When the opportunity arose and the paperwork was signed, Daniel Levy must have felt he was seizing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lock Tottenham in a cycle of success and become anointed as one of Europe’s super-clubs.
But, suckered in by the association with the glamour of the top table, Levy was blind to how the fans would react to abandoning the club’s principles. Everyone else saw through the hubris of assuming Spurs can take a shortcut to the top.
Appointing Jose Mourinho in November 2019 was a pretty good indicator, then, of how Levy would respond to a Super League invitation 18 months later.
The theory went that Mourinho’s reputation would catapult Spurs into the same bracket as Chelsea or Manchester United; would create bolt-on success following the gradual cultivation under Mauricio Pochettino. But instead, like the Super League proposal, it spoke to the impatience and entitlement of Tottenham’s chairman.
The lesson from both events must be one of humility. Climbing towards the summit of the Premier League table – and staying there – requires constant vigilance, hard work, and financial support.
That doesn’t just mean backing the manager in the transfer market but recognising that unless you’re bankrolled by Big Oil you must always be discovering talent; nurturing up-and-comers; finding the next Mauricio Pochettino before you lose him, not pivoting wildly once he is gone.
Tottenham’s status in a ‘Big Six’ was always a temporary overachievement owed to the genius of Pochettino and, by lurching to Mourinho, Levy completely misunderstood the delicacy of their fleeting time mixing it with the elite. The failed Mourinho experiment has left Tottenham at an anxious crossroads.
As Everton press ahead with their plans for a new stadium, as broadcasting money continues to eclipse match day revenue, and as Tottenham’s Champions League rivals rebuild at an alarming rate, Spurs are finding out they are remarkably close in reputation, assets, and potential to a number of the Premier League’s middle class.
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Get this next appointment wrong and within a couple of years Spurs could be the same size and power as Everton, West Ham, and Aston Villa.
With that in mind, holding onto Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son is the main priority of the summer because without these two there is little to distinguish the squad from a number of clubs fighting for Europa League qualification.
But beyond that, Levy needs to take a step back and think about what it was that made Pochettino such a successful appointment. He must find a manager with serious tactical nous and who is hungry to seize the opportunity to ensure this Tottenham side are stronger than the sum of their parts.
That hasn’t been true for several years now. His early overtures towards Julian Nagelsmann, Erik ten Hag, Brendan Rodgers and Hansi Flick certainly suggest Levy recognises the need to return to the aesthetic of the Pochettino era, but the apparent rejection Spurs have faced from all of these candidates reinforces the sense Levy sees Spurs as a bigger club than they currently are.
One thing that’s for certain is Levy should avoid the romantic option of giving Ryan Mason the job on a permanent basis, and while the interim manager is not currently on the radar, that may change if Spurs beat Aston Villa and Leicester City in their final two matches.
A recent tendency across Europe to offer posts to fan favourites has not gone well, and one would certainly hope Levy looks at Andrea Pirlo’s debut season at Juventus and thinks twice about promoting from within.
Mason is implementing Pochettino-like tactics but Spurs need someone with serious coaching experience to create the complex, highly-structured movements that defined that era.
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Simone Inzaghi is the current favourite and there is some evidence to suggest the Lazio manager’s tendency towards sharp vertical attacking football and high positional rotation would align with the Pochettino blueprint.
But Inzaghi is relatively inexperienced and his time at Lazio has not been on a straightforward upward trajectory. He is something of an unknown entity.
A better choice would be Graham Potter, a manager whose stock isn’t particularly high following an underwhelming season at Brighton but who ticks all of the boxes.
Brighton’s infamous xG under-performance speaks to the excellent tactical setup that supports their misfiring strikers, and leaves one wondering what Potter could achieve with someone like Kane on the end of those free-flowing moves.
The detail in Brighton’s possession football is compelling, aligning neatly with how Southampton looked when Pochettino was in charge, but it remains to be seen if Levy is prepared to take a gamble on a manager whose tangible achievements could hardly be further from Mourinho’s glittering trophy cabinet.
And yet Potter is the unpretentious and hard-working tactician Tottenham need to return to the methodology of the Pochettino years, a time when excitement built organically and when Tottenham appreciated success is not something that can simply be bought.
As then, Spurs need to think like Leicester City and find talent on the way up, not assume they are Manchester United and can stick expensive parts together into a coherent whole.
Hiring Potter would be the perfect way for Levy to show he has learnt the harsh lesson and is ready to be humble again.
