Martin Keown has hit out at Tottenham Hotspur head coach Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese chief posted a controversial message on his Instagram page, following Spurs' 1-0 defeat to Royal Antwerp in the Europa League on Thursday evening.
Mourinho, following the 1-0 win over Burnley on Monday evening, made the decision to rotate his pack for the trip to Belgium, making nine changes, with only goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and Ben Davies avoiding the chop.
Mourinho's gamble backfired, though, as Spurs produced a flat, lifeless performance to suffer their first away defeat of the season.
Amongst the players to come into the side for Spurs were the likes of Gareth Bale and Dele Alli, with the latter having experienced a difficult few months of late.
Alli's return to the starting line-up did not go the way he would have hoped, though, as he was taken off at half time, as Mourinho elected to make four half time changes.
Once Mourinho had conducted his post-match press duties, he returned to the team bus and made the decision to post a controversial message on his Instagram page, alongside a photograph of himself looking disappointed.
The Spurs boss wrote: "Bad performances deserve bad results. Hope everyone in this bus is as upset as I am. Tomorrow, 11am training."
Though Mourinho did not individually name any of his players, former Arsenal defender Keown believes a message like that will have major damage to the confidence of some of his players, particularly Alli.
“In the dressing room, though, surely? I’m not happy with him going public," Keown told BT Sport. "Maybe he didn’t say anything, we heard that he didn’t say anything a couple of weeks ago, he just left the players to it.
"I don’t think my respect would grow for the manager because I’m thinking some of those players would have felt wounded at half-time when they were taken off.
"Four of them taken off, the likes of Dele Alli, you’re feeling that maybe my career’s over at Spurs. But it’s part of a collective, it can happen.
"The players that came on weren’t any better. Is this how we’re going to communicate?
"If you’re gonna talk to me, talk to my face. It’s a bit childish sometimes what we’re hearing.
"We, as players, have to keep our mouths shut, but he can say whatever he wants publicly. I’d rather keep it in the dressing room.
"If I’m not good enough, I’ll accept that, but I want to work hard to get back in the team.
"Let’s keep it healthy, I’m unsure if that’s healthy.”
