Antonio Conte Nunu Espirito Bredan Rogers
Nuno Espirito Santo has been sacked as Tottenham manager after just 17 matches in charge, the club announced yesterday.
The news comes after a terrible run of results for Spurs since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, including a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in which they failed to record a shot on target and Nuno was booed by his own fans. In total, Spurs won eight of Nuno’s 17 matches as manager.
Spurs also lost to London rivals Chelsea, Arsenal, Crystal Palace and West Ham United in the Premier League. They topped the Premier League in August after winning their opening three games, but the loss to United was their fifth in the league and they are now 10 points behind leaders Chelsea.
Under Nuno, Spurs scored only nine goals in 10 league games, and the club have the worst goal difference (-7) after bottom clubs Norwich City and Newcastle. Nuno also struggled to get the best out of England striker Harry Kane, who had failed to negotiate a move away from the club during the close season. Kane, last season’s winner of the Golden Boot with 23 goals, has scored only once in nine league appearances this season.
Spurs, Champions League finalists in 2019, have also struggled in the Europa Conference League — UEFA’s new third-tier competition. They are third in their group, behind Rennes and Vitesse Arnhem, with only one win from three games ahead of their next fixture against Vitesse on Thursday.
Nuno was appointed Spurs manager in June but was not the club’s first choice to succeed Jose Mourinho following his sacking in April.
Antonio Conte, Gennaro Gattuso, Paulo Fonseca, Brendan Rodgers, Julian Nagelsmann and Erik ten Hag were all linked with the vacancy before Nuno was given the job.
Nuno joined Spurs after four seasons with Wolves, where they achieved promotion to the Premier League in 2018 after a six-year absence and retained their status as a topflight side over three seasons. He previously also managed Valencia and Porto.