Garth Crooks has slammed Tottenham Hotspur’s Jose Mourinho for making ‘unacceptable’ comments.
Writing in his weekly BBC Sport column, Crooks said that the Tottenham boss had been out of order for criticising Raheem Sterling in the build up to his side’s clash with Manchester City.
Mourinho seemed to suggest that Sterling and Pep Guardiola had done the wrong thing by pulling out of England duty midway through the international break.
And Crooks explained: “The club-versus-country row has always been an issue but for Mourinho to apparently point the finger at Guardiola over Sterling’s absence was not only a cheap shot but an indication that he’s up to his old tricks again.
“Why? Because he knows he could never convince Harry Kane to miss an England fixture. What Mourinho did was poor. To cast such aspersions is, in my view, unacceptable.
“Why? Because ultimately such a decision is down to the player and him alone. If a player decides, for whatever reason, not to accept the invitation to play for his country then the England manager has a decision to make over whether to pick him in the future. It’s a simple as that.”
Sterling, in his defence, was only fit enough to be on the bench against Tottenham – and Pep Guardiola’s side missed him in his absence.
Tottenham managed to hold out for a 2-0 win, and they were relatively untroubled.
Although City had a lot of possession, they could not find a way through what was a well disciplined Tottenham defence.
Spurs have now moved to the top of the Premier League table, while City sit in the bottom half.
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