Danny Murphy feels Tottenham Hotspur will “take a risk” and go for a manager like Rangers boss Steven Gerrard after missing out on Antonio Conte, speaking to talkSPORT (June 7, 11.30am).
After Jose Mourinho was shown the door in mid-April, The Athletic ran a feature detailing what chairman Daniel Levy was looking for in his next manager.
The new Spurs boss had to 1) have a track record of developing young talent, 2) play exciting, attractive, forward-thinking football and 3) be able to foster a harmonious relationship behind the scenes.
Considering Antonio Conte spent much of his two-year spell at Inter Milan publicly slamming his superiors while signing more 30-something veterans than QPR in a relegation battle, it’s safe to say the Italian didn’t tick many of Levy’s boxes.
Even as Inter won their first Serie A title in more than a decade, Conte’s pragmatic, catenaccio-inspired blueprint frustrated many supporters at the San Siro.
From Conte to Gerrard for Tottenham?
It says a lot about Conte’s track record – he is arguably the best league manager in European football with five domestic titles in his past seven seasons – that Levy was willing to ignore his own brief to hand the reins to a man who pretty much guarantees silverware.
However, as Murphy points out, hiring a so-called ‘winning machine’ didn’t work out too well the last time Tottenham tried it.
So, with Conte out of the reckoning after talks broke down (Guardian), is it time Levy revisited his three-point plan and looked north of the border at a coach who has just led Rangers’ merry band of brothers to a remarkable 100-point, invincible season?
“What if they think outside the box and go for someone like (Steven) Gerrard,” said Murphy, a former Spurs midfielder and one-time teammate of Gerrard’s at Liverpool.
“Forget what he’s won. I’m talking about the mentality of Tottenham as a club thinking ‘well, we can’t get a top-billing manager because there’s not one we will pay the money for – we’ve just made that mistake with Mourinho!’
“(Spurs) might take a risk. I think they’ll take a risk and go outside the box.”
Gerrard, who has surprisingly been linked with the Everton job despite his Anfield allegiances, has so far shown little interest in walking away from a Rangers side who, when he took over in 2018, were only the third best team in Scotland.
The chance to coach a club of the size and stature of Tottenham may test his loyalty to its limits.
However, as Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and others discovered during his playing career, one thing Gerrard doesn’t lack is loyalty.
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