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Although Roberto De Zerbi was not initially interested in joining Tottenham Hotspur as their manager and preferred instead to wait until after the season ended, Spurs have seemingly been successful in getting the former Brighton and Marseille manager to change his mind simpy by throwing a ton of money at him.

De Zerbi is now willing to join Tottenham immediately to help them avoid relegation from the Premier League, even though part of the reason why he was initially uninterested in the Spurs job was because he wanted to see if the club could manage to stay up in the top flight.

Tottenham's Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange, left with very little alternative options in the short term, believe that De Zerbi is both the guy who can save them from the EFL Championship and also lead the team into the future. They are willing to spend big on De Zerbi and take themselves off the table for a reunion with Mauricio Pochettino, who is the fans' No. 1 choice to coach Spurs.

Roberto De Zerbi may not get immediate results

Well, the last time Roberto De Zerbi freshly joined a Premier League team, he took over for Brighton in late September and early October in the 2022/23 season for Graham Potter, who went to Chelsea. De Zerbi drew his first game 3-3 to Liverpool, but he did not win a single of his first five games until he battled Chelsea's Potter and beat him 4-1.

De Zebri eventually got into the swing of things and had a strong first season with the Seagulls, but it took him a handful of games to get his ideas properly implemented before the flourished. In those first five games, he only got two points, including shutout losses to Tottenham Hotspur and Thomas Frank's Brentford.

Although De Zerbi has good tactical ideas, they are not basic principles that can be implemented immediately in a squad that has struggled to maintain possession and create chances this season. He has also never been asked to turn things around at a club in trouble; this is going to be the first time De Zerbi is tasked with being a relegation specialist.

Tottenham will be paying him handsomely for his efforts, but money spent is not always proprotional to results. Spurs are missing an important point about De Zerbi's track record. Results may not be as immediate as what they want or what they are paying for, and if they go down, he could easily leave with all his earnings.

Tottenham Hotspur are on the precipice of hiring Roberto De Zerbi as their next manager to replace Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, as the latter mutually agreed to part ways with Spurs over the weekend, having just lost his father.

De Zerbi has been the No. 1 choice of upper management duo Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange, ostensibly for months. But decisively, he is not the top choice for the fans, who bristle at his record of signing players with grave allegiations of criminal activity at Marseille and know that he only ever lasts a year or two at clubs because of his volatile personality.

No, for the fans, the choice has clearly always been Mauricio Pochettino, who was willing to join Tottenham Hotspur as their manager regardless of whether or not they stayed up in the Premier League. It's just that he could not leave immediately or even help coach the team in the interim due to his duties with the United States national team.

Pochettino still backs Spurs

As Tottenham draw closer to De Zerbi, they move further away from Pochettino. And every little quote or detail about this impending hire is only making Spurs feel even more sad about the decision. Pochettino just spoke to insider Ben Jacobs at Give Me Sport about Tottenham's current relegation plight, and his words will both give fans strength and more bitterness about Lange's and Vinai's decision to roll with RDZ.

The former Tottenham manager said when asked about Spurs relegation fight and their chances of survival, “Yes, they can stay up. Of course, it’s a difficult time, but they have the capacity to win, with or without a new coach.”

Now that is the mentality Tottenham need. They need a guy like Mauricio Pochettino who loves the club and believes in the club, and even though he knows he won't be the one they hire with the task of staying up, he is still publicly and unequivocally backing them to stay up because he believes in them.

In what could be as little as hours, Tottenham Hotspur are likely to announce Roberto De Zerbi as their next manager with many transfer insiders like Fabrizio Romano reporting that Spurs are very close to reaching an agreement with the former Brighton manager.

De Zerbi had seemed to be off the table since there was a sense that he only wanted to join a club at the end of the 2025/26 season and that he would only be interested in the Tottenham job if they were able to stay up.

