Next Spurs boss: Ange Postecoglou now clear favourite but Luis Enrique still well fancied

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30 August 2024, 20:16 yayınlandı

Spurs are in serious danger of making the 2021 manager hunt that ended with Nuno Espirito Santo in charge for a bit look dignified after the seemingly nailed-on Arne Slot turned out to have just been using Spurs to get a nice fat new Feyenoord deal.

Celtic boss Ange Postecoglous is now a clear odds-on favourite to make his first Premier League move, but we’ve been here before with this particular market.

Contenders ranked here based on best available price on oddschecker at time of publication…

Postecoglou’s Celtic success meant a Premier League chance was always likely, but a Big Six club – even Spurs – seemed a stretch. But with Spurs’ options dwindling the enterprising football and perhaps just as importantly no-nonsense vibes of Big Ange are apparently looking more and more appealing to Daniel Levy and co. It all still feels a bit to us but it’ll certainly be interesting if/when it happens. There is a sense that Postecoglou is a character better suited to proving himself in an unexpectedly high-profile position – he did precisely that at Celtic – but it remains a monumental gambel to entrust a delicate and difficult Spurs job at a crucial juncture to someone with no big-league experience whatsoever.

Was apparently the top choice of disgraced Fabio Paratici, but the Italian’s voice still carries white in the White Hart Lane corridors of power and the former Spain boss has never been far away from contention. Has been in talks with Napoli but the feeling in Italy is that he wants a Premier League job. And Spurs is somehow the best one available.

Spurs fans seem to have earmarked Rodgers as either the Gattuso or the Nuno in their 2021 parallels. Nagelsmann is obviously Antonio Conte, we guess Arne Slot is Paulo Fonseca and with a bit of licence Vincent Kompany is Graham Potter? Kind of works. Mauricio Pochettino is, of course, Mauricio Pochettino. But our view remains that Rodgers is neither Gattuso nor Nuno, other than he’ll probably end up getting the job. Because we reckon . And most importantly better than most managers they might now get.

Especially if he can persuade a couple of likely lads from Leicester to come along for the ride. Your Maddisons. Your Tielemanses. His last win as Leicester boss was actually a 4-1 dismantling of Spurs, which is funny if probably irrelevant. On the list of ‘Potential Spurs managers who are suddenly available’, Rodgers still feels way more plausible to us than Nagelsmann, but what do we know? But if Spurs are going to end up with Rodgers in mid-July anyway – and we think they are – then just do it now, lads, and save yourselves all this mortifying embarrassment.

The further away from Potter’s sacking at Chelsea we move, the more credible this seems again. Certainly, 2021 Potter was in a far stronger position to be sniffy about accepting such a poisoned chalice than 2023 Potter. And as a former Chelsea manager, the Spurs job is his by right in accordance with ancient tradition. Crystal Palace are said to be interested, which might be an eminently more sensible move.

graham-potter-chelsea-11

Apparently right back in contention for a job he very understandably doesn’t appear all that keen on. Spurs, less understandably, . Nevertheless, here we are. Again. Still won’t happen, surely.

A genuinely interesting new name in the mix, although the obvious Nuno parallels perhaps make this even less palatable for Spurs fans than another former Chelsea manager. But facts are facts, and one fact is that Wolves have taken the same number of points (31) since Lopetegui’s appointment as Spurs. And there are plenty of stories surfacing that , which would absolutely definitely mean he’d be delighted to take over at *checks notes* Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Has been in and out of this top 10 throughout the whole sorry, drawn-out process but the Sporting boss has been notably backed in with plenty of media chat placing him on an esoteric shortlist alongside Postecoglou and Luis Enrique. Should be noted transfer guru Fabrizio Romano reckons he’s staying at Sporting.

“I need to take some time to rest because I’m pretty tired,” he said after winning Serie A with Napoli. “I don’t know if you can call it a year’s sabbatical but I won’t be working. I won’t be coaching Napoli or any other team.” Maybe a better option for a year’s time when Spurs need another manager.

Leaving PSV Eindhoven prompted inevitable rumours but Fabrizio Romano said: “To be honest, I have never heard his name on Tottenham’s list.”