Who will be the next manager of Tottenham after Postecoglou sack?
Ange Postecoglou told us, and we didn’t listen. He said he always wins a trophy in his second season, and he duly won a trophy in his second season at Spurs.
But Europa League glory did not save him from a miserable domestic campaign. We changed our minds; Daniel Levy did not, and the generally less emotional chairman has binned off the man who ended the Spurs trophy drought because that, now, is the history of the Tottenham.
So which daft sod will take up what are inexplicably Champions League reins with the promise of being sacked in November? Here are the favourites.
8=) Carlos Corberan
No idea where this has come from, but there he is. The former Huddersfield and West Brom and current Valencia manager has shot into the top 10 and was at one stage right near the very top of it.
8=) Roberto De Zerbi
Feels like someone who will always be linked with any big Premier League job after his eye-catching if brief spell with Brighton, and to be honest the only real surprise here is that he hasn’t been more strongly linked with this one.
8=) Michael Carrick
Used to play for Spurs. Is no longer Middlesbrough manager. These two pieces of information combined have seen Carrick cut all the way to second favourite in some places, including for Joe Cole. But it would be a huge step up.
6=) Andoni Iraola
It’s on our list of things that will happen in 2025, so it’s basically a done deal given that feature’s unblemished record of 100 per cent accuracy.
6=) Mauricio Pochettino
It was ever thus, though the United States manager said: “Don’t be worried about that. If something happens, we for sure will see. But we cannot talk about this type of thing because I think today it’s not real. I think it’s not realistic. And look – where I am, where we are? The answer is so clear, no?”
4=) Xavi Hernandez
The former Barcelona boss jumped back to the upper reaches of the market with Spurs now guaranteed a banter-filled Champions League place.
4=) Oliver Glasner
The Crystal Palace manager has taken less than two seasons to deliver the first silverware in Palace’s actual history, entirely out-thinking Pep Guardiola in the process. Tottenham should absolutely be interested, especially if the Eagles are kicked out of Europe.
3) Scott Parker
It would indeed by their most preposterous decision yet but this is Spurs.
2) Marco Silva
Pleasantly surprising to see Silva so prominent in a big next-manager market, because he probably deserves it for the work he’s done at Fulham. Always a danger for mid-table managers that sustained competence is exactly what big clubs ought to want but can also make you a bit invisible. Spurs fans would, we suspect, kick off about this as an idea, but we’ve heard worse ones.
According to reports on March 18, Silva was one of two managers being considered. But later reports suggested he wanted to stay with Fulham and would turn down Saudi to do so.
1) Thomas Frank
Just far, far too sensible. Frank would represent thinking close to the last truly successful managerial appointment Spurs made with the Southampton-era Mauricio Pochettino. Since then it’s been showy elite appointments of managers who treated Spurs like the sh*t on their shoes, wild gambles that paid off in such a way that they still kind of had to sack that manager anyway, or fifth-choice desperation.
A manager doing a quietly effective job further down the Premier League food chain simply won’t do.
Apparently he will cost £9m. And it looks very much like he will be coming…and he might be bringing Bryan Mbeumo.
