By Thomas Durning
On the 26th March 2023, Tottenham Hotspur announced that Antonio Conte had left the club by mutual consent. In the statement, the club thanked Conte for his work and chairman Daniel Levy added that the club had to pull together for the remaining games of the season in the hope that this will be enough for them to achieve a Champions League qualification spot.
Conte was in charge of Tottenham for a total of 16 months and in that time, the Italian’s biggest success was earning Tottenham a Champions League spot for the 22/23 season. However, results during Conte’s time were very mixed including a shocking defeat to Slovenian side NS Mura which was at the start of Conte’s reign at Spurs.
The 53-year-old was mostly known for his comments during his time at Spurs especially after disappointing results. He described his team’s level as “not so high” after the defeat to NS Mura and after a Carabao Cup semi final defeat to Chelsea he said Tottenham were a mid-table club.
His last outburst was his final game as Spurs manager when he described his side as ‘selfish’ and criticised the mentality of the club pointing to the fact that the club had failed to win anything important for many years.
This was to be the final straw for Conte and these types of comments were the focal point of his time at Tottenham and he often looked like a man who was not happy, and it seemed like a matter of time before he decided he had enough.
For the remainder of the season, the interim manager at Tottenham will be Cristian Stellini who will be assisted by Ryan Mason who steps up to be Stellini’s assistant manager. Stellini was Conte’s assistant manager at Inter Milan and Spurs so it will be interesting to see how he manages the final matches of the season. Conte leaves Spurs out of all club competitions and all the players have to fight for now is a top 4 finish in the league. At this moment, Tottenham are 4th in the table and are in the mix to gain a Champions League spot next season.
However, this is only a short term goal for the club and they now have to look to the future and figure out who will lead Tottenham in the years to come.
For Tottenham, the next appointment is crucial as in recent times they have changed the manager regularly. Since Pochettino’s five-year spell came to an end in 2019, the club have appointed three different managers which were Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, and Antonio Conte.
When analysing the profile of these managers, you could make the assumption that the club have targeted managers who like to play a pragmatic style of football in the hope that this style will bring them the success that the club so desperately needs.
However, it is clear that this approach has not worked and it is likely that the next manager will be an attacking minded coach who will look to bring an attractive style of football to Spurs.
The early favourite for the manager’s job is Julian Nagelsmann. Nagelsmann is a German 35 year old coach who has just recently been sacked as Bayern Munich manager which some think is very unfair.
If Tottenham were to secure his services, this would be looked at as an exciting appointment. Nagelsmann is considered as one of the best young managers in world football known for his versatility with his formations and also winning the ball back high up the pitch.
In the 2019/20 season, he was the youngest manager in history to lead RB Leipzig to the semi final of the Champions League while playing an attractive style of football. During his time at Leipzig, he was known for playing a 5-2-3 formation and in his final year he played a 4-2-3-1 formation.
His Leipzig team were widely praised due to the tactics of Nagelsmann. He drilled his Leipzig team to play a variety of different formations whether that would be a back three or four and sometimes played with a striker and also at times he did not.
He moved onto Bayern Munich in 2021 and at the conclusion of his first season at Bayern, he won the Bundesliga title and also the DFL-Supercup.
Again, his Bayern team played an exciting brand of football in which his side played a 4-2-3-1 formation in which they scored a lot of goals.
Nagelsmann was sacked by Bayern Munich towards the end of the 2022/23 season. He left the club in the quarter finals of the Champions League and also 2nd in the Bundesliga in which they were only three points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund.
This means Nagelsmann is available and for Tottenham, this seems like too good an opportunity to miss out on.
If Tottenham are looking to the long term future, Nagelsmann would be the perfect appointment as he would bring stability, youthfulness, flexibility, and also experience in winning important trophies.
They also have the situation with striker Harry Kane who is Tottenham’s all time top scorer. With another managers now left, Kane may now be thinking it might be time to move on therefore if Tottenham want to hold onto him, the appointment of Nagelsmann would very likely keep Kane at the club.
After a turbulent few years for Spurs, they could soon be back on the right track.
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