Ryan Mason is staying at Tottenham after holding talks with Anderlecht over becoming their manager, talkSPORT understands.
Mason, assistant coach at Spurs, and Anderlecht decided mutually not to proceed with his potential appointment.
Mason was one of the club’s leading names to succeed Brian Riemer after Dutchman Mark van Bommel dropped out of the running.
Mason, who had had a stint as interim Tottenham head coach in 2021 following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho, became the youngest manager to take charge of a Premier League game aged just 29 and led Spurs to a seventh-placed finish in the 2021/22 campaign.
Anderlecht are currently fourth in the Belgian league but parted ways with Dutch boss Reimer last month.
The move would have seen Mason become the second former Tottenham midfielder to manage in Belgium following Scott Parker’s ill-fated six-month spell at Club Brugge in 2023.
It would have also seen him reunited with former Spurs teammate Jan Vertonghen who joined the club from Benfica in 2022.
Mason came through the ranks at the north-London club and made his debut in 2008 before undergoing loan spells at various club’s including Yeovil, Doncaster, Millwall and French club Lorient.
In 2016, he made a £13million switch to Hull City however his career came to a premature end when he suffered a fractured skull in a collision with Chelsea’s Gary Cahill.
Thankfully, Mason recovered but was forced to hang up his boots on medical advice.
Tottenham handed Mason the opportunity to carve out a coaching career by appointing him as a youth coach before later taking up the role of head of the club’s academy.
Following the sacking of first-team boss Jose Mourinho in 2021, he was given the reins as interim boss with his first game being a 1-0 League Cup final defeat to Manchester City at Wembley.
Mason has since continued his coaching development with stints working under Antonio Conte as well as his current role as part of Ange Postecoglou’s backroom team.
The 33-year-old is highly regarded in coaching circles but has yet to secure a permanent managerial role.