One of the longest-running, most surprising sports sagas of the summer finally seems to be over. No, we’re not talking about the Euro 2020 tournament (which is ongoing at the time of writing), and nor are we talking about Jadon Sancho’s transfer to Manchester United. Almost unbelievably, that’s still ongoing at the time of writing too. What we’re referring to is the very empty manager’s seat in the dugout at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy’s frustrating and embarrassing quest to fill it. If the English press is correct, the new man at Spurs is former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo.
For Spurs fans, this news is probably underwhelming. The succession of names they were linked to as the weeks dragged on and became months were generally of a higher pedigree than Nuno. Roberto Mancini was in the frame at one point. Former Roma manager Paulo Fonseca had agreed to take the job a few weeks ago, but the whole thing fell apart because of something to do with tax issues. AC Milan legend Gennaro Gattuso was spoken to and then exited the running just as quickly. Perhaps most embarrassingly of all, Brighton and Hove Albion manager Graham Potter is said to have turned the job down. Their club’s failure to attract a manager from a club that spent last season fighting relegation is humiliating for Spurs fans, who are already sick of Daniel Levy. Nuno is not the man that most of them wanted, and the appointment is unlikely to smooth relations between the club and its support base.
Levy has insisted time and time again that he has no intention of selling his shares in Tottenham Hotspur, and nor will he stand aside to let anyone else take over the day-to-day running of the club. He might find that resolve tested next season. For the past twelve months, he hasn’t had to hear fans cursing his name in their thousands every matchday because fans have been absent from stadiums. That won’t be the case when the Premier League returns in August. He was already unpopular before he attempted to sign the club up to the “European Super League” proposal, which imploded within 48 hours of its announcement in April this year. Fans saw that as a betrayal of everything their club stood for, and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as their patience with Levy is concerned.
If Levy has the capacity to be honest with himself, he’ll know his approach to the manager’s position at the club hasn’t helped. He gambled by appointing Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese coach’s failure at Manchester United, and the gamble backfired. “Gamble” is the best word to describe the way Levy approaches his managers. A lot of the time, it’s like he’s playing online slots. He makes a bet, and if he doesn’t like the outcome, he spends more money and spins again. That’s fine if you’re playing online slots at Rose Slots CA for a few dollars per spin. It’s less fine if you’re losing millions of dollars on each spin, and you still haven’t found a winner. He might even have had one with Mauricio Pochettino, but he let him slip through his fingers. In total, he’s appointed nine full-time managers in his time as Spurs boss, plus four caretaker managers. Nuno will be his tenth in twenty years at the helm. That’s a lot of online slots he’s played, and yet he’s never hit the jackpot. If this spin doesn’t work out, he might find that the well has run dry. His position is likely to become untenable – and that’s assuming it isn’t already.
We shouldn’t be totally dismissive of Nuno Espirito Santo, who could yet surprise people. He got Wolverhampton Wanderers into the Premier League and kept them there after years of the club bouncing between divisions. They’re no longer thought of as contenders for relegation at the beginning of the season. In his three seasons at the helm in the Premier League, he’s finished 7th twice and 13th last season. He’s also taken the club to the quarter-finals of the Europa League. He’s never won any major honours as a manager, but he’s had very little opportunity to. The one season he spent in charge of Porto in his homeland, he was fired for the grave error of finishing second in the league. Spurs fans would welcome a second-placed finish after the season they’ve just had. A cup trophy would be a nice bonus.
Thoughts of glory will be far away from Nuno’s mind when he takes charge of his players for the first time. He’ll find a squad of individuals dissatisfied with the way the club has gone about finding a new manager and still disappointed with last season’s multitude of failures. Job number one for the coach will be to somehow persuade Harry Kane that he’ll achieve great things if he stays at the club. He’ll probably fail in that attempt. Kane has arguably given too many years to Spurs already and is steadfast in his desire to leave. Manchester City wants to buy him, and so do Paris Saint Germain – where he can reunite with former coach Mauricio Pochettino. Both clubs are willing to pay in excess of $100m for his services, and that’s a fair price. Using that money to buy reinforcements will be the first important task of Nuno’s reign. He can at least rely on the services of Son, who’s signed a new long-term contract.
Nuno Esperito Santo is not the manager that Spurs wanted when they began their managerial search. Spurs probably aren’t the club that Nuno thought he’d end up in charge of when he left Wolves. Everybody knows that he’s not the club’s first choice, and nobody will know that more keenly than Nuno. This entire saga has been a wretched embarrassment for everybody connected with Spurs, who must now draw a line underneath it and move forward. Whether Nuno can help them to make that move is something we’ll find out in the final few months of 2021.
