Tottenham Hotspur Sack Manager Nuno Espirito Santo
Tottenham Hotspur have sacked manager Nuno Espirito Santo after only four months in charge.
Coaches Ian Cathro, Rui Barbosa and Antonio Dias have also been relieved of their duties.
Fabio Paratici, Tottenham’s managing director of football, said in a statement: “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.”
The decision comes after Saturday’s 3-0 home loss to Manchester United in which supporters vented their frustration.
Talks were held between chairman Daniel Levy and managing director of football Fabio Paratici over Nuno’s dismissal on Sunday. The decision was then communicated to Nuno at Tottenham’s training ground on Monday morning.
The weekend defeat saw Tottenham slump to eighth in the Premier League table, ten points behind leaders Chelsea, following back-to-back league defeats.
Nuno failed to maintain the promising start to the campaign in which he achieved the best start to a Premier League season for Tottenham, securing three wins from their opening three games. Since then, however, he has lost five of his 10 Premier League games.
Alarm bells started ringing when their 1-0 win over Manchester City was undermined by a 1-0 away defeat to Portuguese top-flight side Pacos Ferreira in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League play-off.
After the September international break, Spurs went down 3-0 to both Crystal Palace and Chelsea before succumbing 3-1 at Arsenal, putting Nuno under further scrutiny.
Tottenham managed to scrape league wins over Aston Villa and Newcastle but then suffered a 1-0 defeat by Dutch outfit Vitesse, putting them third in their Europa Conference League group.
The Portuguese manager was appointed on June 30 following Jose Mourinho’s dismissal in April but he was not initially a candidate when he left Wolves at the end of last year’s Premier League season.
Instead Tottenham held talks with Antonio Conte, Mauricio Pochettino, Hansi Flick, Paulo Fonseca and Gennaro Gattuso but, having exhausted numerous options, the club agreed a two-year deal with the former Wolves boss.