Are Tottenham Hotspur getting closer to appointing a new manager and director of football? There’s a lot of smoke in the air recently that seems to suggest that’s the case. On the heels of yesterday’s report from Miguel Delaney (and others) that Feyenoord manager Arne Slot is one of the prime candidates, now we have a YouTube video from David Ornstein suggesting something similar.
Speaking in his weekly video on the “Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE” YouTube channel, the Ornacle says that the managerial position seems like it’s basically coming down to either Slot, who won the Eredivisie title this past weekend with Feyenoord for just the third time in the last 25 years, or former Spain manager Luis Enrique.
It’s a long video, but I’ve time-stamped the start to where Ornstein starts talking about Spurs.
“On the managerial front whether a decision is made and communicated before or after the sporting director we’ll have to see, but it’s become pretty clear in recent days that Arne Slot is a strong candidate for the position. He’s at Feyenoord, he’s done spectacularly well there, they would love to keep him.
“Reports are they’re offering a bumper new contract — bumper by Dutch football standard — which will be relatively small compared to English football standards. But they’d desperately like to keep hold of him, however he may consider how many opportunities come in the Premier League if Tottenham do indeed make an approach to appoint him, and will he ever get this sort of success again at Feyenoord because you suspect that Ajax and PSV are going to come back stronger next season. And so clearly he is a strong option for them and when you speak to people in the game they’re now of the opinion that he could well get it.
“We keep an eye on the likes of Luis Enrique after he didn’t get the Chelsea job and others have been mentioned in various dispatches like Thomas Frank but I’m not aware of that being one that’s being progressed. Ryan Mason is there on an interim basis, he’s been quite clear that he would like to be considered on a permanent basis and you hear really good things about him as a coach and for his potential, but I’m not sure this is quite the right time for him and Tottenham.
“It feels like it is getting towards an end game. Interviews have clearly taken place. There have been interviews, you don’t know how many rounds and how many more conversations need to take place.
“I do sense on the sporting director front and whether its slightly before or after the head coach front, we should get some clarity in the next couple of weeks.”
What isn’t really clear yet is the timeline of events and what needs to happen. Does the Director of Football position come first? Is that a lynchpin to which, or even what kind, of manager Tottenham will appoint? Or is it more important to nail down the manager and then find a DoF who will work well with that person? Of those options, I’d suggest the first is the most preferable, and that does seem to be the direction things are heading. But this is Tottenham, a club that doesn’t exactly have the most sterling record for facilitating an effective process for these kinds of things.
That said, if Slot and Luis Enrique are the two main finalists, it does speak to the kind of manager they want, and the kind of football they’re hoping to play. It’s likely to be a dramatic change to what we’ve seen the past few years, though you wonder how much time it will take to implement that kind of system.
I know a lot of fans are frustrated with the length of time it’s taken to get to this point, but things really do seem to be moving, and that’s positive. There’s still a week until the end of the Premier League season and having at least one of these roles filled by that point would be good as Spurs head into a critically important offseason.
