Tottenham’s days among the elite of English football are OVER

Last week, Spurs announced that they had ‘ended their interest’ in appointing Julian Nagelsmann as their new manager.

On the same day, by sheer coincidence, I ended my interest in opening the batting for England in the First Test against Australia at Edgbaston next month.

I also ended my interest in replacing Erling Haaland in Manchester City’s starting eleven against Real Madrid on Wednesday. And although I knew he would take it badly, I told Gareth Southgate that I had ended my interest in playing for England at Euro2024.

There’s not much that’s funny about Tottenham’s current plight, but the mix of face-saving fantasy and haughtiness in their dismissal of Nagelsmann’s job prospects at a club that sits seventh in the Premier League and is rapidly moving south was bitterly funny .

The truth is Spurs should be begging Nagelsmann to be their next manager, not using his name as a public relations device. They would have to move heaven and earth to get the former Bayern Munich boss to North London and drag them out of the stinking mire they are drenched in.

The team missed out on the Champions League and may not get any European football at all next season

Spurs are seventh after losing to Aston Villa on Saturday and could be overtaken by the Midlands team before the end of the season

The mess is piling up so high at Tottenham Hotspur you need wings to stay above it. Taking stock of their woes is no short list, but somewhere at the top is the fact that their best manager in recent years, Mauricio Pochettino, is about to join their hated rivals, Chelsea.

Pochettino’s talent, combined with the brilliance of the likes of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son, took Spurs close to a title in 2016 and the Champions League final in 2019, but his legacy has been squandered by chairman Daniel Levy. Kane is staying, but he may leave this summer. If he stays, he becomes a castaway on a deserted beach.

Levy’s management choices after Pochettino were a mixture of vain appointments and dizzying misjudgments. Player recruitment has been disastrous. Spurs sink. They will not be involved in the Champions League next season. They are now one of the big six in name only.

Levy’s legacy is that the club plays in the best stadium in the Premier League and has one of the best training grounds. That should not be rejected. But that’s where it ends. He has repeatedly and conspicuously failed to build a team worth playing in that stadium. He is now further from that goal than ever before.

His failure to formulate anything resembling a convincing succession plan in the wake of Antonio Conte’s predictable departure earlier this season has cost Spurs a top four spot. For a man who prides himself on his tax farming, that lack of foresight and planning will cost the club tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue.

Daniel Levy (left) has made a series of bad decisions during his tenure and they have caught up with him this season

Mail Sport columnist Oliver Holt (above) thinks Spurs are now playing in the Premier League too

So why would a manager like Nagelsmann, one of the most highly regarded coaches in European football, want to join Spurs? Why would one of the best talents in the game want to join a club that is a black hole for leading managers?

Yes, the Spurs should do everything they can to get Nagelsmann. They should do everything they can to get Roberto de Zerbi out of Brighton. They should do everything they can to get Vincent Kompany out of Burnley.

But why would any of those managers go to Spurs? Why would Nagelsmann, De Zerbi or Kompany risk their careers to join a club that has become notorious for hindering manager development? Any of them would certainly have a whole host of better options.

Spurs is a manager’s graveyard. It’s a club where Levy’s shadow hangs over everything and brakes everything. It is a club based on an excuse culture. It is a club that refuses to commit. It is a club that distances itself from any view that does not pay respect to the god of the deal. There is always a caveat. There is always a catch. It’s a place where managers go to be unhappy.

Spurs now have a team that is barely the right side of the ordinary. They are not in the same league as Manchester City or Arsenal. They have been overtaken by Newcastle United. They have fallen behind Manchester United as they continue their recovery under Erik ten Hag.

Former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino is close to joining the club’s bitter rival Chelsea

Meanwhile, Tottenham are still looking for a new permanent boss after the sacking of Antonio Conte in March

Spurs are not managed as well as Liverpool, who stuck with their manager, Jurgen Klopp, during a difficult season and have returned to an upward trajectory. They are also overtaken by Brighton, whose schedule puts them to shame. They are level with Aston Villa, but Villa are a club moving forward. Tracks are not.

Most people – including many Spurs fans – would also bet that a Chelsea team led by Pochettino will see some return on his lavish player investment next season and move higher than Tottenham Hotspur.

That’s a long way from saying that until something radical changes, Spurs’ days in the elite of English football are over. They are also rancid now. Levy’s history of bad decisions has caught up with him.

Spurs has a beautiful stadium where major sporting events take place. Fewer and fewer of these have to do with football. Until that changes, Tottenham may find that before they can say they’ve ended their interest in a leading manager, leading managers are queuing up to say they’ve ended their interest in them.

I was at the Peninsula Stadium on Saturday night to report on Salford City’s League Two semi-final victory over Stockport County. I’m a stadium nerd and it was my first time on the ground, my 84th out of 92 league clubs, so I would always enjoy it.

Salford City beat Stockport County in the first leg of their play-off semi-final

Ryan Giggs (left) and Nicky Butt (right) attended the game to cheer on the club they part own, along with fellow Class of 92 members Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes

But I also loved the atmosphere during the game. There is a tendency in the lower leagues to regard Salford with disdain as the club is seen as a bogus construct created by the Class of 92 and Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim and turned into big spend impostors.

Their average home attendance was the lowest of any club in division bar Harrogate Town this season, but they still got close to 3,000 spectators through the turnstiles for every match at Moor Lane. It’s a respectable number for the fourth level.

The Class of 92 may not be everyone’s favourite, I understand that. But it’s not like the club has been taken over by Saudi Arabia’s blood-soaked regime. Men like Gary and Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes are from or close by. The facilities are good. The fans are treated with respect and affection, the team is doing well.

I looked around the stadium after the final whistle blew and there was joy on many faces. There was a sense of community and local pride. Of course I hope they lose the second leg on Saturday as no team should stand in the way of Stockport, but the idea of ​​them being an affront to football is a kind of snobbery the game can’t afford.