Chris Waddle: Tottenham job has put a smile back on the face of Jose Mourinho

It’s nice to see the old Jose Mourinho back.

He looked down at Manchester United, had been living in a hotel, and has obviously been searching for a job in London.

For a few years he became anti-social and got irritated easily by questions but Tottenham seem to have put a smile back on his face.

He is in for a lot of stick against Chelsea on Saturday as a lot of their fans probably didn’t expect him to go to Spurs. I think he was quoted as saying he never would. But football is a fickle business.

People forget how young this Chelsea team are. When you’re playing for a club like that you need to be winning week-in, week-out and that’s a lot of pressure when you’re playing in other domestic competitions and the Champions League. They were always going to dip eventually.

The sun normally shines on Mourinho and I think he can get one over his former player Frank Lampard this weekend.

Some believe Tottenham have had the luck of the draw in the Champions League but those pundits could be underestimating Leipzig.

It will not be an easy tie. They are Bundesliga leaders and in Timo Werner they have an exceptional player who has scored 23 goals and laid on ten assists in 24 games this season.

Bayern Munich ran riot against Tottenham in the competition earlier this season, scoring seven, and they are below Julian Nagelsmann’s side in the league.

Do not write Leipzig off. They may be inexperienced in this competition but they have spent a lot of money and look very dangerous.

Tottenham look too vulnerable at the back to go the distance to the Champions League final again. They are regularly conceding goals from set-pieces, counter-attacks – everywhere really.

That is the area of the team they need to invest in. Davison Sanchez is hit and miss, Juan Foyth is still learning, and Serge Aurier is a defensive liability. They are fine going forwards and Troy Parrott can support Harry Kane and play in the FA Cup, which is a competition Mourinho will be looking at closely this term.

Spurs have been linked with Boubakary Soumare, who is a talented midfielder at Lille. They spent heavily on Tanguy Ndombele, who has probably turned out to be a more creative player than they would have wanted.

Maybe they need a more out-and-out defensive midfielder and Soumare could be just that.

Carlo Ancelotti has the skills to succeed at Everton

I don’t think there is a perfect fit for Everton – they’ve tried everything – but they need to get settled and I am a big fan of Carlo Ancelotti. He did okay at Napoli, beating Liverpool in the Champions League and performing well in Serie A last season, but results stopped going their way and something wasn’t quite right there.

Generally, though, wherever he’s been he has done really well and he is a manager who knows how to get the best out of his players. He’s obviously been based in London before and it will be interesting to see how he gets on in a football-mad city like Liverpool.

It is hard when your neighbours are flying and winning trophies but there’s no quick fix at Everton. This is a tough job for any manager but Ancelotti certainly has a chance of succeeding.

Jurgen Klopp could have been cuter with selection

The bank will say it was the right call from Liverpool to prioritise the Club World Cup over domestic silverware and financially it made sense.

Flamengo will be a difficult game in the final but there are far tougher opponents out there for Liverpool – Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich – so I don’t think winning this fixture necessarily means you are the best club in the world.

Jurgen Klopp could have left five or six players behind to help the youngsters in the League Cup quarter-final against Aston Villa and if he had they might have edged it at Villa Park.

I would not call Liverpool’s Boxing Day clash with Leicester a title-decider as the Reds are well in the driving seat and are three junctions ahead of the other teams.

Both teams will go out to play to their strengths and I do not think a draw would be the end of the world for Liverpool. It will be interesting to see how this Leicester side come through the festive run of fixtures.

Mikel Arteta has pedigree to succeed as Arsenal boss

There’s a lot of work to be done at Arsenal. Mikel Arteta has had a great apprenticeship under Pep Guardiola, who has seen it all, done it all and bought the T-shirt.

Some guys are made to be number twos, some are made to be reserve managers and some are made to coach the first team.

Unai Emery did unbelievable jobs at both Sevilla and PSG but then he came to Arsenal and couldn’t solve the puzzle. At a glance that puzzle looks easy to solve as they are too poor defensively. But interim manager Freddie Ljungberg has also found it hard and you are only as good as the players you have got.

Appointing Arteta could be a big risk but on paper it looks like it will fit because of who he has worked with before.

But life as a manager is very different from that of a coach. All of a sudden he will have to give answers to people knocking on his door from the press to the assistants and coaches to the players.

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