Tottenham grasping at straws in hapless pursuit of new manager

Another manager has rejected Tottenham’s advances, this time with Sevilla boss Julen Lopetegui turning down a “dizzying” offer to take the helm in north London. 

Tottenham have plunged into deeper, more isolating water as their pursuit of a manager enters its third month. Just two weeks away from pre-season training and Spurs are seemingly even further away from hiring a new gaffer than at any time since Jose Mourinho’s April 19 dismissal.

The chaotic scenario transitioned from frustrating to farcical, and has since manifested into a world of bizarrely inept. It now feels like Daniel Levy and Fabio Paratici are knocking on random doors, hoping they fortuitously stumble upon somebody willing to listen to their haphazard pitch.

Some names, like Julen Lopetegui, go under the radar and aren’t published until the postmortem, after the candidate refuses to entertain the idea of coaching Tottenham.

Levy, by first firing Mourinho without a backup plan, has created this out-of-control maelstrom, which continually escalates with every passing week. Levy has built an unattractive proposition for any prospective manager, and we are now witnessing the fruits of his nefarious labour.

Elite managers won’t touch Tottenham with a 10-foot barge-pole. That has less to do with Tottenham’s exclusion from the coming season’s Champions League than it does Levy’s affiliation with the club.

While his micromanaging tendencies started long before Mauricio Pochettino took charge of Tottenham, that unbecoming aura has magnified significantly in recent years. Managers, above all else, desire autonomy, decision-making power and the influence to sail their own ship how they see fit.

Everyone knows that is not what is on offer at Tottenham Hotspur. Levy did his utmost in hiring Paratici to be perceived as someone who can change, someone who is at least attempting to relinquish control.

Even if his desire to empower Paratici to run on-field matters is genuine, it feels like the sun has already set on what has been a shambolic 18 months for the chairman. In any other job or profession, his egregious mishandling of club affairs would have led to certain dismissal.

But here we are, suffering alongside a chairman who has clearly lost his way. As he continuously stumbles in the dark hoping, devoid of any viable strategy, to find a needle in a haystack, supporters are forced to tensely watch the horrors that have and will continually ensue.