Gary Neville has described Jose Mourinho taking the Tottenham job is a "marriage of convenience" between the former Manchester United boss and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.
Mourinho takes charge of his first home game as Tottenham boss in tonight's Champions League clash against Olympiakos.
Neville said Mourinho has taken the job to re-establish himself at the top level after being sacked by United almost two years ago.
And the former United right-back reckons Levy has appointed 'The Special One' will help Tottenham keep top players such as Harry Kane at the club.
Mourinho replaced sacked Mauricio Pochettino last week with a brief to turn Tottenham's attractive style of play into silverware and to get the club back into the Premier League's top four.
"If you'd said Levy would hire a manager of Mourinho's stature, that would stand up to him, I would have said not in a million years,' Neville told Sky Sports.
"For me this is absolutely a bridge for Levy and Mourinho. Mourinho needed to be back in the Premier League and establish himself. He wanted to be back in London.
"This is a marriage of convenience. Levy is not stupid enough to expose himself to a £25m hit if achievements are not made. They are using each other. It's a hard, cold conversation between two men.
"Jose wants to be back at the elite level winning trophy, and Levy needs to keep the players he's got. The contract will be that detailed around what he has to do, and ultimately both of them would have protected themselves."
Levy will hope Mourinho can deliver the levels of success he has previously enjoyed, having won 25 trophies during a career managing Porto, Chelsea , Real Madrid , Inter Milan and United.
Tottenham are second in Group B ahead of tonight's clash, five points behind table-topping Bayern Munich.
