Tottenham fans have noticed that there was a familiar name missing from the club's official announcement regarding Ange Postecoglou's Spurs coaching staff. Three weeks on from his appointment as Spurs head coach on a four-year contract, the Australian's backroom team has been revealed with pre-season training now just a matter of days away.
Confirming that Chris Davies, who has previously worked alongside Brendan Rodgers at Swansea City, Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester City, and former Premier League player Mile Jedinak will join the club as senior assistant coach and assistant coach respectively, it was also revealed that Ryan Mason and Matt Wells will remain in N17 as assistant coaches. The quartet will be joined in the dugout by Rob Burch, who becomes Tottenham's new first team goalkeeping coach.
Following the club announcement, many supporters have pointed to the absence of Gianni Vio from Postecoglou's backroom team. football.london understands that there is no update from the club at this point on the future of the Italian and whether he will be working with Postecoglou's staff.
Joining Tottenham last summer as set pieces coach from the Italian national team, the 70-year-old, who has designed 4,830 different attacking set-piece scenarios which he adapts to the players at his disposal, made a huge impact in his first season in north London. An area they previously struggled in, Spurs scored a total of 16 goals from set-pieces in the 2022/23 Premier League campaign, with Liverpool the only team to score more than them after netting 17.
Managing eight goals from set-pieces the previous season, Tottenham made huge strides under Vio, including two goals from set-pieces in the first three games of last term as he made an immediate impact. Vio duly came in for plenty of praise from the Tottenham team, with winger Dejan Kulusevski even telling him after the home win over Wolves that he deserves a pay rise.
"I just told him three times that we have to give him more money. He has to get a pay rise for sure! Shout-out to him," said the Swede. "He's very important. He makes a difference, like you can see. At the end of the day, we won on a set piece today so we have to keep working on that. It's not the most fun thing in the world but it gets results.
READ MORE: Tottenham confirm Ange Postecoglou's coaching staff as ex-Premier League player joins
"It helps a lot. Three games, three goals [from set pieces] I think, so we have to keep listening to him and do what he says. I don't remember that we scored so many [from set pieces] last season but it's very important. Now we have to get better. Every time we get a set piece we have to believe we can score."
Working his wonders at Tottenham with the team turning a weakness into a major strength, it's not hard to see why Spurs fans are desperate for Vio to stay as part of the backroom team going forward. All will be hoping he very much remains at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Postecoglou and the Spurs team go on to reap the rewards from his hard work on the training pitch.
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