Spurs could hire “the best young coach in Europe”

Roberto De Zerbi is already under pressure at Tottenham Hotspur, and it’s clear to see that the Italian coach has so many issues in front of him, all begging to be ironed out.

Are Tottenham in trouble? Real, genuine trouble? The focus at the start of the season was on establishing fluency and form that might carry Spurs back into European contention.

REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Now, with the first international break having fallen on N17, the fight has to centre around escaping from the bottom of the Premier League.

20th after five games, it would be remiss not to question De Zerbi’s safety in the hot seat.

Why De Zerbi could be fired at Spurs

This summer, Tottenham spent more than £350m on new players. The effort was admirable, though it’s becoming rather clear that Johan Lange and De Zerbi and co employed the scattergun strategy fans were so desperate to avoid.

The likes of Omar Marmoush and Sandro Tonali and Savio and Mateus Fernandes all haven’t bedded in. Moreover, Dominic Solanke is misfiring up front and the new-look defence has yet to gel.

More concerning, perhaps, is the lack of fight and conviction down N17. Where is the togetherness? Why do Spurs continually fail to hit the right notes? It feels like so much uncertainty abounds at the club, that the players aren’t quite sure of themselves.

If Tottenham continue to labour to draws and defeats when the football picks back up again in October, there’s no question that a mutinous atmosphere will deepen, and that the decision-makers will be forced into making yet another managerial switch.

After the disasters that were Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, it should go without saying that the Londoners cannot afford to make another poor appointment.

Spurs could replace De Zerbi with their own Arteta

De Zerbi has never been known for his longevity as a manager. That said, for him to be sacked in the coming weeks or months would be beneath even his short shelf life.

REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

What Tottenham need is a project manager. Someone to get behind and spearhead a years-long fight for stability and success at the top-end of the Premier League. In the Champions League too. They need someone like Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, and though the Spaniard is unattainable, Spurs could land their own version in Julian Nagelsmann.

Tottenham explored a move to hire the former Bayern Munich and Germany boss in 2023, when speculation that a meeting had taken place between the respective parties was squashed, via Sky Sports.

Hailed as the “best young coach in Europe” by reporter Josh Bunting, Nagelsmann is an intelligent and intuitive manager, someone who is deeply rooted in his principles. His relative youth and experience working at top clubs (Arteta served as Pep Guardiola’s understudy at Manchester City before taking the reins at the Emirates) could indeed see him be Spurs’ own version, upgrading on De Zerbi – who is unlikely to be in north London in two or three years.

Nagelsmann is something of a hybrid tactical mind. His football is infused with the intense gegenpressing style that is synonymous with modern German coaching, but he has also expressed that Guardiola is his “role model” back in 2019, and his emphasis on ball-playing is evidence of that.

Perhaps now we see that Spurs could land an Arteta-esque manager, with Arsenal’s leader also drawing a lot from his master at Man City before shaping his own style in London, more industrious and calculated on the ball.

It’s the kind of appointment which could pay off handsomely for both parties. Nagelsmann left his post with the German national team somewhat hot under the collar after being knocked out of the World Cup by Paraguay on penalties.

However, it’s clear that he is an elite manager, and that a project into which he can sink his teeth could finally allow him to rise and establish himself as one of the very best in the business.

Down the road, Arteta has done exactly that.