Former Manchester United and England right-back Gary Neville believes Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy had to sack Jose Mourinho now ahead of him potentially ending Spurs' trophy drought this coming weekend.
Levy opted to bring an end to Mourinho's 17-month tenure at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday morning, with Friday night's 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park proving to be the final straw.
Over the weekend, football.london confirmed that there was a growing doubt within the club that Mourinho would be in charge next season, a hunch that has now, of course, been proven correct.
But for Levy's decision to sack the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss just days ahead of their Carabao Cup final showdown against Manchester City has proven to be a big surprise.
For Sky Sports pundit Neville, however, he believes Levy will have had several thoughts running through his head before pulling the trigger, with one of them being that had Mourinho guided Spurs to a victory this weekend, ending their 13-year wait for a trophy, sacking him at the end of the season would have been harder for him to justify.
Neville told Sky Sports: "I think when you think about the timing, there’s three things that come to my mind: Daniel Levy waking up in the morning, thinking this seems like a good time to do it with a lot going on, I’ll bury it and chuckling there, stroking his cat tonight.
"The other thing is 'I don’t want Jose to win a trophy because then there will be a bigger problem for me at the end of the season, so I’m not going to let him have this game', and the other one would be that players or someone has gone to the owners and said that it isn’t right in there.
"The three things I’ve said are the only three things we can think of, there might be something else. It might be results, the Manchester United performance in the second-half, and the Everton result on the Friday night just gone, maybe they were the last straw.
"But those three things are reasons why it could have happened. I’m genuinely sad when I think about it hasn’t worked, because I think earlier on in the season, Jose Mourinho winning a title would be an incredible thing. Almost like Tiger Woods winning the Masters again, do you know what I mean?
"He’s been a great person to have in the Premier League over 15 years. He is an incredible character, personality, love him or hate him, there’s always a story around him.
"This Sunday is weaker for us to watch it because Pep [Guardiola] vs Jose is a big thing, but it’s happened."
Former Spurs midfielder Ryan Mason has been placed in temporary charge and will oversee Sunday's clash with City at Wembley. Before that, however, he must watch his side lock horns with Southampton in the Premier League at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow evening.
Spurs are currently seventh in the Premier League table, five points shy of the top-four.
