The worst-kept secret in football is out and Antonio Conte’s departure from Tottenham is now a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.
The club is already succession planning, and Fabio Paratici has begun drawing up a shortlist of possible candidates, thought to be topped by former Spain boss Luis Enrique.
Daniel Levy will have the final say on whether Conte remains in the job until his contract is up in June or leaves sooner, which really boils down to whether the chairman believes he is still the best man to lead Spurs to another fourth-placed finish and salvage something from the season.
There has been little in recent weeks to suggest Conte’s side are capable of maintaining their loose grip on fourth, although they have a favourable run-in, starting against Forest on Saturday, and one game a week for the remainder of the campaign. Liverpool still have to play four of the ‘big six’, including Spurs.
There is incentive for Levy to be decisive rather than appoint an interim boss (which would almost certainly be Ryan Mason) until the end of the season, when there will be increased competition for available elite coaches, possibly from Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus.
Another headache for Levy is over Paratici’s involvement in the process, given the managing director’s own uncertain future at the club and in the game. If Paratici loses his appeal, due to be heard in the next four weeks, against a 30-month ban from Italian football, the sanction will likely be extended to the whole of Europe, while a second court case, relating to missing wage payments to Juventus players while Paratici was a director at the club, is pending.
Paratici is a popular and respected figure at Spurs, who has already made his mark in the transfer market, but it would surely be a risk for Levy to trust him entirely to pick Conte’s successor, so the chairman is likely to have thoughts of his own.
This is where Mauricio Pochettino comes in. The Argentine is not thought to feature prominently in Paratici’s thinking (there is a feeling that the club might only be big enough for the one of them), but Pochettino and Levy have remained on good terms since the former’s sacking in 2019.
Re-hiring Pochettino would come with risks, but is clearly the fans’ choice and would be the most popular move the under-fire chairman could make.
Other names being mentioned include former Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Oliver Glasner, Celtic manager Agne Postecoglou, Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi and Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti.
In narrowing the field, Levy and Paratici will be mindful of another impending problem coming down the tracks: the future of Harry Kane, who has put off contract talks until the end of the season. If Spurs are to convince their all-time record scorer that his future is still with his boyhood club, the right manager is crucial. At the heart of all these considerations is the question of what kind of club Spurs are or want to be.
Since Pochettino’s departure, Spurs have lost their way, twice failing with big-name, ‘win now’ coaches in Conte and Jose Mourinho, who both count Spurs as the only club where they have failed to win silverware, and hiring three consecutive managers who play negative football.
Paratici and Levy made a mess of their last major manager search.
A desire to return to the push-and-run ‘DNA’ referenced by Levy in 2021 will be a major factor in the club’s choice, but do Spurs persist with hiring bosses with global reputations or go for a less-celebrated project coach in search of the next Pochettino?
Given all the elements in play, the timing of Conte’s exit and identity of his replacement are huge decisions that will obviously shape Spurs’s chances of competing in the short and long term.
Paratici and Levy made a mess of their last major manager search, overlooking Erik ten Hag and ending up with Nuno Espirito Santo. This time around, the stakes are even higher.
