Tottenham in no rush to appoint Conte replacement with THREE bosses on shortlist

TOTTENHAM will not rush into finding Antonio Conte’s permanent successor – despite three candidates being currently out of work.

Antonio Conte finally left the club late on Sunday night with his assistant Cristian Stellini put in caretaker charge until the end of the season.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy will assess possible candidates between now and the summer but it has effectively parked their search for the man they want long-term until then.

Mauricio Pochettino, Luis Enrique and Julian Nagelsmann – who are all under consideration for the vacancy – are currently free agents.

Though the anticipated managerial merry-go-round in Europe is set to play a big part in the process too.

A number of big jobs are expected to become available in the close-season.

Carlo Ancelotti has been widely tipped to leave Real Madrid, while the likes of Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma and the two Milan clubs could all be looking for new bosses.

Pochettino, Enrique and Nagelsmann would all be in the frame for some if not all those roles.

It means Spurs may have to wait to battle it out with those clubs in the summer for any of the trio, should they choose to go for them.

Bayern Munich already took Thomas Tuchel off the table, having sacked Nagelsmann and appointed the ex-Chelsea boss in his place last week.

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While the possible contenders Marco Silva, Ange Postecoglou, Ruben Amorim and Roberto De Zerbi are all currently in jobs elsewhere.

Conte, 53, will no doubt be one of the leading names in the hat should any roles emerge in Italy.

His reputation in England may have been diminished somewhat from his time at Spurs but he is still highly-regarded in his homeland, where he won Serie A with Inter in 2021.

Many were expecting Conte’s backroom staff to leave with him, but only his brother Gianluca Conte, his trusted technical and analytics coach followed him out the exit door.

It means the likes of goalkeeping coach Marco Savorani, set-piece specialist Gianni Vio and fitness coaches Stefano Bruno and Costantino Coratti have all stayed to help caretaker Stellini for the final ten games of the season.

Their contracts are up in the summer.

First-team coach Ryan Mason will assist Stellini and both are popular among the squad, who had grown tired of Conte’s repetitive training sessions and the way he put the blame largely on them in public, rather than taking responsibility himself.

That was never more the case than his final, explosive press conference at Southampton last Saturday, where he accused his players of being “selfish” after they had surrendered a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3.

A statement from the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust thanked Conte for his hard work but called on Levy to pick a successor whose style of play reflects the club’s tradition of exciting football.

The THST statement read: “At the end of the 2020-21 season in May, chairman Daniel Levy told supporters the club would focus on the recruitment of a head coach saying they were ‘acutely aware of the need to select someone whose values reflect those of our great club and a return to playing football with the style for which we are known’.

“Many supporters will feel the appointments of Nuno Espirito Santo and then Antonio Conte following Jose Mourinho’s spell do not reflect the promises made above.

“In the same statement, Mr Levy said: ‘I feel we lost sight of some key priorities and what’s truly in our DNA.’

“As another season without silverware comes to an end, we would urge the club board to reassess those priorities before appointing a manager the entire fanbase will get behind, and building a team that can truly challenge for domestic and European honours, respecting the traditions of our football club.”

Meanwhile, the preliminary hearing in the Court of Turin regarding whether there should be a criminal trial into allegations of malpractice at Juventus was supposed to begin today but was postponed until May 10.

Spurs’ managing director of football Fabio Paratici, banned in January for two-and-a-half years by the Italian Football Federation for his part in Juve’s alleged financial irregularities and accounting scandal, is one of the defendants.

Paratici is still waiting to discover if his 30-month suspension will be extended to a global ban and if so, his role at Spurs will surely become untenable.