Tottenham ace Lucas Moura has spoken of turning down new manager Jose Mourinho when with Sao Paulo.

It was revealed over the weekend that Mourinho had looked at signing Moura before he left for PSG when the Portuguese was manager of Real Madrid.

“Yeah it is true," he said. “When I was at Sao Paulo I had a conversation with him - not me but my agent and parents. In the last moment PSG went in and I decided to go to Paris.

“I am happy he likes me and he said it, it is very important to me to have this confidence from the coach and I hope to help him, help the team. I will always give my best and I am happy for the opportunity he has given me.

“Everyone knows him. I don't need to speak about him because he is a winner, a champion. He has a lot of trophies and I am sure he has too much to bring for us and to add to our team, our club.

“Everyone is optimistic with him and we believe in his job.

“At the same time, he said he believes in us, that he trusts in us and that we have a lot of quality.

“He said we have everything to do our best, a very good structure and very good fans and that we just need to believe in it and be happy on the pitch and after about tactics you can see... simple.

“It is too early to speak about change, but I think you can see a few changes he has made about positions, some players.

“Step by step we are putting his philosophy in place - his way to play - and I think he has a lot of things to bring to our team."