All or Nothing finds Mourinho leaning into the lens for Tottenham faithful

Mauricio Pochettino had been dead against the making of All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, the Amazon documentary that chronicles the club’s fortunes during the 2019-20 season and which begins its staggered release next Monday. The Argentinian, who lost his job as the manager last November – or, in production terms, midway through episode one of the nine-part series – was not slow in telling Daniel Levy, the chairman, of his misgivings.

It was a source of friction yet Levy was determined to press ahead. Perhaps, he was influenced by the money – Amazon paid Spurs around £10m – and, doubtless, his obsession with driving greater visibility for the club in north America came into it.

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Pochettino is not a fan of this kind of documentary for one simple reason. Footballers are not actors. They do not behave naturally when the camera is on them and so how can the product be authentic? Consequently, we have scenes such as the one at the training ground restaurant the day after Pochettino has been dismissed featuring the best supporting actor nominee, Jan Vertonghen.

When Harry Kane says that he spoke to Pochettino the previous night, Vertonghen suggests he and his staff already knew.

“No,” says Kane.

“No?” replies Vertonghen, mouth open, eyebrows raised.

Kane explains that Pochettino was merely informed that he was “being sacked, you need to pack your things, you leave tonight”. Vertonghen shakes his head slightly and looks lost. And that’s a wrap.

Happily for Amazon, one man is supremely at home in front of the lens. As José Mourinho tells Kane during their first talk in his office: “The world looks to English football with an incredible respect but they still think that the movie stars of football belong to other places. I am a little bit [like] that as a coach. The reality is that my dimension is universal. And by being with me, I think I can help you.”

The first three episodes are fired mainly by Mourinho and the overarching theme is his mission to transform the Spurs squad from nice boys into “a bunch of cunts” – to use his phrase; to harden their mentality; to make them winners.

Pochettino’s successor is shown settling into his office and unboxing a signed photograph from Vinnie Jones – the famous one in which the leader of Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang is grabbing Paul Gascoigne. “José, be good,” Jones has written. But Mourinho does not want that. He wants to have his rivals by the balls.

Mourinho is shot on the training pitch with Davinson Sánchez. “You have balls?” he asks the central defender, who he faced in the 2017 Europa League final when he was in charge of Manchester United and Sánchez was at Ajax. United won 2-0 and Mourinho tells Sánchez that he and his Ajax teammates bottled it. Or words to that effect. “I won the game minute one,” he says with a smile.

It has long been Mourinho’s trademark man-management trick – the insult packaged up in the jokey, blokey wrapper, designed to get a reaction. The best bits of the early episodes involve his relationship-building with Dele Alli.

“Fucking lazy,” Mourinho tells the midfielder on his first day. “I am going to be a pain in the ass on you. And you are lucky because when I am a pain in the ass, it’s a good thing.”

Mourinho later says to Levy that he has told Alli “very directly that he doesn’t train well”. He continues: “Sir Alex Ferguson gave me only one advice in two and a half years [at United]: buy Dele Alli. But he’s not a good trainer and we need to find the right motivation for the guy.”

It sets up a genuinely newsworthy chat between Mourinho and Alli, in which the former raises the inconsistency that has undermined the latter in recent times. “I don’t know if it has to be to your lifestyle,” Mourinho says. “If you want periods [when] you are an amazing professional … if in another period, you become a party boy. I have no idea. Only you can know that. Time flies and one day you will regret if you don’t reach what you can reach.”

It was never going to be all or nothing with the documentary, rather how much? What would Spurs permit in the final cut? Would there be any controversy, any real juice? The short answer from the first three episodes is no, with the glaring omission being the lack of any Pochettino footage on the day he is dismissed. The rumours at the time that Amazon had it all or at least something are not borne out.

We see Kane piping up in the postmortem after the December defeat at Manchester United to call out everybody for a repeated failure to stand up and be counted, which is good and, crucially, makes him look good; like a true leader.

We see Son Heung-min’s upset in the dressing room after his red card against Chelsea, indignation flaring before he sits down quietly, on the verge of tears. He later gives a nice-boy apology. We do not get any mention after the Everton game of Son’s involvement in André Gomes’s traumatic ankle break.

Mourinho is allowed to dish it out, with one classic coming as the press officer, Simon Felstein, primes him to expect a question on betraying Chelsea at his media unveiling. “The betrayal is that I won three leagues for them and they sacked me,” Mourinho says.

Christian Eriksen is expendable because of the nature of his January departure to Internazionale. “The problem we have with Christian is that none of us know what the real truth is,” Levy says to Mourinho. “His agent controls everything. And there is no dialogue between the club and his agent at all.”

At one point, Mourinho says that he can try one more time to turn Eriksen. “At least then you know you’ve tried everything,” Levy adds. Memo to Spurs fans: we tried everything to keep him.

It is all extremely polished but that is not to say it is not watchable and enjoyable. Where it scores points is in adding detail to established plotlines and characters. The depth of the respect that Mourinho has for Eric Dier is plain. Moussa Sissoko’s influence in the dressing room is talked up. Alli is good fun. Every Spurs supporter will tune in.