Nuno Espírito Santo Ends Tottenham’s Long Hunt for New Manager

Daniel Levy was initially concerned about appointing Nuno, having some reservations over his counter attacking style of play and how it may be similar to Jose Mourinho. However, Nuno has shown a willingness to develop younger players and the aforementioned Paratici was able to convince Levy by showing him the way his Valencia side played- more often than not a positive 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 as opposed to the counter attacking back five he became renowned for at Molineux.

Some of Nuno’s greatest achievements- other than warming the bench in his predecessor Jose Mourinho’s Champions League winning Porto team- include guiding Rio Ave to two cup finals, securing Champions League football for Valencia, promotion back to the Premier League with Wolves, followed by two successive seventh placed finishes and a quarter final appearance in the Europa League.

What has been said?

First of all, I’d like to welcome Nuno to the Club. We should like to thank our supporters for all their patience throughout this process. I’ve spoken already about the need to revert back to our core DNA of playing attacking, entertaining football and Fabio and I believe Nuno is the man who can take our talented group of players, embrace our young players coming through and build something special.

Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy via the Official Spurs Website

The brief for this appointment has always been clear, we wanted a Head Coach that can instil all the values that are important to this Football Club. You only have to look at Nuno’s time at Wolves to see his ability to take a group of players and implement an adaptive style that brings success and allows players to develop and thrive. We are all looking forward to getting started in what we hope will be a successful time with the Club.

New Tottenham Managing Director Fabio Paratici via the Official Spurs Website

When you have a squad with quality and talent, we want to make the fans proud and enjoy. It’s an enormous pleasure and honour (to be here), there’s joy and I’m happy and looking forward to starting work. We don’t have any days to lose and we must start working immediately as pre-season starts in a few days.

New Tottenham Head Coach Nuno Espírito Santo via the Official Spurs Website

Interestingly, Daniel Levy- who has been known to have too much say in the past- has evidently entrusted his new transfer guru for what is a massive appointment for Tottenham Hotspur, and Paratici will no doubt be chuffed as it appears he has won the first battle between the two.

Verdict

In my opinion, whilst Nuno may not get fans off their seats like previous candidates such as serial winner Antonio Conte or the potential romantic return of former manager Mauricio Pochettino, the Portuguese native will turn out to be an excellent appointment.

His man management is known to be one of his greatest assets and all his former players speak very highly of him. As well as this, he has proven with his previous club Wolves that his teams are capable of mixing it with the big boys with wins over all of the traditional big six during his reign.

The two year contract indicates that perhaps it is a stop gap, maybe for Pochettino or someone else who is currently unattainable (in our dreams, this would be Julian Nagelsmann). But it is worth remembering that Tottenham’s three most successful managers of this century- Martin Jol, Harry Redknapp and, of course, Poch- were all second choice.

So, Spurs fans, are you happy with this appointment, underwhelmed, or just pleased to see someone in the hot seat? Comment and let us know below!

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