The footballing press has lost the run of itself over the last week and the hunt for a new head coach for Tottenham has begun to make fans on blogs, message boards, and social media platforms closely resemble that scene out of Monty Python’s Life of Brian with the search for a Messiah, which famously includes John Cleese yelping, “I should know, I followed a few!”
A source close to the club calmly tells me that the activity external to the club doesn’t reflect the wildly animated postulations outside it. I’m given to understand that whilst there were numerous names loosely jotted down, a wish list has never existed. Naglesmann never met with anyone from Spurs and indeed the cost of securing him – if he were available could be prohibitive. Erik ten Hag was also a consideration, but he also never met with anyone from Spurs – which was particularly amusing as one very large social media account ran with the suggestion the parties did meet, but Tottenham’s board was concerned with the Dutchman’s spoken English! Which of course is quite excellent. They never met – so the hokum is academic anyway.
Brendan Rodgers would not only be dearer than anyone yet named to land – but also require him to do a 180-degree turn on his recent quotes, where he didn’t sound vaguely like an interested party.
This of course didn’t stop Football Insider believing that Levy would go all-in for the Foxes boss regardless.
There have also been claims that a new gaffer will be landed in a matter of weeks. My source tells me that this of course might happen, but it is more likely that young Ryan will be involved for a good while yet.
Levy didn’t fore Mourinho on a whim exactly, but it wasn’t his usual modus operandi and so on this occasion, talks with a replacement had not already been on the boil for a few weeks. Therefore, this is the beginning of the process, and the board’s toughest one yet.
When your job description effectively says you’re looking for someone more suitable than Mauricio Pochettino or José Mourinho, that’s a specialist role you’re advertising. A job description that will ask more questions than it answers.