However, Tottenham are apparently throwing enough money at the Italian manager that they are changing his mind. Now, the high salary in and of itself is concerning, but Spurs fans were trying to reconcile how De Zerbi would suddenly be willing to coach a team at risk of relegation. Implicitly, they knew the answer would be some sort of a clause enabling De Zerbi to leave, even if he were the one who got relegated.

Roberto De Zerbi will not be loyal to Tottenham

Well, it looks like all the Tottenham Hotspur suspecting this little wrinkle were on the right track. ESPN analyst and insider Julien Laurens said on BBC Sport's Monday Night Club that he was told today that there would be a clause in Roberto De Zerbi's contract enabling him to leave Tottenham and avoid managing them in the EFL Championship if they were to go down.

Laurens said, “He’s not a Championship manager. There is no doubt in my mind, and I was told that again earlier, that there will be a clause for him to walk away. “There’s a break clause obviously if they do go down from the club’s point of view, but he would not stay in the Championship if they were to go down.”

Nothing about this quote from Laurens is surprising, but it is further confirmation for Tottenham fans apprehensive about hiring an abrasive manager with several spells less than two years at his previous stops that De Zerbi is a hired gun who does not fit the culture of the club like Mauricio Pochettino.

Whereas De Zerbi is the choice of Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange, the fans are clearly more behind a reunion with Mauricio Pochettino, who had Spurs competing for Premier League and Champions League titles before being fired under questionable circumstances. Poch would have stayed regardless of Spurs being in the Premier League or Championship, and yet De Zerbi would not have that same loyalty.

As Tottenham Hotspur close in on Roberto De Zerbi, whose appointment is coming any minute now, fans are left wondering how long it will be until they have a chance at seeing Mauricio Pochettino back in the dugout again. And the cynics in the fan base - and with this club, the cynics have usually been spot on - will say that it shouldn't be too long until De Zerbi blows it all up again.

Pochettino is the clear frontrunner in the eyes of the fans as the best manager to take over for the disaster that Thomas Frank brought to Tottenham during the 2025/26 season, which Igor Tudor was unsurprisingly able to fix in a few weeks.

But the management team of Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham has been bamboozled by the charismatic De Zerbi, whose intentions of winning and love for the game easily shroud a volatile attitude that is quick to turn the minute things don't go the way he wants.

Tottenham didn't even try

Pochettino, meanwhile, is a level headed, almost saintly figure whom many Tottenham Hotspur supporters feel was wronged and should have never been fired in 2019. Well, it looks like Spurs have wronged him again by choosing Roberto De Zerbi over him.

Worse yet, Mauricio Pochettino has told reporters that Tottenham have never actually reached out to him at any point in this process. He said, via The Spurs Watch, “No one has approached me, but who knows what is going to happen."

You can feel the pain behind that quote. While Pochettino obviously cannot coach Tottenham immediately and drop everything and leave the United States before the World Cup, nor can he coach both teams at the same time, it is unfathomable that Lange and Vinai would not even make an approach or discuss what having Poch back would look like.

No, they have instead only gone after De Zerbi with laser focus, not even realizing that Pochettino's worst seasons as a manager have been better than De Zerbi's best seasons. They have fallen for the empty charisma and "ideas", which, while clever, have not yielded the level of success that Poch brought as someone who literally competed for Premier League and Champions League titles.

Maybe it won't be long until Tottenham are going back for Pochettino again, but it is telling that the judge of character of Lange and Vinai was to throw a ton of money at a guy who had to be convinced to join Spurs over a guy whom the fans loved that was willing to join Spurs regardless of their status as a Premier League side in 2026/27.

Tottenham Hotspur have left the managerial search almost entirely in the hands of Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham, and the two have zeroed in on Roberto De Zerbi as their preferred manager target. In fact, he has been their clear No. 1 long term plan since he left Marseille, and they have done everything possible to convince him of the project.

Spurs initially were met with resistance from the Italian manager about joining immediately to replace Igor Tudor, whom Spurs parted ways with over the weekend. But De Zerbi has come around to the idea of immediately coaching Tottenham out of this Premier League relegation fight, which only got more complicated after the 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest the previous weekend.

Money certainly helps change minds, and now Fabrizio Romano reports that Tottenham Hotspur and Roberto De Zerbi are very close to getting the official "Here We Go" on a deal being completed. Now that in and of itself is really no surprise to any Spurs fan who has been paying close attention to the news cycle, as every credible reporter, including Fab beforehand, was saying that a deal is close. It's just now even closer.

Tottenham are fans of Roberto De Zerbi's attitude

But what's really interesting is Romano also reporting that what makes Tottenham sold on De Zerbi is the fact that they rate his connection with the players, his tactical quality, and his attitude. While the praise of his tactical quality is not surprising given De Zerbi was an innovator at Sassuolo, outperformed expectations at Shakhtar Donetsk, and had a good run at Brighton for a bit, the rest of the praise is more puzzling.

De Zerbi seems to connect very closely with some players but had falling outs with others. Though there are former players who praise his influence on their careers, there are also uncomfortable accounts of him blowing up in the dressing room with highly inappropriate remarks that do not project an image of stability that Spurs need.

Furthermore, the attitude praise is even stranger. De Zerbi had very public falling outs with multiple clubs he used to coach, including Brighton and Marseille, both of whom ended up being very glad to see the back side of him. His tenure at Marseille ended abruptly with nothing accomplished and a whole lot of acrimony after his defense of players with serious allegiations whom he brought into the club, as well as the sorts of dressing room dust ups and shenanigans above. That doesn't sound like the attitude of a coach Spurs brass should be liking, but judging by the Thomas Frank appointment, Vinai and Lange aren't exactly the best judges either.

Tottenham Hotspur are clearly focused on bringing in Roberto De Zerbi as soon as possible to be both the long term manager hire and the one who potentially saves them from relegation with just one point separating them from rivals West Ham United in the drop zone.

De Zerbi is far from the most popular option for Spurs fans, but Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham are smitten with him. And though, like the other proven hires, he was initially uninterested in taking the job immediately, Spurs appear to be throwing as much money as possible to convince him to join.

At this point, De Zerbi to Spurs is close, but if he doesn't end up coming back and talks fall through, the the field of candidates is very slim. Mauricio Pochettino is the clear dream choice for the fans, but he can't go to Spurs until after the World Cup ends. The rest of the linked names are people who haven't coached in ages like Tim Sherwood and Glen Hoddle; even Ben Davies made it on the list.

Go back to Thomas Frank?

Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown is, like Sherwood, a notorious gum flapper on the air waves, and he said on talkSPORT's White and Jordan show that he thinks Tottenham Hotspur should go back to Thomas Frank, "Look... I know people say you should never go back, but Thomas Frank might be allowed back in the building to actually say, 'Okay, let's try and pick up where we left off'. I know that they lost a few games, but it was certainly a lot better than we saw from recent games."

No. Just no. Under no circumstances do Spurs need Frank back, and while Roberto De Zerbi has serious concerns regarding the people he brought in to Marsielle and is a volatile personality who is set to make (probably) way too much money, he might still be a better hire than going back to Frank.

Keown is totally off base here. Although Tottenham were not much better under Igor Tudor, they were clearly more organized and started playing better the longer they were away from Frank, though obviously the 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest damages that perception.

But Frank is the reason behind this mess. The team started to play worse and worse under him than they were under Ange Postecoglou or even to start the season under his ideas. Going back to Thomas Frank is unconsciable, and the only way it makes sense for Martin Keown to suggest it is that he is a former Arsenal player and wants to sabotage Spurs. Because there is no realistic intellectual argument in which this makes sense. Sadly, you can't put it past Vinai Venkatesham to think along those lines, given he used to work for the Gunners. (I kid, kid...sort of.)

Tottenham Hotspur are getting close to their next manager after parting ways with Igor Tudor, and it appears they will be able to get their No. 1 choice after all. For some reason, Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham have been obsessed with bringing Roberto De Zerbi back to the Premier League, where he had a briefly positive tenure at Brighton before completely falling out with the club over transfer strategy.

De Zerbi most recently coached Marseille as Tudor's successor, and his volatile personality and willingness to bring in any player, regardless of allegations of morally reprehensible and criminal behavior, rubbed many the wrong way. His time at OM was wildly unsuccessful, more famous for dust ups and controversy than success on the pitch.

And yet Tottenham Hotspur have been desperate to hire him. Initially, De Zerbi wanted to wait until after the 2025/26 season ended to choose his next job, and he also didn't seem to keen on Spurs overall. Unlike Mauricio Pochettino, he apparently wanted to see Spurs stay up in the Premier League before considering the position.

Tottenham are going to pay Roberto De Zerbi a lot

So what is changing his mind? As Fabrizio Romano reports, Tottenham have a five year contract on the table for Roberto De Zerbi with a "top salary". He has "always" been their "priority", and it was Fab, after all, who first reported in January after RDZ left Marseille that he was the top choice. The two parties are now in "regular contact" to hammer out a deal.

Basically, Tottenham have resorted to throwing so much money at De Zerbi that he cannot possibly say no. There are serious concerns about De Zerbi being able to turn a team around this quickly, and since De Zerbi is known for very public and quick break ups with clubs and he was not interested in the job if Spurs did not stay up, then he could very well sink them down and leave after collecting a huge payday.

Because you also have to think that if Spurs are paying him a "top salary", then they are also paying him some big clauses if he stays up - or giving him the ability to leave the club if they go down and still cash in.

Tottenham Hotspur and Igor Tudor agreed to part ways mutually this weekend, which is a move that surprises not a single Spurs supporter. Tudor has been through a tumultuous time on the pitch, inherting a shambolic side that Thomas Frank absolutely ran into the ground. And with the passing of his father just a week ago, it is entirely understandable that Tudor would want to step away.

Meanwhile, Spurs are desperate to make sure they do not go down, and with just one point separating them from the drop zone after a 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in direct competition the week before, they are begging for anyone credible to come in and help.

The problem is that the pickings are slim. Spurs top choice is Roberto De Zerbi, but he is, thus far, uninterested in joining the club before the season ends and they assure they are safe. Adi Hutter is also taking the same stance of not joining a team - and probably especially not a team at threat of going down like Spurs - before the season ends. Mauricio Pochettino is tied up with the United States.

Sean Dyche wants a bigger contract

Relegation specialist Sean Dyche seems like an ideal option, but aside from not sounding too keen on the job himself, there are certain logistic details that make hiring the former Nottingham Forest coach even more unrealistic than a reunion with his predecessor Ange Postecoglou.

Not only would Tottenham Hotspur have to pay Dyche extra since he had coached Forest earlier this year, but Sami Mokbel of BBC Sport reports that the big stumbling block a specific contractual demand that Dyche has in mind.

Sean Dyche apparently wants an 18 month long contract in order to take the Tottenham job, meaning he, like the other coaching candidates - including the unproven Robbie Keane - wants assurances that he is getting a long term job.

Since Dyche has the meddle and has been in plenty of successful Premier League relegation fights before, he'd probably be less scared than Roberto De Zerbi and Adi Hutter of taking the job in the middle of an ongoing relegation fight.

But whereas Spurs want to hire De Zerbi right now AND keep him as a long term option, Dyche doesn't really have the upside of being a long term option for a Premier League Big Six job. Spurs want Dyche to save them from relegation; they don't want him around for 18 months. Dyche understandably wants to angle for that bigger deal with more of a payout and use his demand as a relegation specialist for future job security, but Spurs are not going to get into that game.

Tottenham Hotspur and Igor Tudor mutually parted ways over the weekend, so now the Lilywhites have to find their next coach before the season ends. After losing 3-0 to Nottingham Forest the previous weekend, relegatoin is within sights, making Spurs next appointment all the more critical.

