Tottenham Hotspur have seen their 2020/21 season go off the rails in a hurry, and this has led to manager Jose Mourinho speaking of “frustation” and “sadness” in his team on multiple ocassions this term.
Mourinho has been pretty open about all this, and his latest commentary, in which he gave a public vote of confidence to himself and his coaching staff, makes it pretty clear he knows that his squad is in crisis. He’s reportedly running out of time, as every additional loss makes the heat warmer and a potential replacement is already being lined up.
According to the Daily Telegraph that leading contender is RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann, whose career is on the upswing, and has seen his name linked to Chelsea earlier this term.
He’s only 33 and somewhat unproven, but the young up-and-comer has impressed with two Bundesliga sides and he’ll move to a big club before too long. He’s built up Hoffenheim and Leipzig, and he’s made clear that he has designs on coaching in England someday.
If Nagelsmann gets the gig, he would become the third German manager in England’s big six (Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea).
Spurs got off to a great start this season, whethering the September scheduling storm to temporarily go top. However, they have long fallen out of league title contention, and at this point, they may even be out of the top four race.
Still alive in the Europa League round of 32 and having advanced to the EFL Cup final, set for April, all is not totally lost this campaign, but having to settle for top six in the table (which is far from assured at this point), is definitely not what is expected of a Mourinho side and certainly not what Daniel Levy is paying him for.
Overall, it’s a pretty big mess and there are certainly no easy answers, so it appears that the Mourinho experiment at North London has failed. Hired only in midseason last year, his first full season has now seen the side lose five of their last six in the league and fall to ninth in the table, nine points off the pace for the top four.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.