Damned by their own failings, the owners and executives of Tottenham Hotspur are staring down the barrel of a hard truth today in the wake of their decision to sack manager Thomas Frank after just eight months in charge.
When Manchester United fired Ruben Amorim last month, they were sixth in the Premier League and appointed a caretaker manager, Michael Carrick, hoping that he would propel them towards the top four but knowing it would not be a disaster if he failed.
The family of Spurs owner Joe Lewis, who have taken a more prominent role in running the club after the summer departure of Daniel Levy, do not have that luxury at their club because Spurs have been plunged into the most serious crisis to afflict the club for almost half a century.
A record of two wins in their last 17 league matches under Frank has left Spurs just five points clear of the relegation zone. It would have been three points had West Ham held on to their lead over United a couple of minutes longer at the London Stadium on Tuesday night.
The last time Spurs were relegated from the top flight was 1977 but defeat to Newcastle on Tuesday has left Tottenham staring that prospect right in the face again.
It is a terrible indictment of years of failures of recruitment and investment that a club which plays in one of the best modern stadiums in the world should have been reduced to finishing 17th in the league last season and facing something even worse this season.
A record of two wins in their last 17 league matches under Thomas Frank who has now been sacked has left Spurs just five points clear of the relegation zone
The obvious candidate to fill an interim manager role at Spurs is Johnny Heitinga, who was an assistant coach under Arne Slot at Liverpool and joined the Spurs staff last month
It is widely thought that the club favours the idea of appointing a Carrick-style interim until the end of the season so it can bring back former boss Mauricio Pochettino to the club in the summer once his World Cup duties as coach of co-hosts USA come to a close.
The obvious candidate to fill that kind of role is Johnny Heitinga, who was an assistant coach under Arne Slot at Liverpool and joined the Spurs staff last month. Heitinga is fresh from an ill-fated spell as head coach at Ajax where he lasted five months before being sacked.
But that hard truth is that the Lewis family, Spurs chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, and sporting director Johan Lange cannot afford to wait for Pochettino and gamble on a caretaker manager being able to drag them out of trouble. The hard truth is that, if they take that course and appoint Heitinga, or a former interim, Ryan Mason, by the time Pochettino arrives in north London some time late this summer, it may be too late.
United appear to have chosen well with Carrick, who has made a compelling case to be given the manager’s job on a full-time basis, but he did not go into the job with the club facing an existential crisis.
Spurs cannot afford to gamble on an interim manager getting them out of trouble. They cannot afford to let things slide. They cannot afford to sacrifice their present for their future. If they do that, they may not have a top-flight future. So logic and ambition suggest they have to be bold.
If they can get him, they should move heaven and earth to appoint Roberto De Zerbi, the former Brighton and Hove Albion boss, who has just left his job as coach of Marseille.
De Zerbi is also said to be a target for United as they weigh up their options for a successor to Amorim. Spurs have never been renowned for moving fast but they have to move fast now or face brutal consequences.
Spurs cannot afford to wait for Mauricio Pochettino and gamble on a caretaker manager being able to drag them out of trouble
Roberto De Zerbi is a combustible character. He is hot-headed and he is demanding but he is also commonly regarded as one of the best coaches in the world
De Zerbi is a combustible character. He is hot-headed and he is demanding but he is also commonly regarded as one of the best coaches in the world. He would come into Tottenham like a whirlwind and he would aspire to get them playing the kind of attractive football that the supporters crave.
He has not been an unqualified success at Marseille. Ultimately, he was unable to compete with the might of PSG, who brought his reign to a close with a 5-0 thumping at the Parc des Princes. Marseille were also knocked out of the Champions League in the league phase last month.
But there have been times this season when Marseille have pushed PSG close and, anyway, De Zerbi has already amassed a body of work to back up his reputation as one of the brightest coaches in the game.
Hiring him would not be a guarantee of keeping Spurs up. But it would give them a better chance of surviving the drop than appointing an interim. It would be a statement of intent, too, a statement of ambition. Spurs fans have been starved of those qualities for too long.
