Another ENIC error: Spurs could be about to make a worse hire than Frank & Tudor

On the pitch, off the pitch, in the boardroom – it’s been a hellish season as far as Tottenham Hotspur are concerned, with a string of decisions having led the club to the brink of relegation.

With the glare no longer centred on the polarising Daniel Levy, it is the ENIC regime under the microscope, having overseen such a nosedive in the last few years in north London.

Dismissing Ange Postecoglou following last season’s 17th-place Premier League finish was understandable, even after the club’s Europa League triumph, although what has transpired since has been simply headscratching.

Be it with regard to recruitment or managerial appointments, it’s been one mistake after another for the likes of Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange, with further costly decisions potentially in the works at N17.

The key reasons behind Tottenham’s decline this season

It would be foolish to overlook what has been an unprecedented injury crisis, with key figures like Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison having not featured at all this season, after previously missing that night in Bilbao.

Changes in the medical department over the past year or so don’t appear to have helped matters, leaving new boss Roberto De Zerbi with a depleted, threadbare squad to work with for this crucial final stretch.

Linked to that is also the club’s long-standing, questionable recruitment record, stretching back to the decision not to sign an immediate replacement for Harry Kane in the summer of 2023.

A year later, at a time when Spurs could have kicked on under Postecoglou, the club hierarchy went for a youth-centric approach, gambling on long-term targets like Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, rather than handing the Aussie ready-made solutions.

As noted by BBC Sport, that summer had also seen Desire Doue come close to joining, after even visiting the club’s training ground, yet the Frenchman went on to Paris Saint-Germain instead, setting the tone for further missed opportunties last summer, with regard to Eberechi Eze, Morgan Gibbs-White, Antoine Semenyo and Bryan Mbeumo.

In the dugout too, the pendulum swung too greatly from the kamikaze style of Postecoglou, to the pragmatism of Thomas Frank, before souring the mood even further with the appointment of disciplinarian Igor Tudor.

In Tudor and Frank’s defence, there is a sense that no manager can truly flourish in this current set-up, ensuring the choice of the next sporting director has to be correct.

Spurs could make another mistake with next sporting director

On a shoestring budget, Mauricio Pochettino worked wonders in north London, as the chaos of the last seven years has highlighted.

Spurs, in the managerial department, have tried it all, from the serial winners of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, to the Premier League-proven options of Frank and Nuno Espirito Santo.

Nothing has truly worked to date, ensuring fingers must be pointed at those above them, be it the departed Fabio Paratici, or the aforementioned Lange this season.

By all accounts, Lange could now be joined at the club by ex-Borussia Dortmund man, Sebastian Kehl, with reports in Germany indicating that he is the frontrunner to be Tottenham’s new sporting director.

On the face of it, that might appear an exciting move, with Kehl notably handling the sale of a certain Jude Bellingham in 2023, after taking on that director role at Dortmund a year earlier.

Scratch under the surface, however, and the club’s recruitment record under his watch isn’t too appealing. Indeed, this isn’t the Dortmund that once plucked Bellingham, Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland from across Europe.

Only last summer, for instance, Kehl oversaw the £20m signing of Wolverhampton Wanderers flop, Fabio Silva, the Portuguese netting just a solitary Bundesliga goal this season, after netting only five times in total back at Molineux.

As the tale of Bellingham showcased, the German can sell high-profile figures for sizeable fees, although that is unlikely to be too great of a concern at Spurs, with the club – even in their current plight – boasting a raft of attractive options for other clubs, be it Micky van de Ven or Cristian Romero.

It is with regard to incomings that Spurs are in need of an upgrade, and Kehl doesn’t necessarily leap out in that regard, while he would represent – like Tudor – another key arrival who doesn’t have prior Premier League experience.

Equally too, the last four years at Dortmund have seen the club endure their own managerial turbulence under the 46-year-old’s watch, even while reaching the 2024 Champions League final, with Edin Terzic, Nuri Sahin and now Nico Kovac all taking the job following Marco Rose’s dismissal in 2022.

The club are likely to finish second in the Bundesliga, as they did in 2022/23, although in between there have been fourth and fifth-place finishes, not exactly the most fruitful campaigns for the team that typically rivals Bayern Munich at the summit.

As already stated, any manager, be it Postecoglou, Frank or Tudor, is likely to struggle under the wrong regime, ensuring that getting the next sporting director right is imperative if Spurs are to look to a brighter future.

On the evidence of his mixed time at Dortmund, his lack of prior experience in England and his reported falling out with his superior, Lars Ricken, Kehl might not be the solution Tottenham are in need of.

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