Fresh off of winning the Eredivisie with Feyenoord for the first time since 2017, Dutch manager Arne Slot is now, according to Miguel Delaney, the prime candidate to be Tottenham Hotspur’s next permanent head coach. Delaney, writing in the Independent, states that after initial conversations, Slot has garnered significant support from Spurs’ hierarchy after the first round of interviews over the past few days.
Initial round of discussions see Slot stand out for Spurs, as DoF pursuit also comes down to three main candidates
Feyenoord determined to keep Slot for a CL season, having already fended off PL interest lower down the tablehttps://t.co/q0x2CCgMFC
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) May 18, 2023
There’s a lot to like about Slot. At age 44, he’s on the younger end of the spectrum, something that appeals to Tottenham at this current stage, and is known for playing exciting, progressive, modern football, a big contrast to Tottenham’s past three managerial appointments in Antonio Conte, Nuno Espirito Santo, and Jose Mourinho. I did a quick preview and tactical profile of him a couple of months ago which you may want to take a look at if you haven’t seen it or need a refresher on what he could bring to Spurs.
Feyenoord, predictably, are very keen to keep ahold of Slot, as he’s a Dutch manager who’s very much in demand from a variety of clubs, and they’ve already offered him a new contract worth about €2.5m a season. That’s a good offer for Feyenoord, but considering Spurs could at minimum double his salary and paid both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte £15m/year, I think it’s safe to say that there wouldn’t be difficult to blow them out of the water, since money is fungible. The article also states that it would take about £4.5m to buy Slot out of his existing contract at Feyenoord, which again really shouldn’t be anything close to an issue if he’s the guy they want to go after.
Delaney also specifically mentions Sporting’s Ruben Amorim as another manager that Tottenham are high on as they continue their search, and of course there’s the ongoing Director of Football search, which depending on the source either is close or not at all close to an appointment.
Of course, we’ve heard all of this before with Vincent Kompany and Julian Nagelsmann both out of the picture. But somehow this one feels different. Slot is pretty exciting in a lot of ways (if not very experienced at the top level) and he feels like he could be a good fit for the kind of football Spurs want to play. Let’s not put the horse in front of the cart quite yet, but all the signs are currently pointing towards Holland.
