Tottenham-Fulham postponement ‘unprofessional’ – Jose Mourinho

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho says the way Wednesday’s match against Fulham was called off was “unprofessional”.

Cottagers boss Scott Parker has said he is “not sure” if Fulham’s trip to Burnley on Sunday will go ahead either.

“I don’t want to speak too much about it. I felt unprofessional, but that is the way it was,” said Mourinho.

“We were preparing ourselves for that match and that is disruptive of what is a week of work.”

Mourinho posted a video on Instagram on Wednesday afternoon, showing his players and staff at the club’s training ground waiting for a decision on whether the match would proceed.

He captioned the video with a comment saying “best league in the world”.

Fulham manager Parker said the Cottagers were in “exactly the same position as Tottenham” in the lead-up to the cancellation.

“We were in a hotel, we didn’t know until late on as well,” said Parker, who missed Fulham’s draw with Southampton on 26 December while self-isolating after a member of his household tested positive.

“We were sitting 20 minutes away from the stadium.”

The match was the third to be postponed because of Covid outbreaks among players and club staff, with Aston Villa v Newcastle and Everton v Manchester City also rolled over to undetermined future dates.

The Premier League fixture list is under unprecedented pressure after the season got off to a later-than-usual start and with the delayed 2020 European Championship re-scheduled for June.

With an unspecified number of players isolating and retesting of the remainder of the Fulham squad ongoing, Parker is unhappy his side could be forced to travel to Burnley with a heavily-depleted group.

“They say 14 players is the cut-off line for a team to have. I am not sure it is right that you go with 14 players with a three-man bench,” he said.