*Undated
Nuno Espirito Santo has been sacked by Tottenham after just four months in charge. Tottenham’s depressing loss to Manchester United on Saturday proved a fatal blow to Nuno’s hopes of staying in charge.
Tottenham are now eighth in the Premier League, 10 points off leaders Chelsea. Nuno, 47, signed a two-year contract in June following a protracted search to find Jose Mourinho's successor. The departure of Nuno, who left Wolves in May after four seasons in charge, means Tottenham are looking for their fourth permanent manager in the last three years.
A Spurs statement said: "The club can today announce that Nuno Espirito Santo and his coaching staff Ian Cathro, Rui Barbosa and Antonio Dias have been relieved of their duties. A further coaching update will follow in due course." Spurs are next in action with a home game against Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League on Thursday ahead of a visit to Everton in the Premier League on Sunday.
Spurs managing director of football Fabio Paratici added: "I know how much Nuno and his coaching staff wanted to succeed and I regret that we have had to take this decision. Nuno is a true gentleman and will always be welcome here. We should like to thank him and his coaching staff and wish them well for the future."
Tottenham fans booed Nuno's decision to replace Lucas Moura with Steven Bergwijn in the second half of the defeat to United, which followed last weekend's Premier League loss at West Ham. Sections of the Spurs support also chanted "we want Levy out", with England captain Harry Kane, who expressed his desire to leave the club during the summer, also a target of frustration for some fans. When quizzed about what was going wrong after the defeat to Man United, Nuno refused to give a clear answer when asked if his messages were getting through to the players or not.
Spurs have not had a shot on target in their last two hours and 16 minutes of football since Harry Kane's header in the 44th minute against West Ham. It was a difficult process for Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, who failed in his attempts to get several first-choice targets.
At various points Tottenham were linked with Hansi Flick, Julian Nagelsmann, Antonio Conte, Gennaro Gattuso, Brendan Rodgers, Paulo Fonseca and former boss Mauricio Pochettino. Spurs were in talks with both Fonseca and Gattuso before ultimately pulling out of deals for both. That left the Premier League giants with former Wolves boss Nuno, who was readily available having left the Molineux club in May.