One-time Tottenham Hotspur managerial target Gennaro Gattuso has been sacked by Marseille after hitting ‘rock bottom’ and making their worst start to a calendar year since 1978.
It is two-and-a-half years now since Spurs chairman Daniel Levy got cold feet and pulled the plug on discussions to bring the former Italy general to North London. And, in truth, very little has happened in Gennaro Gattuso’s managerial career since then to suggest that Tottenham Hotspur missed a trick.
Gattuso, never one afraid to let his emotions show, left Fiorentina after just a few weeks back in 2021, behind-the-scenes issues leading to a very early divorce. The AC Milan icon then won just seven out of 22 games in charge of Valencia before posting similarly dissatisfying numbers at Marseille.
Tottenham Hotpsur called off Gennaro Gattuso talks
Gattuso departs the Stade Velodrome after just five months, and with a win rate of 37 per cent. Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Stade de Brest continued Marseille’s worst start to a calendar year in 46 years, with their away form the worst in the division.
“We’ve hit rock bottom,” Gattuso sighed after that Brest defeat (Get France Football News).
“When you hit rock bottom, you have to take responsibility. It’s my responsibility. There is nothing else to say.
“The table? The truth is that we’re going to have to start looking behind us. We can no longer speak about Europe.”
Gattuso was sacked just 24 hours later. Marseille, per RMC Sport, are now expected to bring hte highly-experienced Jean-Louis Gasset – formerly of Bordeaux, St Etienne and Montpellier – back to France as the 2006 World Cup winner’s replacement.
Italian’s move to Spurs was ’99 per cent done’
“(Fabio) Paratici called me from Tottenham,” Gattuso told AS back in 2022, a series of rather ill-advised quotes from his past coming back to haunt a man who was heavily campaigned against by large sections of the Spurs support.
“It was 99 per cent done. But then, the fans, the madness that also happened here… I wasn’t feeling good, I didn’t feel like it.”
Flash forward to February 2024 and Ange Postecoglou, despite a recent downturn in both performances and results, is proving to be far more popular in this corner of North London than Gattuso would ever have been.
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