'I don't need new players' - Mourinho plays down Tottenham transfer hopes in first press conference

Jose Mourinho has suggested that he won't be looking to make wholesale changes to the Tottenham squad in the January transfer window, instead insisting that the "best gift" are the players already at the club.

The Portuguese was announced as the new Spurs boss on Wednesday morning, just 11 hours after Mauricio Pochettino was sacked from the role owing to a disappointing start to the 2019-20 season.

Despite reaching the Champions League final last season, the north London club have won just three games from their opening 12 Premier League fixtures of the campaign and find themselves in 14th in the table.

That has led to suggestions that Mourinho's appointment would spark a host of changes to the playing squad, with Sporting midfielder Bruno Fernandes the latest to have been linked by the Portuguese media.

Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale has also been touted as a potential January target for Mourinho but the former Manchester United boss made it clear that he was happy working with the squad already in place at the club.

He told reporters: "The best gift are the players who are here. I don’t need new players. I just need to get to know these ones better.

"I know them well but you never know them well enough until you meet them.

"I told the players I came here because of them. I tried to buy some for different clubs and some I didn’t even try because you know how difficult it was."

On Spurs' title hopes, Mourinho added: "We can’t win the Premier League this season. Next season, I’m not saying we will win it, but we can win it."

The ex-Chelsea manager's first match in charge of Spurs sees him face struggling West Ham at the London Stadium and Manuel Pellegrini is not expecting Tottenham to play too differently to how they did under Pochettino.

"Tottenham have a very good team with some very good players. Being outside of Tottenham we cannot know what is happening," the Hammers boss told reporters.
 
"Pochettino was a manager who did a lot of good work for a lot of years for Tottenham. Now they have another experienced manager, Jose Mourinho.
 
"Everyone has his option to play football the way they want, to say what they want to say. He's not my friend, but he's not my enemy. We have different ways of thinking about football.
 
"I think he only took charge yesterday, so probably we will see Tottenham playing in a similar way."