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Thank you, thank you so much.

Welcome to Tottenham, welcome back to the Premier League. Great to have you back

I am smiling for two days. Afternoon, first of all I think I have to, and I do it, I do it with a bit of sadness, but I have to do it, I have to speak about Mauricio (Pochettino). I have to congratulate him for the work he did and I have to share with you what we already shared indoors which is this club will always be his home. This training ground will always be his training ground. He can come when he wants. When he misses the players, misses the people he worked with, the door is always open for him. From my experience, tomorrow is another day and he will find happiness again, he will find a great club again and he will have a great future. It would be in modern days, very bad news if this is the last time he loses his job because that's how life... The point is we give everything, every day like he did at the club and to live with a sad feeling but live with the feeling that he did great work. I would like to just say that because it is what everyone at the club feels about it. He will always be welcome. In relation to your question, I am a bit disappointed you are happy I am here because I thought you would like to keep me at Sky! But that's OK, we are friends. I enjoy what I did but this is my life, this is where I belong and this is what really makes me happy. So yes, I am not smiling as much today because I have a game in two days and not much time to work but deep inside I am really, really happy. And every minute I spend in the club I realise my option was correct. I am really enjoying a big football club with a big structure with a great organisation where I am really focused on my job, on my coaching, on my players and on my team, and am not worried about what surrounds me. It is not about the wonderful structure but the dynamic structure and fantastic, I am more than happy to be here.

You said in the summer in your first news conference of your new job you'd be smiling and you certainly are

Happiness wise and convinced it was a great choice? Ten. I couldn't be happier. In relation to difficulty of the job, every time as club changes mid-season it is because the situation is not good, that's obvious. Unless something strange happens that we don't know outside, basically the results sometimes make these decisions. Of course it is not easy but if I forget, I can't forget, but if I forget in two days I have a match, in four days I have another match, and that we need results. If I can forget that I would say a great job, the potential of the club is huge, the potential of the players is great and it was one of the reasons I came. The vision Mr Levy put in front of me about his club and the quality of the players and the squad.I know I have potential a great job in my hands. It is not easy because I need to be balanced, I cannot think I can come and change in four days. I don't have a great experience of getting teams in mid-season. It is only the second time, I did it in Portugal in I think 2001 but I thought about it during these months because I had a feeling I would get a club mid-season, I thought about it a lot. The conclusion was I would always have a game two days or three days after my appointment so I need to go through stability. I need to trust the base and the bases, the work done before. They were in hands of a good manager, good coaching staff and of course we always have principles in our play. our leadership style, that is obvious. But I cannot come here and think it is about my fingerprint. It is not about myself, it is about the players to try and go from a base of stability. Very careful about the selection of information, the training exercises, a good control of the intensity of the training sessions to try to go from a place of some comfort for the boys. So it is not easy but let's go for it.

On a scale of one to ten, Jose, where would you put the happiness? And also on a scale of one to ten, how difficult will it be to take Spurs to that next step to win trophies?

I think so, I believe so. I always thought these 11 months were not a waste of time, these 11 months were months to think, to analyse, take care and think about things. I think so. You never lose your DNA, your identity, you are what you are, the good and the bad. I have time to think about many things. Don't ask me what are the mistakes but I realise during my career I also made mistakes. I won't make the same mistakes, I am going to make new ones. I have time, I am stronger, and when I am saying stronger I don't mean fitter. I was always fit. But I think I am stronger. The emotional point of view I am relaxed, I am motivated, I am ready and I think the players felt that in two days, they felt I am ready to support them. This is not about me. I think in your career you have moments, not just career but in life, moments and through periods and I am in a period that is not about myself. It is about my club's fans, my players, I am just here to try and help everyone.

You say you have been thinking a lot in the summer, I know you will have been studying, keeping up with documentation, your football and other sports. You quoted (Charles) Darwin at one point about adapting. Despite all you have won, do you think now you are a new, improved Jose?

I am humble, I am humble enough to try to analyse which was what I did, to try to analyse my career, not just the last year but to analyse the evolution, the problems, the solutions. I was humble enough for that. The principle of the analysis was not to blame anyone else. When I had meetings with my assistants and the people I thought about bringing to work with me in this chapter it was all based on the principle that there was nobody else to blame. There is nobody else to analyse and that was a great thing. I went really deep in that analysis and it was very important for me. I am nobody to advise people but a break, it was very positive for me. It was the first summer I did not work, it was not easy, I felt a bit lost in that pre-season period. It was a long process, I even learned how to be a pundit!

