Nagelsmann and Pochettino at top of next Spurs manager list after Conte sacking

The current favourite wasn’t even listed when we first put this list together less than a week ago. But Bayern Munich sacking Julian Nagelsmann has created an opportunity for Daniel Levy to catch him on the rebound – and, in a rare reversal of the natural order of things – before he’s had two broadly successful yet utterly acrimonious years at Chelsea.

It’s a wildly different-looking top 10 now, with Antonio Conte sacked and Christian Stellini now in charge on a temporary basis. But who will be in the Tottenham dug-out in August?

1) Julian Nagelsmann
Spurs have courted him before but now the stars might have aligned perfectly for Daniel Levy to pull a Homer and land massively on his extremely lucky feet. Funny thing is that it may well be Spurs sniffing around Thomas Tuchel that convinced Bayern to pull the plug on Nagelsmann, so we’re not dealing entirely with unconnected events here, but it would still represent a massive coup if Spurs were to pull this off. Unlike the last couple of world-class managers Spurs have appointed, Nagelsmann is still very much at the start of his managerial journey and while his style may be slightly more Mourinho than Pochettino, he is no dinosaur.

Nagelsmann perhaps sits top of the list of managers who’ve never been in the Premier League that we’d like to see have a crack at it, and for those who think that Spurs would be a funny choice for him then consider this: he said their stadium is nice and, just to make this really nailed on, once owned a Spurs shirt. It’s practically signed and sealed already, this.

As long as we all ignore that Real Madrid might need a manager this summer.

2) Mauricio Pochettino
The popular choice and theoretically one that could have been concluded without fuss and thus avoid the need for a Stellini interregnum.

All indications are, though, that while Pochettino remains entirely open to the idea of a return to a club where he has obvious unfinished business, he always wanted to wait until the summer before making any decision on his next move. The fact he has had only that one brief stint at PSG since leaving Spurs in 2019 shows that he certainly has the gift of patience when choosing his jobs.

Reappointing Poch does feel like something that both club and manager need to happen before either of them can properly move on, even if it may well end badly. And for Daniel Levy, it presents the easiest of easy wins with the fans even if it does require the consumption of some…