Are Tottenham Hotspur back to square one in their hunt for a new manager

Welcome back, you're watching Back Pages tonight. Welcome back to Jonathan Lee from The Guardian and Riyadh Al Samurai from The Daily Mail. Let's talk Spurs, shall we gents? And let's go to The Times, who say that they are back to square one. Obviously, Arnaud Slott signed to stay at Feyenoord despite a big interest from Spurs who were determined to sign him. Are they back to square one? Have they taken a few steps forward only to take those same steps back, Riyadh? Yeah, it's quite an amazing situation really. I think you go all the way back to last summer and Spurs knew what Conte's situation was. He was going to be out of the contract this summer. And we got to the turn of this year when Conte was off recovering from his surgery and that he wasn't going to be signing a new contract. So it's even beyond this kind of 60-day period that we're now at. But they can see this sort of scenario unfolding in front of them. They've not been able to do anything. And we're on to now, what, the fourth, fifth choice, people turning them down. I've seen this sort of mention of Nuno and that situation. It's quite an amusing sort of countdown. It took 72 days before they finally settled on Nuno, which is why consensus is a bit of a disaster. We seem to be in this same situation again. And it all plays to this idea of a kind of chaos behind the scenes. And what are Spurs? What are they going to do next? Where are they going to turn to? We've seen a few more names come into the hat today. They are talking to Luis Enrique in there as a suggestion. Brian Potter, for my money, still feels like a really good choice and probably was from the start. But when Spurs kind of come around to this and they're sort of waking up to statements saying, I'm not interested in going there, it's not in any way conveying any confidence, really, in how Daniel Levy is orchestrating this particular manager search. Yeah, well, let's have a look at the inside of the Daily Telegraph for just a little bit more info on this and the context that you were alluding to there, Riyadh. And in Jason Burt's piece, I mean, he goes quite heavy on him. And in fact, he says, it goes back to the chairman again. Levy has done some great things, but has lost his way on the football side of the business. They need not just a new coach, but a complete cultural reboot. They need to find themselves again. What are your thoughts, Jonathan? Well, Levy is the common factor in all this. And I think all of, I mean, not all, but the majority of the bad decisions that Spurs have made over the last four years comes from a really wide gulf between the club they think they are and the club they actually are. This is why, I mean, it is no coincidence that managers keep turning them down or joining them and then finding the club sort of somehow beneath them. This all comes from, I guess, you know, Levy's idea that Tottenham are one of the super clubs and that they need to project themselves, you know, almost kind of exaggerate their presence to, you know, bigger than what it actually is. And that is not how you build a holistic environment. It's not how you build a winning culture. It's a kind of puffery, you know? It's not trying to puff yourself up and like, no, no, guys, we really are a big club. Look, we've got Conte. Look, we've got Mourinho. Look, we're going for Nagelsmann. And once you start getting turned down by all these guys, you know, it's a moment for a bit of a reality check. You are not as big a club as you think you are. And maybe that's not a bad realisation to come to. Tottenham need to start thinking like a start-up club again. Jonathan, you mentioned Jose Mourinho. Well, in the Metro, I suppose the last thing that Spurs need, they're sort of on the canvas, they're struggling to get back up to their feet, and then Jose and Swipe at Spurs, the only club I've managed who I don't have a deep feeling for is Tottenham. I mean, that's just another kick in the teeth, isn't it, Riyadh? When they probably needed something going their way, the last thing you want is Jose Mourinho turning up and having a swipe. I think when you read his comments, I actually, I do have some sympathy for him. You know, he's talking about overseeing the club when the stadium was empty because of COVID. So you can go along with that. And then obviously what's really the factor here is that he lost the job there, sort of whatever it was, a week or two before the Capital One Cup final and sort of against Man City and Ryan Mason was in charge. I think that's very clearly the one that's gnawing away at him. I think most people would possibly side with him on that when we go through Daniel Levy's list of sort of interesting decisions. If we're to be polite about it, that was an extremely interesting decision to put Ryan Mason in charge up against Pep Guardiola for a Cup final. So, you know, I think that was very clearly what's driving Mourinho there.