Jose Mourinho believes one of his former Tottenham Hotspur players is easily good enough to be playing for Manchester City or other top clubs competing for silverware.
City currently have a plethora of brilliant players at the Etihad Stadium, and Pep Guardiola is gunning for two more trophies this month.
Sporting director Txiki Begiristain has worked closely with his team to bring in some top players over the years, and Pep has then gone on to turn many of them into world-class superstars.
There are probably around six or seven truly world-class performers in the City team at the moment, and fans are lucky to be able to watch them in action on a weekly basis.
In the eyes of Jose Mourinho though, there is currently a player at Tottenham Hotspur who could get into the Manchester City team – and any other top team in world football for that matter.
And that player, is Heung-min Son…
Jose Mourinho hails his former Tottenham star Heung-min Son and feels he could play for Manchester City
Mourinho managed Spurs from November 2019 to April 2021.
It was a pretty uninspiring stint for the Portuguese, who was seeking to rebuild his reputation a bit after his time at Manchester United.
Ultimately, the results just weren’t there and the brand of football was pretty far removed from what was on show under Mauricio Pochettino.
But Mourinho still had some absolutely brilliant players on his watch, with Heung-min Son being one of them,
Mourinho recently sat down to film an interview on the Korean YouTube channel EA Sports FC. And he spoke of his huge respect for Son, and went as far as saying that he could easily be playing for City and other top clubs.
He said: “I don’t look at Son as a Korean player. I look at Son as one of the best players in the world. Maybe Tottenham supporters are not going to be happy with what I’m going to say, it’s not disrespectful.
“He could win titles, he could play for the best teams. He could be playing in England for Man City, for Liverpool, for Chelsea. It could be abroad playing for one of the top teams.
“He has that modern mobility of the attacking players. He can play through the middle, from the sides, wide to coming inside.”
Mourinho then confirmed that Son had received approaches from other clubs while he was managing Spurs.
Heung-min Son would have been an incredible signing by Man City
City have never made an approach for Heung-min Son, but many fans would likely have loved to see that particular move happen, and some probably still would.
The £190,000-a-week winger has arguably been one of the best forwards the Premier League has ever seen, having made 300 appearances in the competition, scoring 120 goals and making 61 assists.
He is the best player from Asia ever to grace the competition, and it is something of a travesty that he has never won a trophy in England.
Mourinho is absolutely right – Son could certainly play for a top club such as Manchester City. He may be 31 now, but the star has still shown high levels this season, after a bit of a dip in 2022/23.
He is probably very unlikely to ever make a move to City at this point, but it sure would have been a brilliant signing to make a few years ago. His work-rate and technical ability would surely have seen him thrive in a Pep team. But he would have been extremely expensive.