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Spurs will surely sack Ange Postecoglou - and they may already know who they need to replace him with.
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Go back just a few months, and the court of public opinion was delivering a hung jury on the question of whether Ange Postecoglou was the right man to manage Tottenham Hotspur. As many people as would have fired him in Daniel Levy’s shoes would have backed him to the hilt in the summer transfer window. Now, however, it feels as though a decision has been made.
It isn’t just that Spurs are on course for their worst league performance since 1993/94, although that does rather make a difference – it’s also because the relationship between Postecoglou and the fans has broken down, and it’s pretty plain at this point that the Australian expects the axe to fall as soon as the curtain falls on the season. But what comes next?
Spurs seem set to sack Ange Postecoglou – so where do they turn next?
You know that the fans have made up their mind when they start jeering your substitutions. You know that you’ve ceased to care when you start celebrating directly at them when that substitute promptly scores. And you know that fate simply doesn’t want you at Spurs any more when VAR then rules the goal out.
That’s what happened after Pape Matar Sarr scored a disallowed equaliser against Chelsea in early April and while Postecoglou would quickly admit that gesturing towards his own team’s supporters had been a mistake, the damage had been done. Within days, he would be joking that his two-year tenure was “pretty good” for a Spurs boss, an implicit insult towards the way that chairman Levy has handled the club and its coaching appointments.
If there was any doubt in Levy’s mind about whether to blame his own substandard squad-building for Spurs’ struggles this season or whether to pin it all at Postecolgou’s door and replace him, then it seems likely that it will have been made up by now. Postecoglou seems past caring, a man who knows he’s got a P45 in the post.
Unsurprisingly, then, the rumour mill has started to crank out suggestions for the next Spurs manager with renewed vigour, with a number of reports suggesting that Levy’s shortlist is effectively down to two managers already – Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and Fulham’s Marco Silva.
Iraola is starting to look a little tricky to get hold of. The Evening Standard has reported that the Spaniard is minded to stay at the Vitality Stadium for the time being while Bill Foley, the Cherries’ American owner, is hoping to persuade Iraola to pen a new contract.
The job that Iraola has done at Bournemouth, transforming them quickly from respectable also-rans into highly entertaining European contenders, suggests that he would make a fine appointment, but he may well simply not be available – and if he does decide to continue his career elsewhere, then there may well be suitors with more continental football and fewer glaring issues.
So that could conceivably leave Silva in a field of one – but is he the right man for the job, and will Spurs be able to snare him?
Is Marco Silva the best choice to be Spurs manager?
Fulham’s vice-chairman, Tony Khan, has already made it abundantly clear that the Cottagers want to keep Silva around, telling BBC Radio London that they want the Portuguese coach to stay at the club “forever”. But it’s less clear that Silva himself is so attached to his current project.
Silva has already gently criticised Fulham’s transfer policy, hinting that they need to stop losing their better players to achieve better results over time – it may not exactly scream ‘trouble in paradise’ but it does hint at a coach who could be open to other options.
Not that Spurs’ transfer policy doesn’t have plenty of critics. A simple fact is that it won’t matter who they appoint if they keep failing to sign the kind of players that their managers need. For too long, investment has been sporadic or unfocussed and Levy has struggled to line up recruitment with the tactical needs of his coach.
But one thing Silva has done very well at Fulham is make do with what he has at hand. His squad is largely made up of player cast off from other Premier League sides for one perfectly valid reason or another, and yet they remain firmly in touch with a chance at European qualification while playing what is often very fine football.
The style of play matters, too. Since controversially sacking Mauricio Pochettino back in 2019, Spurs have veered between progressive and conservative coaches, those that demand certain traits in their playing staff and those who value entirely different qualities. Given that none have stayed for very long – Postecoglou wasn’t wrong about that – the result has been squads half-shaped to one manager’s needs before being passed off to another who doesn’t get all the resources he wants either.
In moving on from Postecoglou, Spurs have to ensure that they find a manager who can make use of the squad they have now, even if they intend to tweak it. Silva prefers to play with a 4-2-3-1 with a high press, an aggressive midfield pairing and some speed and flair further forward combined with a target forward. That’s something Spurs can conjure up.
Silva isn’t so far removed from Postecoglou as a tactician, even if his personal manner is very different, and a move from one to the other would offer a degree of continuity that Spurs haven’t had for a very long time. Even if Postecoglou isn’t the right man for the job, they need to continue down the broader path they chose when they appointed him. Another series of abrupt left turns won’t take them anywhere useful.
So for once, Spurs have a target, and it’s a manager who has just one year left on his contract and who doesn’t seem to be reassured that his current employers are doing everything right. Silva seems like a sensible, measured choice who has the right combination of tactical acumen, appropriate playing style and experience of the Premier League. It feels like Levy has a pretty clear path ahead of him – let’s see if he walks it.