Jose, you just said don't ask you about your mistakes but what would you say are the key things you have learned about yourself in the last year? What do you intend to do differently this time?

I have to go to Google Translate to understand what mojo is. But I can more or less feel what you mean. When I don't win I cannot be happy, I cannot change that in my DNA. And I hope I can influence the players to not be happy without winning football matches. If you are happy by losing football matches, it is difficult to be a winner at any moment in your career. It is a basic principle. But the emotional control, the self-esteem and to give confidence in yourself, in others and those around you. It is a very important principle. And another thing I also have to learn, and those who work with me also to learn, sometimes you have to work with people who you don't love and you have to work well. The people who work with you and for you they have to work to share your principles. I have principles I will keep for the rest of my career and I cannot not change. One of those principles is I don't like to lose.

Yesterday you talked about passion and happiness and you mentioned happiness a fair few times already today. Happiness was not something we saw a lot of during your time at Manchester United. Do you think you have got your 'mojo' back?

No. I think they have to see me as Mr Inter, Mr Real Madrid, Mr Porto. I think they have to see me as Mr Club. Everywhere I go, as I used to say in a funny way, I arrive, where the pyjamas for the club. I even sleep with the pyjamas. I even wear the tracksuit, you confuse the tracksuit with the pyjamas. So that is the way I am. I am a club man, many clubs man. I decided in my career to have this adventure, go through different countries until I did the Grand Slam – Italy, Spain and England – I didn't stop, I wanted to do it. It was special, then of course the Premier League is what I thought is my natural habitat, is where I am most loved. If I have options it is the football country where I find it most enjoyable, and where I am happy. When you decide to stay in the same country for a long time in modern football, I think Mr Wenger is the last one of the generation. Mauricio five and a half years is amazing, really amazing, it is normal you change from club to club. I wouldn't be surprised tomorrow if Mauricio was manager of another English club! This is modernity in football. If I play against one of my previous clubs, definitely Chelsea and United, hopefully Inter or Real Madrid in the Champions League, which I did many times, I have only one shirt, I have only one passion and I have only one thing in my mind and now it is Spurs. I won the Champions League with Porto and three months later I was playing against Porto, it is just life. That is the way it is. I am not Chelsea, not Real Madrid, not United, not Inter. I am all of them. I will give absolutely everything I have.

Spurs fans know you as Mr Chelsea, what are you going to do, what do you need to do, to win them over?

I am going to see you after the game. In cold tunnels freezing after the game you are going to be there. All the time.

Welcome back to London. 15 years ago when...

You are a good guy, you are one of the good ones.

Life could be worse?

No, I was always humble the problem is you never understood that. I was always humble in my way. No problem with that.

15 years ago when I met you we both had less grey hair, you said you were the special one. I am not looking for a label, but you say you are humble. The brashness you had 15 years ago was what made you one of the greatest. If you are humble are you worried you might lose that?

It is too early, early days, second day. I have no time for individual cases. I don't know how I can influence, or try to influence. I didn't have time, Mr Levy didn't have time, to go around this. The first thing I think it is for the players to feel good and if they are going to leave in January, leave in June, sign a new contract I think it has to be based on feeling good. Feeling good starts with being ready for Saturday, be ready and available for the team then it is about the club, about them, about me and about Mr Levy. It is fundamentally about the players being happy. You have to choose what makes you happy. Let's see. But in this moment let's go on the short term and in the short term we have to try to get results in the next two matches. We have to disappear from that area in the Premier League where we do not belong and in the Champions League we have two matches to try and qualify. If we qualify after the first match, my first at home, it will be better.

And some of the problems you will encounter here, players running out of contract: Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Eriksen. And no away wins from January, how can you change that and keep the players who want to leave?

I see every challenge with the same responsibility. I cannot answer in a very objective way. I don't even feel it is about me. I understand people will look at me, about myself. I understand that when a top player goes to a club people will focus on their success. But I don't think it is about him, it is about team success. It is about globality. It is a club vision, not Mourinho vision or Mourinho objective. It is about us. I don't feel it this way, I think almost two decades of big clubs, big challenges, big expectations. I think I am guilty of it. With my career I create so many expectations in the people and in this case also Spurs fault because the club grew up in such a direction. People are even waiting for better days. We have to go together. Stick together and good things to come.

