Feyenoord manager Arne Slot has confirmed he will be staying at the Dutch club amid strong links to become Tottenham's next head coach.
The 44-year-old has been quoted in AD saying: “I have been hearing a lot of rumours going around about other clubs' interest in me. Although I am thankful, my wish is to stay at Feyenoord and continue working on what we created last year.
“There is not - and there has not been - transfer conversation and yesterday’s meeting was exclusively for an extension. All talks with the club have always been only in that sense. I'm looking forward to next season with Feyenoord.”
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Slot was the firm frontrunner for the vacancy in north London, but chairman Daniel Levy now looks as though he will need to reassess his managerial short list. Appointing a new director of football is still required and that is likely to be Levy's main issue to solve for the immediate future.
With Slot now joining Julian Nagelsmann in being out of the frame for the job, attention turns to other candidates. Vincent Kompany, Xabi Alonso and Luis Enrique are all on that list, however the first two names have already committed their futures to the current clubs in Burnley and Bayer Leverkusen, respectively.
Two main targets distancing themselves the role presents a worrying precedent for Spurs. In 2021, a similar thing took place and Spurs ended up appointing Nuno Espirito Santo close to the start of the 2021/22 season, despite him not even being among the top 10 targets the club had and he was sacked just a few months into his reign.
The importance of the next managerial decision cannot be understated and with another top target seemingly ruling himself out of contention, Levy's search has not got off to the best of starts.
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