Back in April, when Daniel Levy finally realised that he’d had enough of Jose Mourinho’s moody-faced moping, reports said that Nuno Espirito Santo and Rui Vitoria were two of the early frontrunners to take his place in the Tottenham Hotspur dugout.
Eight months later, only one of the aforementioned trio are still in work.
Not that Mourinho is doing much to suggest he is the man to take Roma back to the Promised Land of the Champions League, picking fights with journalists and lambasting his players in the press.
Nuno Espirito Santo received his P45 after just 17 games and four months at the helm. At least Vitoria lasted a bit longer. But not much longer.
26 games to be precise.
Did Tottenham get a lucky escape with Rui Vitoria?
After finishing second in the Russian Premier League table last season, Spartak Moscow hired Vitoria with the ambition of going one step further. Vitoria certainly had the pedigree.
The 51-year-old arrived with ten trophies adorning a glittering CV, including a pair of Portuguese Coach of the Year awards accumulated during a shimmering spell at Benfica.
Vitoria departs, however, with more defeats (11) than wins (9) in the Russian capital.
If a 3-0 defeat at Sochi last weekend was the straw that broke the camel’s back, a 7-1 thumping at ‘title-rivals’ Zenit St Petersburg undoubtly the nadir of a reign that was supposed to go far better than this.
“Head coach Rui Vitoria is leaving our club. The parties agreed to part by mutual agreement,” reads a statement from Spartak.
One wonders what ‘mutual agreement’ really means in circumstances like this. Did Vitoria simply agree when told that his work had not been up to scratch and walk away with the club’s best interests at heart?
Or is ‘mutual agreement’ just a nice way of dressing up a sacking?
Where next for Rui Vitoria?
“The Portuguese will forever remain in Spartak’s history as the coach who took the team to the Europa League play-offs from the first place in the group. The club thanks Rui for this achievement,” they add.
Spartak did finish ahead of Napoli and Leicester City in a hard-fought Europa League group.
But, that aside, neither Vitoria nor Spartak will look back on this brief and volatile marriage with much fondness as the divorce goes through it’s final stages.
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