On 5 May I blogged about who might become Tottenham's new manager after sacking Jose Mourinho. I thought it would have been sorted by now but a dizzying succession of aspirants through Daniel Levy's revolving office door has yet to produce a winner.
On 19 May, in his programme notes for the last home match of the Premier League season, Levy said "We shall focus on the recruitment of a new Head Coach. We are acutely aware of the need to select someone whose values reflect those of our great Club and return to playing football with the style for which we are known – free-flowing, attacking and entertaining". So, no mention of winning.
In that earlier post I mentioned as possible choices for Spurs manager (or is it Head Coach? That's an interesting distinction) Rafa Benitez, Max Allegri, Maurizio Sarri, Brendan Rodgers, Roberto Martinez, Julien Lopetegui, Eddie Howe, Gareth Southgate, Ralf Rangnick and Jurgen Klinsmann. One coach I didn't consider - for pretty obvious reasons - was Mauricio Pochettino. But after Rodgers gave a firm pre-emptive "no thanks", it was the previous coach (or was he the manager?), sacked by Levy in 2019 in favour of Jose Mourinho (who could not be further from the notion of free-flowing, attacking and entertaining football), who came back into the frame and who, apparently, was for some reason down for it. However it was Pochettino's current employers, Paris Saint Germain, who closed that door pretty quickly.
Since then Spurs have been linked with maybe a dozen possible candidates. Some, as RB Leipzig's Julian Nagelsmann, quickly got themselves top jobs elsewhere - at Bayern Munich in Nagelsmann's case. Antonio Conte left Inter Milan in a huff after winning Serie A and popped into Levy's office for a chat, which ended in not exactly acrimony, more like frustration: "Conte’s demands proved unrealistic and he was ultimately deemed a poor fit [really? duh!] for the club" according to a Spurs source. Next in the office was Paulo Fonseca, sacked by Roma a few weeks earlier to be replaced by ... Jose Mourinho! A few days later, Gennaro Gattuso was sacked by Fiorentina after being in post for 22 days. Spurs dropped Fonseca in the bin, talked to Gattuso, the Spurs fans revolted on social media about his frequently expressed racist, homophobic and mysogynist views (not to mention the combative former midfielder famously headbutted Tottenham’s then first-team coach Joe Jordan after playing for Milan in a Champions League tie at the San Siro in February 2011), and Spurs gave Gattuso a quick shove out of the door.
Which leaves Spurs where? It's not easy to see any consistency in approach; Levy seems to be torn between appointing a young, energetic manager with a growing reputation for developing young talent and playing attractive football and an experienced but traditional style title winner (which is definitely where Conte fits). There are two further problems: (1) the club recently appointed a Director of Football, Fabio Paratici, which suggests the Head Coach role rather than a traditional Manager, although that pretty much puts Spurs in line with everyone else; Paratici was responsible for bringing Fonseca in (2) they have very little money, the lack of match day income during the pandemic hitting hardest at a club paying for the construction of the new stadium. So no huge transfer budget.
I was gently mocked, after that earlier post, for including Gareth Southgate and Roberto Martinez in the frame. But I think these two - especially perhaps Martinez - would tick boxes for the club. I don't know what their international contracts are but you'd think that relatively young coaches don't want to spend the rest of their careers managing international teams. Martinez has always played attractive football and has no baggage; he's an engaging personality. He has proved with Belgium that he can work effectively with world class players - if Spurs can afford any of those in the near future. Levy needs to sort his mind out and make a bold, innovative choice.
Finally Jurgen Klinsmann, who claimed live on TV 2 days ago
that he would be interested. Daniel, give him a call!
And please don't be misled by the title of this post; it's definitely not ME that's a Spurs fan! Many years ago my elder son, responding perhaps to misguided liberal parenting, decided to support Tottenham Hotspur. For a father - me - who himself rejected his father's Arsenal roots in favour of glamorous Chelsea, and now back again as a Gooner Forever (or at least for the moment), I live in hope that my son will eventually recant. Meanwhile, I write this to honour his (injudicious) choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment