Hotspur HQ

Tottenham Hotspur may finally start to get some key players back in the coming weeks after the March international break, and the returns of Mohammed Kudus and James Maddison, in particular, are the two main storylines this attacking starved Spurs side are most looking forward to before the end of this nightmare 2025/26 season.

Because there is so much left to play for after Spurs lost 3-0 to Nottingham Forest, falling just one point ahead of West Ham United as the only team standing between themselves and relegation to the EFL Championship.

As Spurs anticipate Kudus's return for another must win matchup against a stingy Sunderland defense after the international fixtures, they may also get word of the return of center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur.

Rodrigo Bentancur is no savior for Tottenham

They say that absence makes the heart go fonder, and whlie that is 100 percent true for stars like Kudus, Maddison, and Dejan Kulusevski, it is also, apparently, the case for Bentancur, who has even received adulations on social media by Spurs fans missing the Uruguayan international.

Bentancur has been out for a couple of months after a supposedly minor injury was revealed to be hamstring tear - such has been the luck of Tottenham Hotspur in 2025/26. And while having veteran depth and someone capable of stringing passes together will be an upgrade to a Spurs side that has been forced to watch Conor Gallagher flounder as the only signing made following the winter injuries to Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall, Spurs supporters have to be careful not to revise history here.

Whlie Bentancur is a decent rotational player, he was part of the problem for Tottenham before his injury. He lacked bravery on the ball, often shielded himself behind defenders in the build up play, lacked any sort of robustness or progression on the ball, and scarcely made defensive interventions. Benta is a smart player with decent technique, but Archie Gray quickly usurped him as a starter because he was more courageous and effective on the ball.

Although Tottenham Hotspur fans overwhelmingly want the club to go back to iconic manager Mauricio Pochettino, who once had Spurs competing for Champions League and Premier League titles a decade ago, the entire list of candidates can't just be one man.

Spurs are going to have to broaden their horizons. For now, it actually looks like Roberto De Zerbi of Marseille - and formerly of Brighton and Sassuolo - is their top option to replace Igor Tudor and Thomas Frank, but there are a number of other coaches whom Spurs are currently or have once looked at last year after the Ange Postecoglou firing.

Premier League managers Andoni Iraola, Marco Silva, and Oliver Glasner are going to be linked. German and/or Bundesliga managers Adi Hutter, Niko Kovac, and Edin Terzic are going to be on the radar, too.

Edin Terzic could join Athletic Club

To that end, a new report from Florian Plettenberg of Sky Sports Germany states that Terzic, who once coached Borussia Dortmund, is "currently the top favorite" to become the next manager of historic Basque club Athletic Club next season. Ernesto Valverde, an icon in Bilbao, has already made it clear that he will be stepping down at the end of this difficult season for the Lions. Per Plettenberg, Terzic is "very open" to coaching Athletic, and there are "already advanced" talks between club and coach.

Interestingly enough, former Athletic Club star right back Andoni Iraola has been closely linked to the job, too. Iraola has a stronger managerial track record than Terzic. While Terzic won a cup title in Dortmund, he flamed out by the end, going from hero of the club to something of a villain, making terrible lineup selections, feuding with club legends Marco Reus and Mats Hummels, and causing issues behind the scenes with members of the front office in an ugly power struggle before he was ultimately fired.

Meanwhile, Iraola has consistently overperformed with Bournemouth and turned Antoine Semenyo and even Dominic Solanke, partially thanks to Tottenham's transfer woes, high priced signings. And now, he is doing the same with real stars of the future like Junior Eli Kroupi and Rayan already in 2026.

Terzic joining Bilbao would take away arguably the worst possible manager option for Tottenham who has been linked in the past, though Scott Parker is right there in the discussion, and thus make Iraola more open. Iraola is still deciding on his Bournemouth future, and actually, for those who want Pochettino at Tottenham, Terzic joining Bilbao might make Iraola more wililng to stay with the Cherries. Thus, that would take two managers off the table and potentially increase the chances of a Poch reunion. Iraola is the less awful option, but Poch is likely the best option.

Tottenham Hotspur are back on the trail for a new manager after watching Igor Tudor's side get blown away 3-0 by Nottingham Forest in a relegation six pointer, and while the ultimate blame for both this loss and the previous losses should go to the players first and foremost, Tudor hasn't really steadied the ship despite false hope after the matches against Liverpool and Atletico Madrid.

These are desperate times for Spurs, with just a solitary point separating themselves from relegation after they got leapfrogged by Forest in embarrassing fashion over the weekend. And as such, Tudor's days could be numbered if Spurs can somehow bring in an established coach before the season ends.

But also, Tottenham do need a long term replacement. Most fans are dreaming of Mauricio Pochettino, but it looks like the club are really pushing for Roberto De Zerbi again. After being linked with RDZ from Marseille during January, the Spurs brass decided to with Igor Tudor in a pinch, and now they are back in on the De Zerbi train.

Roberto De Zerbi is open to Tottenham

According to a new report from the Daily Telegraph's Matt Law and Jason Burt, De Zerbi is open to being the next Tottenham Hotspur manager if Spurs can stay up in the Premier League. There are alternative talks, per reporting from The Times, that Spurs are trying to see if De Zerbi would join them immediately and add a clause in his contract allowing him to leave if Spurs were to get relegated.

But even if Spurs stay up, they may not be the most attracive jobs to most top managers. It's why so many Spurs fans want to go with Mauricio Pochettino, because they know he would be all for Spurs no matter what through thick and thin. After all, it was Spurs leadership that canned him more than five years ago, which, in hindsight, has been viewed as a mistake by many Tottenham supporters.

De Zerbi is at least willing to hear Spurs out at the end of the season if they stay up, and while that will come as a positive to the Spurs brass and maybe a bit of a surprise that he is still open to such a dysfunctional team, the supporters may look at De Zerbi more dimly. His signings of characters like Mason Greenwood does not reflect well on the values fans want to have in a manager at Tottenham, and, furthermore, every push for De Zerbi takes them one step away from the beloved Pochettino.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters have learned over time that no less than zero fate should be placed in the club's leadership to make the right decision. Time and time again, Spurs have failed their fans with bad transfers, bizarre contracts, subpar recruitment, and woeful hirings of both sporting directors and managers.

After screwing up the Thomas Frank and now, ostensibly, Igor Tudor appointments, Spurs are gunning for another manager fans won't like in Roberto De Zerbi, who is most famous for signing a host of miscreants and criminals at Ligue 1 underperformers Marseille.

Sporting director Johan Lange and CEO Vinai Venkatesham have somehow taken Spurs a step back from the entirely underwhelming Daniel Levy era, almost making a few fans wish for their cartoon villain back in the main seat.

Tottenham want to hire Dortmund's failed sporting director

As Tottenham Hotspur search for their next permanent manager less than a year after anointing Thomas Frank as the solution, they are still in the midst of a sporting director search that is quietly nearing its ultimate conclusion.

According to a report from Matt Law and Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph, Tottenham are in the "final stages" of selecting their next sporting director, and sources in Germany are telling the English paper's top reporting duo that Sebastian Kehl is "in the frame" for Spurs.

Kehl was fired just days ago by Borussia Dortmund as their sporting director after a horrendous reign in charge of the club. Dortmund went from having one of the best sporting directors of all time in Michael Zorc - a man who found global superstars year after year - and replaced him with Kehl, who failed to find a single star player for the club. Kehl's only successful signings were center backs Nico Schlotterbeck and Waldemar Anton, while the rest of his transfer rap sheet is a list of high profile and overpaid busts from other big Bundesliga clubs who then replaced those sales with better players (and the sorts of players Dortmund should have signed).

That Dortmund are second in the league is a testament to Niko Kovac's coaching, and he had to turn Dortmund into a highly defensive team playing like a small club, destroying the previous identity of BVB being a haven for young, exciting talent to play beautiful football.

Tottenham Hotspur are coming off a horrendous 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League relegation fight, and while Igor Tudor cannot be blamed for the defeat when the players turned up as poorly as they did, the defeat undid the positive narrative around Tudor after the Liverpool and Atletico Madrid games that he was finding his footing at the N17.

The reality is that Tudor is not the answer in the short term, and he certainly was never going to be the answer in the long term. After taking too long to draw up contingency plans when Thomas Frank first started to show signs of an inevitable sacking earlier this season, Tottenham need to get to work quickly on their next manager.

While fans are focused on a dream reunion with Mauricio Pochettino, it appears Tottenham Hotspur have a different coach in mind as their top target to replace the underwhelming duo of Frank and Tudor.

Tottenham have always been high on Roberto De Zerbi

According to Fabrizio Romano, "a main candidate" for Tottenham has actually always been Roberto De Zerbi. The former Marseille manager was linked to Spurs in the winter, and Fab says that since OM got rid of him, he has always been at the top of the list for Spurs. Notably, Romano said that De Zerbi is "a" and not "the" main option for Tottenham, noting that Pochettino is indeed "another name" on the short list.

But it appears De Zerbi may be slightly ahead. Fab says that De Zerbi is "only" an option for Tottenham in the summer, implying that he will be an option for Spurs if they can manage to stay up this season. Then, presumably, Pochettino would be the top candidate. That goes against some other recent reporting out of the United Kingdom stating that De Zerbi could potentially be hired immediately to replace fellow former Marseille manager Tudor with the right contractual language.

If Roberto De Zerbi is not Tottenham's unquestioned No. 1 target, then he appears to be neck and neck with Mauricio Pochettino. Fans will prefer the known commodity to the guy who signed Mason Greenwood and others for Marseille, but it appears Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham are big fans of the former Sassuolo, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Brighton boss. At least Spurs are going after well known managers with strong tactical ideas, though De Zerbi's falling outs with every club he has been at clearly pin him as a distant second best option to Pochettino at this point.

Everyone knew when Tottenham Hotspur appointed former Marseille and Juventus manager Igor Tudor to replace Thomas Frank that the Italian coach would be nothing more than an emergency stop gap option, hired to help Spurs survive an impending relegation battle. Well, that fight has indeed come, and it is even more to the wire than anyone expected, with Spurs reaching a new low over the weekend after a 3-0 blowout loss to Nottingham Forest.

Now, Tottenham are increasingly turning to another former Marseille manager, Roberto De Zerbi, as their top option. According to a report from Tom Allnutt of The Times, Tottenham have revisited the idea of hiring De Zerbi, who was loosely linked to the club in January ahead of the Tudor hire a month later. The idea could be to hire De Zerbi permanently now but add a release clause in his contract in case Spurs were to be relegated and RDZ wanted to coach in the top flight elsewhere instead of remaining at the N17.

Tottenham Hotspur are still reportedly weighing the merits of hiring De Zerbi now for Tudor or waiting until after the dust settles and Spurs learn their fate when the season ends, but fans are increasingly out on Tudor after watching Spurs get blown apart 3-0 by Vitor Pereira's Forest over the weekend in a relegation six pointer.

Roberto De Zerbi is the club's top choice but not the fans'

The thing is, Roberto De Zerbi is far from the No. 1 choice for most Spurs supporters. Many have their hearts dead set on Mauricio Pochettino, a managerial icon for the club whose firing more than five years ago looks more and more like a deadly mistake as time has gone on. Since Poch, no manager has competently led Spurs, though Ange Postecoglou did at least bring home the Europa League title.

De Zerbi is lauded by tacticos on the Internet, but he's had pretty quick falling outs with every single club he has coached. He is a tactical genius who is also a hot head, and his recruitment of players with serious legal issues like Mason Greenwood has blighted his reign at Marseille, which hasn't been particilularly revolutionary on the pitch either.

Tottenham fans will bristle at the idea of De Zerbi coming in to Spurs, though the club may not have more proven options who would be willing to join them. But for Spurs, it appears De Zerbi is their top option. They were linked to him in January, they are linked to him now, and they are even kicking around the idea of letting him leave with a clause if they relegated just to get him in the door now. That speaks volumes to how they view him, and it doesn't sound like they are seriously looking at any other long term options yet.

After producing a monster class against Atletico Madrid at mid week with a brilliant goal from outside the box, a penalty goal that he himself won, five key passes, and four dribbles completed, Xavi Simons inexplicably found himself on the sidelines when Tottenham Hotspur took on Morgan Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest in a crucial relegation six pointer.

And almost on cue, Tottenham were decimated 3-0, with the player Spurs tried to sign before they landed Simons, MGW, grabbing a goal. Now, Simons did come into the game in the second half and slightly boosted the team's ball progression, but, by then, the damage had already been done and Spurs were doomed to lose.

Now, Tottenham manager Igor Tudor had benched Simons before in Premier League encounters, and the decision to do so was not an issue since Spurs were playing poorly with the Dutchman and he was struggling to make an impact in all phases.

Xavi Simons didn't even start vs. Nottingham Forest

But against Atletico Madrid, everything seemed to click for Simons and Spurs. He was unstoppable in all respects, gliding past the opposition, setting up great chances, and providing that something special as a scorer. You know, all the reasons why Spurs spent about 60 million euros to sign the Bundesliga superstar from RB Leipzig.

You would have thought that Tudor would have given Simons another chance to show what he has in a must win game against Nottingham Forest, especially since he is Spurs best player and the one most likely to make a difference in the final score.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters never got to see that, and all anyone can ask is why. Why did Tudor ruin a good thing, second guess himself, and leave Simons on the bench when he and the team had played so well against one of the top teams in European football just days ago? And does he regret the decision after watching how badly Spurs got dog walked by Nottingham Forest in their own house without Simons starting? Is it just that Tudor has that little confidence in Simons's ability to play in actual Premier League games?

There are very, very few Tottenham Hotspur players who come out of this 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League relegation battle with any credibility intact, but by far the most disappointing performance of the afternoon has to go to starting striker Dominic Solanke, who inexplicably did not get hooked off for a full 90 minutes of disastrous football.

Tottenham could not muster anything against Forest, and while Solanke eventually got a couple of shots off and moved the ball about, it was too little and too late. Despite Spurs building the attack around the No. 9, the man who looked like the team's star up top not but a few weeks ago was suddenly nowhere to be found.

Spurs are starting to realize that when they need him most, their bloated 65 million pound signing is nowhere to be found. Even at the time, Tottenham fans should have been skeptical about a journeyman striker from Bournemouth living up to the task of being the club's most expensive signing of all time, and while he was a bit flat in his first season at the N17, he did play a key role in winning the Europa League.

Dominic Solanke was woeful against Nottingham Forest

Again, this season, he had his moments, too, dominating Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. Now, though, Solanke is back to being bad, and Spurs fans have to wonder if a purple patch for a few weeks was any indication of his quality or if this is simply where his quality truly lies - as a Yo Yo player who oscillates between a passable Premier League striker and an outright disaster.

In a must win matchup against Nottingham Forest with a large part of Tottenham's very future hanging in the balance, Dominic Solanke may have shown his true colors by playing as poorly as he did. Solanke was not without chances, opportunity, or even help from young gem Mathys Tel, and though he was chosen to continue over Richarlison, he let his coach Igor Tudor and his fans down.

The harsh truth on Solanke is that he's not good enough. No matter how you dress it or when he goes on a hot streak, Solanke cannot consistently deliver the goods for Spurs. He is well rounded without being skilled enough to truly elevate the team. And we all know he does not have it in his locker to be a consistent 20 goal striker.

Nottingham Forest humiliated Tottenham Hotspur on their own turf, swinging the relegation battle in the Premier League by a full six points while adding a level of emotional damage that has Spurs fans wondering now more than ever if they are 100 percent doomed for the drop.

Spurs were decimated in so many ways, but watching the Nottingham Forest midfield trio of Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson, and Ibrahim Sangare, it really sunk in just how far behind the Spurs midifeld trio is.

Archie Gray had another positive game for Tottenham, but even his star was blighted somewhat by the three men on the other side of the ball. Meanwhile, Pape Matar Sarr was poor, as was Lucas Bergvall and the rest of the midfielders who came into the game.

Nottingham Forest's midfield owned Tottenham's

Tottenham have had issues with their midfield all season long. Beyond Gray these last few weeks, nobody has truly impressed. Sarr has his moments but is mediocre overall. Bergvall's been held back by injuries. Xavi Simons goes from world beater to ghost at the drop of a hat. Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur are bang average. Conor Gallagher and Yves Bissouma are not even worth rostering.

Meanwhile, the Nottingham Forest trio complements each other so well. Gibbs-White and Anderson were both creating real chances for their team, with Gibbs-White bagging a goal and the highly in demand Anderson leading the team with three key passes and six tackles. Even Sangre was passing the ball around better than any of the Spurs midfielders while playing more solid defense for Forest with four tackles.

Tottenham just do not measure up defensively. There is a lot of headless chicken play on that end of the pitch, running for the sake of running with cavernous gaps in transition that lead to clear cut chances every time the opposition, including Forest in this game, are on the break. There is an illusion of control on the ball but no real creativity of progression in their play, aside from Gray.

There is talent in the Spurs ranks among Simons, Bergvall, and Gray. But it does not come around every game, which is a huge problem. And when you watch Anderson dominate in all phases while the Spurs midfielders only do so in a few, the problem is magnified. Forest and Spurs are both in the relegation fight, but Forest were levels above on the road in large part because their midfield is simply better.

Tottenham Hotspur were embarrassed in front of their home fans on Sunday afternoon, torn apart 3-0 by a Nottingham Forest side that has a fraction of the notoriety of the majority of the Spurs squad. After receiving a raucous reception from the crowd before the game, Spurs went out and turned in a dud of a performance for the ages, and serious questions are being asked of captain Cristian Romero.

The star center back has been fairly mediocre this season. One year removed from being the best player in the Europa League, Romero did have a quality stretch of games at the beginning of the season, but, lately, he has devolved into a liability alongside Micky van de Ven.

With the season on the line in a relegation six pointer, Romero was underwhelming, and he was culpable on the second goal Tottenham Hotspur allowed with an inexcusable error in both positioning and effort.

Cristian Romero flopped vs. Nottingham Forest

Romero has been caught napping too often of late, but beyond the struggles on the pitch, Tottenham fans are no longer convinced in Romero's leadership. Rash challenge a few weeks ago aside, he is publicly making statements that do not make any sort of sense.

As the Tottenham offiical account captures, before and after this game against Nottingham Forest, Cristian Romero kept on imploring the fans to "stay together". And in a press conference after the game, when tense questions started to be asked, he simply stormed off.

Romero does a great job of calling out the board, and Tottenham fans do love that. They took his side when he lashed out against them and were glad not to see him punished. However, it is frustrating to see Romero have all the time in the world to call out others but to have no accountability for himself and to be among those who instead try to stick to the fans witih this veiled "stick together" dialogue.

Having seen the scenes of the Spurs faithful before the game, it is impossible to ever accuse a fan base that has, quite frankly, been extorted by poor club leadership, ambivalence in the transfer window, and exorbitant ticket prices of not caring.