Looking at the Tottenham Hotspur coaching staff led by Ryan Mason

After sacking Jose Mourinho on Monday, Tottenham Hotspur noted that former player Ryan Mason would take over the first team for their training session. On Tuesday, Ryan Mason was promoted from Head of Player Development to interim head coach for the Spurs. Mason’s first staff includes a few other former players and one hold-over from the Jose Mourinho era. Let’s take a quick look at the new Tottenham coaching staff.

Ryan Mason – Tottenham Interim Head Coach

Only the youngest and newest of Tottenham fans will be unfamiliar with Ryan Mason.  Mason joined Tottenham in 2008 the same year as Harry Kane. And like Kane, Ryan Mason was one of several academy products brought into the Tottenham Hotspur first team during the Mauricio Pochettino era.

Mason made his debut in 2014 after an impressive pre-season and worked his way into the Tottenham rotation, making bigger names like Paulino redundant. Ryan Mason actually started in the midfield in Tottenham’s last League Cup final, when Spurs lost 2-0 to Chelsea in 2015. Ryan Mason did not star at Spurs long and despite a long-term contract was moved on to Hull City in August 2016.

A horrific head injury left, clashing skulls with Gary Cahill, left Mason with a fractured skull and early retirement.  Officially retiring from professional football in February 2018, Mason was back at Tottenham by April and started working with the youth teams. By August 2020 Mason as Head of Player Development and on the fast track to being a coach.

Despite a complete lack of head coaching experience at the senior level, the fact Mason bleed Tottenham white and blue puts many a fan at ease. While it likely would take an extraordinary run for Mason to get the gig permanently, he has vowed to bring back exciting football.

Fortunately, Mason is not the only former Tottenham player on the staff

Ledley King was the lone holdover from the Jose Mourinho regime and former goalkeeper and recent retiree, Michel Vorm has also joined the staff. King was already at Tottenham when Mourinho arrived as a former defensive great and long-time club ambassador. Having King added to and as a part of Mourinho’s staff was one of the things that made the group passable for some fans.

Besides King, Michel Vorm returns only months after retiring from the team. Vorm was well-liked when he was at N17 as evidenced by the going away celebration he shared with Jan Vertoghen. No offensive to Vorm, but Vertoghen is a club legend but such was the love and appreciation for Vorm in the team. The former Dutch international spent nine seasons in the Premier League, six with Spurs.

King is of course a true legend of the club and frankly the sport, spending his entire 14-year career at Tottenham Hotspur. Injuries of course derailed his overall availability but hardly ever affected his ability on the pitch. Having three former players all from different periods, including two from the Mauricio Pochettino era should help engender some missing comradery in the team.

Powell and Gibbs bring the experience to the staff

The other two members of the staff are also both former players but both have been coaching a bit longer than the rest of the group. Chris Powell retired from playing in 2010 and almost immediately began coaching as the caretaker manager of Leicester City. In the decade since, Powell has held the reigns at four different clubs, including Huddersfield Town and Southend United among others.

Most recently Powell was an assistant to Alan Pardew in the Netherlands before joining up with the Tottenham Hotspur Academy in August 2020.

Nigel Gibbs had a long career as a defender appearing more nearly 500 times for Watford from 1983-2002. Gibbs has been in the coaching world in some fashion since 2005. Among several previous stops, is a stint with the Tottenham Hotspur U-19 team in 2016-17, as least exposing him to several of the now current staff.

We wish Mason and his entire staff luck over the coming weeks as Tottenham seeks to return to the glory we all want to see.