Nuno Espirito Santo has been sacked by Tottenham after just four months in charge. Tottenham’s depressing loss to Manchester United on Saturday proved a fatal blow to Nuno’s hopes of staying in charge.
Prior to Saturday’s feeble performance, Sportsmail understands that removing Nuno from his position as head coach had not been formally discussed by chairman Daniel Levy and other key figures, despite the club’s mediocre start to the campaign. But now the axe has fallen and Tottenham are returning to Antonio Conte. They approached him on Sunday night after failing to persuade him to take over in the summer.
Fabio Paratici, Tottenham’s managing director, said: ‘I know how much Nuno and his coaching staff wanted to succeed and I regret that we have had to take this decision. ‘Nuno is a true gentleman and will always be welcome here. We should like to thank him and his coaching staff and wish them well for the future.’
Santo departs alongside his coaching staff Ian Cathro, Rui Barbosa and Antonio Dias. However, the team’s underperformance has been a concern among the club’s hierarchy for several weeks. And the manner of Saturday’s loss to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team and the alarming crowd reaction to it has now forced the club into drastic action.
Levy and the club’s hierarchy, including director of football Fabio Paratici, held emergency talks to discuss Nuno’s future on Sunday and decided to wield the axe. There was a sense that sacking Nuno was a direct reaction to the deafening boos that echoed round the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night, with particular vitriol aimed at the board.
The club began preparing for Nuno to remain in charge for at least the game against Vitesse Arnhem on Thursday night. But it quickly transpired that Nuno was on borrowed time as news of crisis talks filtered through the club.
The Portuguese boss’s pragmatic approach has infuriated large sections of the Spurs fanbase, who didn’t want Nuno appointed as Jose Mourinho’s replacement.
The former Wolves boss was way down the list of potential candidates to land the Spurs job after the club failed to land a host of coaches including Julian Naglesmann, Brendan Rodgers, Erik ten Hag, Mauricio Pochettino, Conte, Paulo Fonseca and Rino Gattuso.
Tottenham will now turn their attentions to identifying a replacement for Nuno, with Porto boss Sergio Conceicao said to have admirers at Spurs. Ryan Mason could come in for a second stint as caretaker boss after stepping into the breach when Mourinho was sacked last season. After Vitesse on Thursday, Tottenham return to Premier League action against Rafa Benitez’s Everton on Sunday.