Is Tottenham the biggest challenge in your career for the need to win titles and the big expectations on you and your comeback?

Christmas list?

Have you already got a Christmas list for the next transfer market?

I am thinking about gifts I have to give to people I love and that is a problem because I always want to give the best gifts. I am always very analytical. Players, the best gift, are the ones who are here. I don't need players. I am so happy with the players I have. I just need time to understand them better and get to know them. I always say you only know a player when you work with them. You never know them well enough until you work with them.

For players, transfer market...

This morning I woke up in the training ground, I stayed in work until very, very late. We all stayed in the lodge and if you were trying to find a six star hotel you couldn't find better than here. Absolutely amazing. Great bed, huge pillows, amazing, you sleep in the middle of five or six pillows, expensive duvet. So, so good. So this morning I woke up with all my guys, 7am and start working, that's what I want. Really happy.

Jose, it was a very sudden turn of events, can you tell us how you felt on the morning and you were Tottenham boss?

I told them exactly what I am telling you, I told them one of the reasons I decided to come was them. Was them. I tried to buy some of them for different clubs, I couldn't. Some of them I didn't even try because you know how impossible it is, but I like this squad very, very much. I like the players very, very much. It is not something new. I don't say this to look nice for them, I told that two, three, four years ago. I am really, really happy.

It was a big shock for the players and now they are with one of the most successful managers in history. What did you say to them and how much did you have to think about that moment?

I don't want to make big changes, I want to respect the base and the base of work they did for five and half years. We hope in two days it is a plus, an update, not a change, The base is what they did before. This is not about me coming here and saying everything is wrong with Mauricio, not at all. I just come to try to understand why in the last year the results in the Premier League were not good and to try to understand how I can help them to reach again a good level. As I was saying the players are very good and I am not here to make dramatic changes I am just here to follow a process and to do my ideas in a progressive way, not losing stability, don't create confusion in their brains. In football you have to express yourself and not confused so I am very careful in relation to that.

In terms of football, which area do you have to improve Pochettino's team?

I don't know because I never lost a Champions League final but I can imagine it is not easy. You reach one of the biggest moments you can achieve in football, you are one step away from it, you cannot do it and I can imagine that is not easy. You have the example of Liverpool, one year they lost the Premier League by one point and the Champions League by one goal and the next season they are very strong in the Premier League and the season after they lost the final they went strong and won it. It is not something that is a rule. It depends on how people react to it and of course I don't want to go as deep as that; that is there history in the club. I don't want to go as deep as that.

You are a serial winner, and so would you say losing the Champions League final under Mauricio had an impact?

Very similar to before, that what I keep saying. Very similar to before, of course I am going to try and add details and sometimes details can make the difference. Progressively we will arrive to a fingerprint but the style of play always has to be adapted, not just to the club culture but also to the players qualities. That's the way it is. These are the players, they have their qualities, adapt it to a certain way of playing football. That is why we want to do it.

In terms of style of play, what kind of game will we see Tottenham playing?

It is one of the lessons, for me it is experiences and the accumulation of experiences is just about that. You have to learn with your experiences, especially when you have time to analyse those details. I think it is an important thing. I cannot say it was a lesson because I say before, this is about principles and if people share principles, I read one quote, 'A little work of art' by Kobe Bryant, and if you have to speak about serial winner, Kobe is a great example in the world of sport. 'People say I am difficult but I am only difficult to the people who don't share my principles'. All the colleagues who share his principles love him and those who don't share them don't like him. For me it is basically the same, it is about the team, not about selfish people. It is about the team and the group. Professionalism and commitment for the team, for me and the fans. I cannot run away from this. If there is someone who doesn't share these principles with me, then we have a problem and we will always have a problem. This is the way I think football has to be. The players are only big when they make the others better. You cannot be a big player if you only think about yourself. To be a big player you have to make others better. If they forget to make others big, they are always going to have a problem.

You said earlier you have to work with people you don't love, is that one of the lessons you learned from Manchester United?

That was before I was sacked!

Four years ago when you were at Chelsea you were asked about Spurs and you said you would never come, what has changed?

