After what has seemed like weeks of speculation surrounding Paulo Fonseca as the next Tottenham manager, news out of Italy says the deal is off.
It seemed like a done deal yesterday. Tottenham had their new director of football and now the coach was next. All that was left was for the club to plan the unveiling and have Fonseca fly to London and wham, bang, Tottenham Hotspur finally would have a new coach. However, on the way to anoint Fonseca something has happened – apparently again involving money – and now Fonseca is out of the frame for Tottenham and the club is starting over in their manager search.
Twitter running Tottenham manager search?
It would seem that at this point it is Twitter as much as anyone running the Tottenham manager search. Spurs have now missed out on their top candidates and seemingly now have missed out on their back-up as well.
Incredible Tottenham again. There are huge fiscal problems to complete the appointment of Fonseca as new manager despite verbal agreement completed and contract set to be signed, as reported on @SkySport @DiMarzio. ⚪️🚨 #THFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 17, 2021
That’s why Fonseca has NOT signed yet with Spurs. ❌
Fabrizio Romano was saying there huge fiscal problems to completing the appointment. What those problems are were unclear from the Romano Tweet, but Gianluca Di Marzio did Romano one better.
Salta #Fonseca al @SpursOfficial per motivi fiscali, contatti avviati #Tottenham #Gattuso per trovare intesa @SkySport
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) June 17, 2021
If you try to translate Italian, basically it says it was fiscally motivated, but the motivation was related to taxes. What exactly that means is anyone’s guess. However, if we have learned anything about taxes in Ukraine this season it is that you do not play with Ukrainian tax money, ask Dinamo Zagreb.
Where does Tottenham go from here?
Now that Spurs are back at square one in their coaching obstacle course, we will again hear some of the same names recycled about in terms of Graham Potter, Scott Parker, and of course Roberto Martinez. The other thing we will now be again subject to is agents trying to get their clients a post.
Rumors are Jorge Mendes, yes Jose Mourinho’s Jorge Mendes, is back in the ears of the Tottenham brass pushing for his client Gennaro Gattuso.
Tottenham are NOT intentioned to cover the economic difference on fiscal side with Fonseca - he was set to sign after contract verbally agreed, it was done... but talks have now broken down. ❌⚪️ #THFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 17, 2021
Tottenham search now restarted. Jorge Mendes will try with Gattuso. @SkySport
Gattuso was recently handed, like less than a month ago, the reigns at Fiorentina but lasted only three weeks. Apparently, disagreements between Gattuso, Mendes, and the Fiorentina leadership over players led to the divorce after just 22 days.
So now we are supposed to believe that a coach who could not agree over players at Fiorentina is now going to agree with Spurs admin and work in north London. Seems quite unlikely.
All this continues to be a real strain on the club. As other teams are working to prepare for preseason and sign players, Tottenham is stuck in neutral hoping to catch lightning in the bottle.
Who ultimately is the next Tottenham manager is anyone’s guess as the club seems to be back at square 1.