In that time Spurs have moved from seventh in the Premier League to eighth. Nuno Espírito Santo after his final match as Tottenham manager, the defeat by Manchester United. Spurs have fired José Mourinho less than a week before a cup final, tried and failed to kickstart a super league, successfully demotivated Harry Kane, hired a fancy director of football, appointed the last man on the long list, sacked the last man on the long list and enacted a dramatic pursuit of the most high-profile unemployed manager in world football. Both will speak to whatever it is Conte can expect to achieve in this job.įirst, what is a Tottenham manager for? This is a club defined too often by the appearance of progress, by light, noise and drama that exist in their own space, unrelated to any obvious substance.Ĭonsider, for example, the past seven months. Instead, as the club turns its sights towards next things and the electrifying prospect of Antonio Conte, there are only two points worth taking from the Nuno Espírito Santo interlude. But what did Spurs expect from a manager who plateaued out at Wolverhampton, who lost 17 league games last season, whose football is about control and caution and who they didn’t really want in the first place?
