Tottenham Hotspur are close to appointing Nuno Espirito Santo as their new manager, multiple sources are reporting. Alasdair Gold of football.london reports that the former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss could be announced by Spurs by the end of the week.
Tottenham Set to Appoint Nuno Espirito Santo as New Manager
Paratici Gets His Man
Spurs’ new director of football, Fabio Paratici, has been keen to land Espirito Santo since his arrival at the club. As well, he wanted to bring the Portuguese to Juventus as a replacement for Andrea Pirlo when he still held his role at the Italian club.
After a long-running managerial saga which has seen multiple other options turn down the role at Spurs, Paratici and Daniel Levy stepped up their efforts to hire Espirito Santo rather than wait until the conclusion of Euro 2020, when some of the managers there could have been available.
Roberto Martinez and Roberto Mancini, who have led Belgium and Italy respectively into the quarter-finals of the tournament, are both “admired” by Spurs, though the former has perhaps been the one more heavily linked with the job.
Espirito Santo, too, has been linked with moves elsewhere. Crystal Palace were close to appointing the 47-year-old before that deal collapsed. They now look set to hire Patrick Vieira instead.
As well, Everton were linked with a move for the former Wolves boss, but that deal did not materialise either and they have now appointed former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.
Gold’s article for football.london reports that Paratici has managed to convince Levy about bringing in Espirito Santo after showing him the entertaining styles he played while in charge of Valencia, often in a different formation to the 4-3-3 he regularly deployed at Wolves.
It also states that he could be appointed this week with a view to starting his role next Monday when the Spurs players who are not on international duty return to the club for pre-season training.
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