Reports: Julian Nagelsmann open to joining Tottenham Hotspur following Bayern Munich sacking
Not long after he was shockingly axed as Bayern Munich boss in a dramatic turn of events, Julian Nagelsmann is considering the option of managing Tottenham Hotspur in the coming months.
The report emerges from Sky Sports, who state that Nagelsmann is open to holding talks over a managerial hot seat at Spurs. The North Londoners have been long-term admirers of the German mastermind.
Club chairman Daniel Levy wanted to rope in Nagelsmann after he decided to part ways with Mauricio Pochettino. He would go on to lure serial winners Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, the former having been recently sacked by the club himself.
In the aftermath of Tottenham’s 3-3 draw against Southampton; a game where Spurs held a two-goal lead with 15 minutes of normal time to play, Conte lashed out at his squad and the lack of responsibility from the players.
“The club has the responsibility for the transfer market, every coach that stayed here has the responsibility. And the players? The players? Where are the players? Twenty years there is the owner and they never won something but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here? You are finding an alibi, another alibi. You try to find an excuse for the players,” exclaimed Conte.
With a vacancy at the helm of Tottenham, Nagelsmann appears to be the first choice for Levy.
Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Frank, and Marco Silva are popular names that have been tipped to manage Spurs after Conte’s anticipated exit. But Nagelsmann’s availability shakes up the market. Unsurprisingly, not only for Tottenham.
The 35-year-old inspired Hoffenheim to seven wins in 14 matches at the back-end of the Bundesliga season in 2016, putting his name on the forefront with that great escape. He helped the club achieve its best-ever position in the Bundesliga, as they secured direct qualification to the Champions League.
His time at RB Leipzig was characterized by eye-catching attacking football, fluid displays of ingenious goalscoring and a DFB-Pokal runners-up medal.
And despite leading Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title, winning 60 games out of 84 for them and piloting the side to the quarter-finals of the UCL this season, he was relieved of his duties earlier on Friday morning.
“Julian shares our aspiration to play successful and attractive football. But now we have come to the conclusion that the quality in our squad – despite the Bundesliga title last year – has come to the fore less and less often,” cited Oliver Kahn on the reasons behind the sack.
The statement is made all the more interesting given the fact that Bayern Munich have scored 117 goals already this season. Kahn continued “After the World Cup we have played less successfully and less attractively. The big fluctuations in performance have cast doubt on our goals for this season, but also our goals for the future. That is why we have acted now.”
Bayern’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic further remarked “In March of last year, we had these inconsistent performances, then again in September and most recently we only won 5 out of 10 Bundesliga games. When performance curve is pointing downwards, you have to react. It wasn’t an easy decision.”
While Thomas Tuchel was handed the keys to the club, Nagelsmann will have time to reflect on his options and analyze the Spurs philosophy.
For a coach of his calibre, attacking output and success achieved, it’s highly likely that there’ll be plenty of clubs sniffing around to acquire his services.
Spurs, on the other hand, will have to make do without a trophy for another season. They do still have the all-important UCL berths to play for however. Conte’s troops are currently in fourth place, but have only collected one win their last three league outings while also crashing out of the UCL round-of-16 to AC Milan.
They return to the Premier League after the international break with a home fixture against AFC Bournemouth. A rocky run of games follows in April – Newcastle and Liverpool away, sandwiched by a tussle at home to Manchester United.
-Akarshak Roy
Twitter: @RoyAkarshak
Photo: Steffen Prößdorf. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.