‘It wasn’t easy’: Mourinho signing names Spurs player who made his life difficult at Tottenham

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Carlos Vinicius has admitted that his chances of succeeding at Tottenham Hotspur were hindered by Harry Kane due to the striker’s quality.

Jose Mourinho brought the Brazilian number nine to Spurs on loan for the 2020-21 campaign.

But one Premier League goal all season pretty much killed his chances of securing a permanent move to Tottenham this past summer.

However, the 26-year-old hitman only managed nine appearances in this competition, for a total of 304 minutes – the equivalent of a little over three full matches.

The main reason Vinicius didn’t play more was because he had Kane ahead of him in the pecking order and with the England international netting 33 goals in all competitions, the South American never had any hope of displacing the 28-year-old.

That being said, Vinicius, who now plays for PSV Eindhoven on loan from Benfica, harbours no resentment, simply acknowledging that Kane is a world-class goalscorer.

He told Zero Zero: “In relation to Kane, no comment is needed. He’s a great striker. For me, he’s among the top three strikers [in the world] today. I’m glad I learned so much [from him] even though I was his substitute.

“In that situation, you only have two options: either let go, or learn and, in the minutes they give you, prove your worth. That’s the one I chose. It wasn’t easy for me because, in my position, he is one of the best forwards in the world.”

Common problem

This is a common problem for supporting strikers at Tottenham.

You could argue that the North Londoners haven’t had a quality back-up to Kane for many years – if ever.

Vinicius joined the likes of Roberto Soldado, Vincent Janssen and Fernando Llorente in struggling to provide a solid plan-b option to Kane, with none of them pulling up any trees.

They aren’t bad strikers – with the exception of perhaps Janssen – but only playing a maximum of 15 minutes every weekend isn’t condusive for momentum and to that end it’s very little surprise that Carlos didn’t stand out either.