Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Dimitar Berbatov is delighted to see Jose Mourinho motivating his players following a fine start to the season.
Following Spurs' impressive Premier League win over Manchester City, Mourinho posed with full-back Sergio Reguilon with a £500 leg of jamón ibérico.
And that sort of thing can only go down well with players, according to former Tottenham frontman Berbatov, who says promising players a reward is pretty common practice in football and a very worthwhile tradition.
"After the game against City, Jose Mourinho posed for an Instagram picture with Sergio Reguilon and a £500 leg of Spanish ham, which the manager paid for as a reward for the left-back's performance apparently," he told Betfair.
"Sometimes, you need a good challenge to motivate players and I'm sure that was something Mourinho promised the defender in the week ahead of the match.
"That kind of thing happens quite a lot and you need these things in a dressing room. Every team I have been in, managers always give players that little bit of extra motivation by promising a reward, although usually it's just the following day off if the team win.
"It makes you laugh and it makes the bond stronger between the manager and players. It gets you pumped up because you know that if you win then you get an extra day with your family or friends."
Remembering a similar instance from his time at Fulham with former spurs boss Martin Jol, the Bulgarian frontman added: "Managers can also get creative with their incentives. At Fulham, because I was late to training on the morning when my baby was just born, I had racked up around £5,000 of club fines.
"Martin Jol said to me 'Berbs, you have fines to pay, but I'll pay them for you if you score the winning goal in the next game.'
"The next game was against Stoke and I scored the only goal of the game which was a volley into the top corner, bam! I said: 'Here you go boss, enjoy the fine.'"
Berbatov also spoke about Mourinho's first year at Spurs and why the experienced Portuguese boss is doing all the right things in north London.
"This week marked a year of Mourinho at Spurs, and based on where they are in the table right now, I think they are doing pretty well," said Berbatov.
"There isn't really a lot that a manager can do in a year apart from get to know the team that they have.
"For many of the great managers it took time to be successful at clubs, it took Jurgen Klopp almost five years to win the Premier League.
"Mourinho is achieving everything he wants to go far with Spurs, they have great players and the squad is pretty much complete. Now they need to follow this period up with a trophy.
"I expect Spurs to win again against Ludogorets on Thursday. The first game was a little too easy for them, you could see the way they moved round the pitch that they weren't playing at 100% yet they managed to get the result.
"You need to win like that sometimes. It's important to save your strength because it's a long season."
