EVEN by Spurs standards, this is a shambles.
A two month hunt for the replacement for Jose Mourinho and still no decision.
Instead, a series of candidates identified then dumped, for a variety of reasons.
And now, with Rino Gattuso’s potential employment rejected in the wake of a social media fan backlash, there will be many asking if Daniel Levy has any idea what he will do next.
When Mourinho was axed, six days before the Carabao Cup Final, there seemed to be a plan.
Ryan Mason, probably to the end of the season, before Julian Nagelsmann was appointed.
But the unexpected – by Spurs at least – pre-dated resignation of Germany boss Joachim Low saw that all unravel.
Low’s replacement will be his former No 2, then-Bayern chief Hansi Flick, which opened a vacancy in Munich taken, at first offer, by Nagelsmann.
Strike One. Followed, in swift order, by strikes two and three, as Eric Ten Haag signed a new deal at Ajax and Brendan Rodgers pledged himself to Leicester.
Of course, in baseball, you are out after three strikes.
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Levy, though, is not playing by those rules. And just kept on going.
Next up was a move to tempt Mauricio Pochettino back to the club from PSG.
Sacking him had been, we were told, recognised as a mistake. His return would be a balm for the wounds – and even maybe help persuade Harry Kane to stay.
But PSG didn’t want to play, so that was another one down.
Then it was Antonio Conte, whose footballing approach seemed about as far removed from the “Tottenham DNA” Levy had publicly identified as was possible.
Still, the Italian is a proven winner. That was an appointment which made sense, especially as Levy was well down the road of recruiting new Managing Director of football Fabio Paratici.
Suddenly, though, Conte got cold feet, Spurs refused to budge on salary and coaching staff, and that one was off as well.
So it became Paulo Fonseca, whose arrival would have been tantamount to a drawn-out job swap after Mourinho swanned in to his previous post at Roma.
Two weeks of negotiations. Increasing expectations. And then, out of nowhere, a change of heart.
Whether it was “tax issues” as claimed in Italy or something else, the Portuguese was no longer in the running.
Immediately, it was Gattuso, with talks brokered by Mourinho’s agent, Jorge Mendes.
Yet where the fans had grumbled for eight weeks, this time they roared, with accusations that the former Rangers midfielder was both a misogynist and a homophobe.
True or not – and there seems credible evidence – Levy was spooked and that idea, concrete last night, was canned by this morning.
It is a mess. A horrible, smelly and unpleasant mess.
And if you were Kane, what would you be thinking?
Levy has done much right at Tottenham. But he is getting this so wrong. It really is a shambles.
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