That's modern football. You know, when my father was a player and before the Bosman law, the players used to play 20 years in the same club, ever year with the same players next to them. The same guy in the dressing room, the same defender in front of the keeper for 15 years. But after Bosman law everything changed. In relation to coaches, in part because of you (media), we lost that stability. A lot of pressure, even the relationships are fast. Players can get tired of each other, tired of the manager, everything is fast so you need to change. When I went to Manchester United, if I stay in England, only for Chelsea, I would have to be waiting for a third opportunity and probably another Premier League. Whenever I go there I win the Premier League. But that is not the point. I went to United with a free mind, a free heart and they occupied my heart even with things I didn't enjoy too much. But I loved so much of the United things. I enjoyed the fans, the people in the club, I just love it and now it is just about Spurs and I just hope I can be really happy here, make people happy. There is not a bigger fan than myself. If someone wants Spurs to win, be successful, there is not one person that wants more than me. Probably the same, but not more than me. So Chelsea is past. Great past, two periods, two periods of titles. Great past but it is the past.

How do you think Chelsea fans will respond to you next month?

We cannot win the Premier League this season. We can – I'm not saying we will do – we can win it next season.

You went to Porto mid-season and said about winning the title one year later…? Same here?

It's one of the reasons I came. Everything started with Mr Levy's vision for the club which he shared with me in a very, very specific way. That impressed me. But I wanted a club with a good level of players and a good level of the team. We have a very good squad with good young players coming. I don't know in detail but it's an academy that normally produces good talents. As I always say there is not one manager in the world who doesn't like to play, and to help young players to develop. The problem is some of them get players to bring through and some don't. I was lucky to have Scott McTominay as a kid, Raphael Varane as a kid, (Mario) Balotelli as a kid. I was lucky to have talents in the majority of the clubs where I've been. So if Tottenham is a great academy that produces great players it's also something nice.

Excited to be working with these players?

If we win titles it will not be the consequence of me but the consequence of the club's work. This is a package and a vision. Everything starts with a vision. The stadium is part of the vision. The training ground is part of the vision. The academy is part of the vision. To try to keep all the best players and refuse to let the best players to go away is part of the vision too. Maybe to have a manager with my experience is also part of the vision. This is about the vision and if we win a title, it doesn't matter when, my contract is three and a half years, but if we win a title during my period it will not be because of myself. It is just the natural consequence of a vision and a plan.

You delivered Chelsea's first title in 50 years, Inter's first Champions League title in 45 years… is this your biggest challenge?

If you want to call my friends at Real Madrid, then yes I speak with them many times. I have so many friends there. The president is the first one. He loves me and I love him, we are friends, we speak, we exchange SMS, we wish luck, we say Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, good luck in the game. I loved my period there. We did amazing things. We had our problems. We had our frustrations. It was an amazing period for me. I feel always very flattered when I leave these things behind me which go above success, above football. It's about the human being. It's about relations. I received 50 messages yesterday from Manchester United people. Some players, some staff, some staff over different areas of the club, the board, everybody. And that for me means the world. It's not about winning or not winning. It's about the respect people have for you because you were a professional and a good person and you create empathies. So Real Madrid is part of my livelihood, part of my life and I always wish them good, I am always happy when Real Madrid goes in the right direction. If we play them in the Champions League, apart from that match I just want Real Madrid to win and to be successful.

Was there contact from Real Madrid?

I have nothing, nothing to say.

José, a 3-1 defeat after a fabulous start to the game, the game just got away from you then? José

Nothing, nothing to say.

Nothing to say about the game at all?

Nothing to say, I have nothing to say.

Nothing to say about the Lucas [Leiva] decision that left him on the pitch?

Nothing to say, I am so sorry, I have nothing to say.

The [Diego] Costa clash?

They are not stupid.

Do you not think it's time to have a chat to the fans to give them some message, an indication of your thinking?

The fans are not stupid.

We heard them chanting your name.

Worried about what?

You did say before this game that you were not worried, are you a little bit more worried now?

No.

Your future, your own position at the club, the backing of the board?

No.

Nothing about the game at all?

No.

No individual performance you would like to pick out?

Nothing.

Nothing about the performance going ahead?

I cannot say.

Nothing about the way we could fix it?

My message was the same message as the supporters, the message that the supporters gave to the players was my message, was the same. When you play the way you play, when you create what you create, when we miss the chances that we missed, when at half-time everybody was frustrated but totally convinced that we were going to win the match. And even with the unexpected 2-0 result, the way the team kept playing until the third goal arrived, my message to the players has to be a positive message and I'm really happy, humbled by the way the supporters reacted to the boys, I think it was very much deserved, but sometimes players deserve and they don't get what they deserve, so we have to be humbled by the supporters reactions.

What was your message to the fans at the end?

