Very interesting article by the Athletic on end of Mourinho's reign. All signs indicate that the top-performers at the team were fully behind Mourinho--he seems to have lost the Dele Alli, Serge, Sissoko, Winks types. Which does beg the question whether it is right for the tail to be wagging the dog. Jose and Spurs were not working out as a partnership, but one can imagine Kane/Son/etc secretly may have been happy when Mourinho ripped the lazier players in the locker room.

https://theathletic.com/2525352/2021/04/19/he-sucked-the-culture-out-of-the-club-the-inside-story-of-jose-mourinhos-downfall-at-tottenham-hotspur/

EXCERPT:

But the problem was that Mourinho had gone far beyond the point of provoking a reaction out of the players. He had hammered them so many times that they lost all trust in him.

The dressing room was increasingly divided. There were more experienced players such as Kane, Hojbjerg and Lucas Moura, who responded well to the manager and who continued to perform even when results were falling apart in the last few months. Kane, sources say, would have run through a brick wall for Mourinho, right up to the end. That much was apparent from his two-goal performances this month against Newcastle United and Everton. On both occasions, the England captain tried to win the game single-handedly, and nearly pulled it off.

At the same time, more and more players were alienated by Mourinho’s behaviour. And it was not just Dele and Harry Winks, who were the two who found their playing time most cut down this season.

The performances of almost the whole team from January onwards, especially in three straight defeats to Liverpool, Brighton and Chelsea, spoke of a dressing room which had been sapped of confidence and belief by the manager’s attacks. All of the unity of the Pochettino era had been shattered.

“Four or five players absolutely hate him, four or five like him, four or five just aren’t arsed,” said another club source earlier this month. “He just splits the camp, because of what he says and how he says it.”