played in the Europa League, where we had five substitutions where we rotated the players a lot and we can bring to the bench 12 players.

“To be out of these nine matches I believe that breaks confidence levels and even dynamics and routines and was very bad for him.

“Apart from that, then you go to the Premier League where he can play, but by having in the Premier League only until now six guys on the bench and the keeper I think it’s normal you go for players with more routine and match fitness.

“So these six months become really, really bad for us and for him and on top of it he’s a kid, it’s incredible what I’m going to say, but since he arrived he didn’t miss one single minute of one training session so even in low levels of happiness or motivation he’s managing to be a very good professional.

“So hopefully better days will come for him and they will come for sure, with us or without us, but better days will come for sure.”