NUNO IS ON THE BRINK AFTER DISMAL DEFEAT
NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO was bracing himself for the sack last night after Tottenham’s dismal defeat by Manchester United on Saturday evening delivered a crushing blow to his hopes of staying in the job. Chairman Daniel Levy and the club’s hierarchy, including director of football Fabio Paratici, held emergency talks to discuss Nuno’s future yesterday following the depressing loss to United. Santo was clinging on to his position last night but there is a feeling the Portuguese is not out of the woods yet.
The team’s generally weak performances have been of particular concern to Levy in recent weeks following a run of five defeats in seven Premier League matches.
And the manner of the defeat by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team, and more pertinently, the alarming crowd reaction to it, has forced the club to consider Nuno’s future. There was a sense yesterday that sacking Nuno was a direct reaction to the deafening boos that echoed round the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in particular vitriol aimed at the board.
Despite dismal performance against United, Spurs started yesterday with the intention of having Nuno in charge for at least the game against Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League on Thursday. But it quickly transpired that his job was firmly on the line as news of yesterday’s board talks filtered through the club.
The lack of a clear candidate to replace Nuno could yet buy the former Wolves boss time to spark an unexpected turnaround. Nevertheless, Porto boss Sergio Conceicao is understood to have admirers at Spurs, while Paulo Fonseca, who was interviewed for the Newcastle job last month and came close to being appointed Tottenham boss ahead of Nuno in the summer, remains out of work and ready to return.
Ryan Mason, who is currently employed within Tottenham’s academy set-up, could come in for a second stint as caretaker boss after stepping into the breach when Jose Mourinho was sacked last season. The former Tottenham midfielder is popular with the current squad following his short period in charge last year.
After the game midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was very critical of his team’s performance and labelled it ‘unacceptable’. Talking to BBC Sort, he added: ‘At home, where there should be fireworks and there should be determination, the character wasn’t there at all. I’d better not say too much...’ Tottenham supporters had turned on Nuno long before Saturday’s feeble loss. Those that hadn’t, were starting to.
The boos that reverberated around the club’s magnificent stadium on Saturday night were indicative of the ill feeling towards the former Wolves boss. Tottenham’s toxic right now; Nuno’s position as head coach the root of much of that toxicity. Growing sections of the fanbase made up their minds long before Saturday night. For them, Nuno isn’t the man — he never was.
Roy Keane summed it up succinctly: ‘Spurs are boring. They’re boring to watch. Really boring.’ Asked about supporters booing after Saturday’s defeat, Espirito Santo said: ‘We are not on the right track. This season is part of football. The fans suffer when you’re not performing well. They have showed they’re not happy. We keep on trying. ‘We didn’t play good. United were stronger than us.
‘We conceded in poor ways, lost balls, allowed counter-attacks. We couldn’t break them. They were organised. ‘The last pass was never there, the finish was never there. Bad performance.
‘We have to take the best of all our players. Not focusing on Harry (Kane). We have to support them, help them, try to make them believe they’re better than today.’