Jose Mourinho launches four-minute defence after Paul Merson’s Kane comments

The Spurs manager was speaking in the wake of Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United on Friday, which saw Kane draw a blank on his return from a hamstring injury.

Merson suggested Kane would fail to score more than 25 goals in a season under Mourinho and thinks the England captain could seek a move away from north London this summer.

However, Mourinho hit back by detailing the success stories of other strikers he has managed.

"I can say I had a few strikers who played for me and they are not bad. Drogba played four seasons and scored 186 goals. Average 46 goals per season," said Mourinho.

"I had another guy who is not bad, he plays for Juventus now (Ronaldo), played three seasons with 56 goals per season.

"I had another guy who was not bad, Karim Benzema played three seasons, scored 78 goals in three seasons which gives a 26 goal average.

"I had another one called Milito, he played one season and scored 30 goals and won three titles. I had another guy who played one-and-a-half seasons, I say that because he had a bad injury. A tall guy called Zlatan, he scored 58 goals which gives a 29 average per season.

While Mourinho made a telling case, he accidentally recalled Drogba's appearance statistics instead of his goals. The Ivorian scored 73 goals in 186 games under Mourinho with his best campaign seeing him net 33 goals in 2006-07.

Speaking at the weekend on Sky Sports, Merson said Kane would likely be considering his future.

"I think he’ll have a serious think at the end of the season, I really do," said Merson.

"I don’t see him getting 25-30 goals a season the way Jose will want to play, and he [Mourinho] won’t want to play like it was when he first got in there, 4-2s and 5-3s, no way. He’ll like those games last night, the 1-1s."

Tottenham face West Ham on Tuesday having seen their top-four hopes grow fainter at the weekend following Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Aston Villa.

They trail the fourth-placed Blues by nine points with eight games remaining.