As far as long term options go, a reunion with Mauricio Pochettino is the preferred candidate for the fans, but the team continues to pine hard for Roberto De Zerbi. There are ongoing negotiations to convince De Zerbi to join the team immediately despite the former Brighton manager's ostensible lack of interest in joining a club before the season ends - let alone a Spurs side whose Premier League future is not secure.

With Sean Dyche too expensive due to a buyout fee from Nottingham Forest and apparently uninterested in the job, the only proven manager on the table whom Spurs have spoken with is Adi Hutter. He was a decent enough coach for Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Monchengladbach, and Monaco.

Adi Hutter rejects Tottenham

However, Hutter is not interested either. Per Sky Sport Austria, the experienced manager has released a public statement declining the Tottenham Hotspur rumors by stating that he has no interest in coaching a team in the current 2025/26 campaign.

Hutter said, "In recent days and weeks, I have been increasingly linked with various clubs. However, as I already stated immediately after my time at Monaco, I would prefer not to work as a head coach again until the start of the new season at the earliest. My position on this matter has not changed since then."

So it looks like Adi Hutter is taking the same stance that Roberto De Zerbi is, which is entirely understandable. He wants to take a rest and weigh his options in the summer based on the best job available, and jumping right into the Tottenham situation is a huge risk, especially for someone like Hutter who has never managed in neither the Premier League nor a relegation fight before.

Whereas Spurs are doing whatever they can to throw the kitchen sink at De Zerbi in an effort to convince him to change his mind from what is a very reasonable position shared by other coaches, it is unlikely they would do the same for Hutter, who was probably more of an emergency option anyway. But the fact that Hutter is effectively rejecting them is not good news either, and Spurs may have to gamble with someone like Harry Redknapp or even Ben Davies.

Tottenham Hotspur are back to square one. Understandably, Spurs and interim coach Igor Tudor have parted ways, but now the club have to sort amongst a host of unideal managerial candidates, and with the likes of Sean Dyche and Roberto De Zerbi apparently uninterested in the job, Adi Hutter is the only currently experienced, relevant coach with interest. The shortlist of candidates now includes people who have not coached in a decade like Tim Sherwood and Glenn Hoddle, and even Ben Davies is legitimately being considered as a candidate.

Out of all the former Tottenham coaches linked with returns to the club, here are three names who could actually keep Spurs up.

Ange Postecoglou

It seems almost unthinkable for Ange Postecoglou to return to Tottenham after the way in which he was fired at the end of the 2024/25 season, and it's not like Spurs were crushing it in the Premier League last year either. Plus, a lot of the issues Spurs are having stem from Big Ange.

But it is undeniable that Spurs were playing better football under Ange than under Thomas Frank, and it is telling that the longer they were under Frank and the further away from Ange, the worse it got. Players like Cristian Romero loved playing for Postecoglou, and the fans loved his attitude. Sometimes, you just need good vibes and the right mentality to stay alive, and Big Ange definitely can do that.

Harry Redknapp

Ryan Mason is a former Tottenham Hotspur manager and does not have the worst track record in the world, so he merited consideration here, but Harry Rednkapp is an even bigger name and an even wilder idea to come back into the dugout.

It's been a long, long time since Redknapp coached Spurs, but he was actually a good manager and is still well liked by supporters, especially the, shall we say, more experienced ones. Redknapp knows how to fight in the Premier League, and his old school vibes and way of relating with the players in a no nonsense manner may be exactly what this team needs.

Mauricio Pochettino

The only way Mauricio Pochettino comes back to Tottenham is if he suddenly feels a pull at his heartstrings and abandons the United States national team, because the USMNT sure as heck didn't shell out cash for Poch to double dip club and country duties before a World Cup in which they are the primary host nation.

Pochettino doing this is almost impossible, but in some fantasy world, Poch comes skylining into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and saves this sad bunch from relegation before turning them into a top four powerhouse again. Spurs fans can dream, right?