I wouldn't be worried if at half-time we were winning 3-0 and at half-time the result should be 3-0, 3-1, 2-0, but we were so, so, so much the better team in the first-half, I wouldn't be worried with that. Everything looked okay at half-time, so what was the problem in the second-half? Did you see the goal?”

Are you concerned by two defeats in the first three games? Is there a worry there that your team is on the slide?

No.

Do you know what your best back-four is at the moment?

Because in the first game Lindelof and Bailly, and today played Jones and Smalling, but now Jones is injured, and next match it will be Smalling, with another one, and when Marcos Rojo comes he will be an option, and no, I don't know my best back-four.

Why not?

No.

Is it affecting them by changing them a lot? Is that affecting the confidence of the way they play?

You want to make the miracle of my team played so well and strategically we were so so good and you want to try and transform this press conference into 'let's blame the guy'. You have to tell me what is the most important thing. When I win matches I come here many times and you are not happy that I won matches, and you say the most important thing is the way of playing.

If you play a midfielder in a back-three [Ander Herrera] does that not affect Lindelof's confidence? Does it suggest you don't trust him in a back-three?

No, no, no, you have to make a decision in relation to that, because I need to know what is the most important thing. If it is is to play well or if it is to win matches? Is it t o play offensively, or is it to play for a certain result? Today we were aggressive, we press high, Tottenham couldn't make two passes coming from the back, they made lots of mistakes because of our pressure high, we project the full-backs, we had Valencia and Luke Shaw arriving in dangerous positions, we miss goals with an open goal, we missed chances, we were unlucky in rebounds in both goals, we lost a game because we conceded a goal from the first corner of the match against us on minute 50-something. In the first-half, zero free-kicks, zero corners conceded, in minute 50-something they have one corner and score a goal, and you want, with that goal, you want to transform the story of your game. But don't lose your time, because today I had the proof that the best judge in football are the supporters, they are the best judge.

I'm just asking about your defending?

I would do the same, losing 3-0, taking two hours from here to the centre of Manchester, because it's where I live and I know that after matches it takes two hours, so I would do the same, so keep trying, keep trying, keep trying.

But many of the supporters walked out?

We lost last season here against Sevilla ([ast season in the Champions League last 16] and we were booed, because we deserved, because we were not good, because we were not dangerous enough, because Sevilla deserved to win the match. We were booed, and deservedly. Today the players left the pitch after losing at home and they were applauded, because they deserved it, so keep trying, and trying, and trying, and keep trying. Just to finish, do you know what was the result? This [holding three fingers up]. 3-0, 3-0. Do you know what this is? 3-0. But it also means three Premierships and I won more Premierships alone than the other 19 managers together. Three for me and two for them two. So respect man, respect, respect, respect.

But are they not judging your team by walking out?

I couldn't be happier and if I was not as happy as I am, I wouldn't be here. What can I promise? Passion - for my job but also passion for my club. It's a privilege when a manager goes to a club and feels that happiness in relation to the squad that he's going to have. These are not words of the moment. They are not words of me being the Tottenham Head Coach. These are words that I've been told and I've repeated in the last three, four, five years even as an opponent.

On his promise

To play against Tottenham at White Hart Lane was always hard but beautiful. It was one of these places where I used to go with passion but also with respect. I always told about the Club's potential. I always told about the qualities of the players. I always told the magnificent work the Club was doing.

On impressions of Tottenham

I really like this squad and looking to the young players there is not one manager in the world that doesn't like to play young players and to help young players develop. There is not one. The problem is that sometimes you get into clubs where the work that is below you is not good enough to produce these players so I look to our history and you see that the Academy is always giving the talents that the first team need. I look forward to work with that profile.

On Academy

When you say beautiful stadium you are too humble. You have to say the best stadium in the world. I think that is the reality. The training ground is second to none. It probably can only be compared with some American Football training grounds. You cannot compare with European football at any level - and I've been in the majority of the best places. It's impossible to compare anything the same as the stadium. i think it's something that has to make us all very, very proud.

On Facilities

But not just that, the conditions you have to work in are absolutely amazing."

What Jose said about Pochettino and Kane

In relation to the Premier League we know where we are and we know that we don't belong there. We should just play match after match, the next match we want to win and that's the same about the next, and the next, and the next until the last. At the end of the season we will see where we are but i know we are going to be in a different position to where we are now. I look forward to the challenge, to the responsibility to bring happiness to everyone that loves the club."

On what they must do in Premier League