Levy has lost his way as Tottenham fall into a repeat of Nuno nightmare
Since Pochettino’s sacking, Spurs have lurched from one managerial error to the next and need a complete reboot
Tottenham Hotspur are now less than two weeks away from equalling the 72 days it took them to hire Nuno Espirito Santo as their head coach after the sacking of Jose Mourinho.
Ryan Mason is in interim charge, as he was then, Harry Kane’s future is in doubt – and he now has only one year left on his contract instead of three – and the anger of the fans is mutinous. Again. The only differences from 2021 is that there is no European Super League debacle and we are further out from the Covid pandemic – but goodness knows what is around the corner.
Spurs finished seventh that year and seventh is the height of their ambition as this season ends, although it is more likely that Aston Villa will claim that final European qualification place after Sunday’s last round of Premier League fixtures.
As the baseball catcher Yogi Berra was attributed as saying – he denied it but later took credit for it – “it’s deja vu all over again”. Berra was apparently reacting to backto-back home runs being hit by two of his teammates. Few of those have been struck by Spurs in recent years.
Instead, it has been shutout after shutout on the field, while the club chairman Daniel Levy built a bestin-class stadium and training ground but with a squad and a staff seemingly not fit for purpose.
Nuno was, at best, seventh choice. The danger for Spurs is that history is repeating itself. When they do announce their next manager, there will probably be an accompanying statement that he was identified after a thorough recruitment process. But is that thorough or desperate? The fact that Tottenham appear to be thrashing around points to the heart of the matter. Here are a club lacking identity and, as such, how can they identify the right person to sit in the dugout?
Of course, Spurs are suggesting, as with Julian Nagelsmann, that they never really wanted Arne Slot and that he – like Vincent Kompany at Burnley – might have tried to play them to get a new contract.
The alternative view is that, rather as with Nagelsmann, Spurs have decided pursuing Slot may prove too expensive for their liking.
It is Spurs’ prerogative to interpret events in their favour, but it begs the question that if they walked away from talks with Nagelsmann – which is exactly how they portrayed it – and did not want Slot (or Kompany for that matter) then they must have a hell of a coach up their sleeve.
Levy will argue he produced that in hiring Mourinho, and then Antonio Conte following Nuno’s dismissal, but the alternative view is that they were both opportunistic, risky appointments that again pointed to a lack of direction and identity.
Mourinho and Conte are “win now” managers and pragmatists – Nuno is also a pragmatist – and that always jarred with not only the resources Spurs have, but the values and culture (to use Kane’s recent words) at the club.
That losing of the way can be traced back to the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino, and how it will hurt Spurs fans that he is soon expected to pitch up at Chelsea. But postpochettino, Levy appears to have behaved recklessly, like a gambler chasing his losses, by hiring a succession of short-term managers and in the forlorn pursuit of immediate success. Who would be the obvious solution now? It would be Pochettino, of course.
But despite making it clear that he was willing to return, and despite his ready availability, he never received the call from Levy, which smacked of a chairman unwilling to admit to his mistakes and who would have found it uncomfortable to bring the popular Argentine back, given the millions squandered trying to replace him.
What will hurt even more is that Arsenal have bought into Mikel Arteta the way Spurs bought into Pochettino. The clubs have similarsized stadiums. They have similar budgets and are similar in scale. But that is where the comparisons end.
Arsenal have created a structure around Arteta for him to succeed. Spurs appear to expect a head coach to create that for them, which is curious, as whoever they hire is usually not empowered in that way. It is even more strange, given there are still a few very good players and some extremely competent staff at
Spurs – from the boardroom in Rebecca Caplehorn, the director of football administration and governance, to the football department in performance director Gretar Steinsson and Mason.
But where is the direction? There is no doubt that an environment has been created at Spurs where they are simply not as attractive a proposition as they should be given their facilities, location and budget or, crucially, they believe they are.
Managers are unsure as to whether they should go there and it has the feel of Manchester United in the post-sir Alex Ferguson years, when they were turned down by Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola.
United at least had the excuse of trying to replace their greatest manager. Pochettino was good but was not that and was also, of course, sacked by Levy.
It goes back to the chairman again. Levy has done some great things, but has lost his way on the football side of the business. The club need not just a new coach but a complete cultural reboot. They need to find themselves again.
Football is not rocket science. It is about recruitment, recruitment, recruitment. But how can you recruit the right person if you do not know what you want or who you are?