Tottenham Hotspur are searching for their eighth manager/head coach (interim and permanent) since 2019 after sacking Thomas Frank on Wednesday amid a run of two wins in 17 Premier League games.

Frank, who only joined in the summer following seven successful years as Brentford boss, leaves Spurs in a relegation battle, just five points clear of West Ham United in 18th place with 12 league matches left. This follows a dismal 2024-25 Premier League campaign when they finished 17th but won the Europa League under Ange Postecoglou, who was himself fired after two seasons in charge.

Spurs do not play until their north London derby at home to Premier League leaders Arsenal on February 22, giving their hierarchy time to decide what to do next. John Heitinga, who joined Frank’s coaching staff less than a month ago, is one option who could take them through to the end of the season if they decide to make an interim appointment, having had two spells (one on a caretaker basis) as manager of leading Dutch club Ajax in the past four years.

A temporary move like that would allow Spurs to make a permanent choice in the summer, when more elite coaches might be attainable off the back of the World Cup.

Here, The Athletic analyses what awaits their next manager and some of the candidates for short or long-term roles.

Roberto De Zerbi

De Zerbi left Marseille by mutual agreement this week, with the French club eliminated from the Champions League last month having taken only nine points from the eight-game league phase and sitting fourth domestically, 12 adrift of Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain, after 21 matches.

The 46-year-old Italian is a known name in English football after his near two-year spell with Brighton & Hove Albion before joining Marseille. He led them to a sixth-place finish in 2022-23, a first European qualification in club history, and then to the Europa League’s round of 16 before mutually agreeing to terminate his contract in summer 2024 after difficulties regarding player recruitment.

De Zerbi pioneered a build-up system of inviting pressure to the back line with passes before playing over or through that pressure with quick tempo shifts to create chances.

A good example of that can be seen below, for an Igor Paixao goal in a 4-0 win over Heitinga’s Ajax in the Champions League back in September.

As their playstyle map from the 2024-25 season shows, De Zerbi’s Marseille maintained a high line, dominated possession and created chances through central zones. But they also struggled to prevent opponents from carving out goalscoring opportunities.

This was because of how De Zerbi’s side played out of possession.

Marseille adopted an aggressive front-footed approach, but it had structural deficiencies. Examples like the one below against Paris FC early this season, where they leave massive gaps between the lines, were common.

That left defenders and midfielders with far too much space to cover, inevitably resulting in mistakes.

Marseille’s 45 errors leading to a shot or goal in the French top flight since the start of 2024-25 rank only behind Nice (54). Their opponents have averaged 0.14xG per shot, the worst rate for any defending team in that same period, despite Marseille conceding the second-fewest shots per 90 minutes (9.8; PSG are first at 8.9).

Spurs are familiar with struggles like these, and there are questions over how suited their squad is to play De Zerbi’s brand of football.

Andoni Iraola

The same might be true for Iraola, who was pursued by Tottenham last summer as they sought a replacement for Postecoglou before opting to continue as head coach of fellow Premier League side Bournemouth.

Iraola would check the ‘Plays entertaining football’ box, but in a way that may not be perfectly scalable to a bigger club where there will be heightened expectations compared with his current role. “Normally, our games are quite open; we are one of the teams who score more goals and one of the teams that receive more goals,” the 43-year-old Spaniard said in a recent interview. “I would like to score more than we receive, but I feel we are closer to a result if we are always a threat to the opposition.”

Iraola’s tactics have echoes of how Postecoglou viewed the game, with the principal difference being in their preferred method of ball progression. Iraola’s teams often go direct towards the attacking positions; Postecoglou’s played through the press.

They both like a high press, with their players routinely getting pulled into unfamiliar defensive roles and suffering on the transition being par for the course. Bournemouth rank first in the Premier League in volume of high-intensity actions this season, per Skillcorner (defined as discrete activities exceeding 20 km/h and lasting at least 0.7 seconds), with 72.5 per 90 minutes. They were top for this metric in 2024-25 too at 74.0 per 90, with Postecoglou’s Spurs second on 73.97.

Bournemouth’s rolling non-penalty xG for and against fluctuates heavily, as seen below, and so do their results. They began this season losing one of their first nine league matches (with five victories), then went winless in 11 (including six defeats) but are unbeaten in six since (four of them being wins).

The physical demands on the Tottenham squad under Iraola will have echoes of those imposed by Postecoglou’s system, the effects of which have been felt in north London this season too, even after his departure.

Iraola, to his credit, has shown his team can play well with more measured possession in stretches this season, which contributes to a lowered xG created figure compared to the previous two years, as shown in the graph above. But his core fundamentals remain high pressing, hard running, and transitional football. Bournemouth’s minor drop-offs within games and across seasons under him have often been punished.

Marco Silva

Silva has brought top-flight stability to former yo-yo club Fulham in recent years through tactical versatility. They have often relied on wide combinations between their wingers, full-backs and a free-roaming midfielder. The west Londoners led the Premier League in open-play cross attempts last season with 17.7 per 90 minutes, while only Newcastle United (13) scored more than their 10 goals from these situations.

This has remained a key component of Fulham’s play in 2025-26, with their 3.7 switches of play per 90 also leading the league. Their open-play crosses have fallen to 13.0 per 90, but they rank third in crossing accuracy (25 per cent).

Silva’s versatility is a contributor, with Fulham now finding other routes to attack teams. Their play in the half-spaces and ability to find gaps between the lines have improved tremendously, thanks to the movement without the ball and tight-window passing from Raul Jimenez, Alex Iwobi, Harry Wilson and Emile Smith Rowe. Samuel Chukwueze and Kevin offer more one-on-one threat and command attention out wide, creating space for their midfield and full-back colleagues to exploit.

Wilson’s goal against Crystal Palace in December was perhaps the clearest example of Fulham’s synchronised movement and improved passing in tight spaces.

Out of possession, Fulham do not tend to press high, ranking bottom for possessions won in the attacking third this season at 2.3 per 90.

The 48-year-old Silva prefers his team to set up in a compact 5-4-1 shape, but they can end up dropping too deep, giving opponents space and time to shoot or find gaps between the lines.

Xabi Alonso

Another manager on the market is Alonso, who was sacked by Real Madrid in January having only been appointed last summer.

The 44-year-old’s struggles in the Spanish capital had plenty to do with injuries but he initially found solutions for the team’s lack of coherence. Madrid switched between 3-4-3, 3-5-2 and 3-2-5 formations in possession, based on their given opponents, drawing on his previous successful stint at Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen.

In his final season, Leverkusen were one of the Bundesliga’s best teams at progressing play through the middle of the pitch, as seen below, while preventing high-quality chances in what is a transitions-heavy division. His 2023-24 domestic double-winning side combined those qualities with intense pressing from the front, too.

Those aspects fell apart at Madrid, though.

Alonso returned to the high-press, man-marking system that had yielded initial dividends but as energy levels dipped and team coherence suffered due to injuries, opponents found they could exploit the spaces that appeared in midfield.

In attack, Alonso lacked a metronomic midfielder passer in the Granit Xhaka mould that he had at Leverkusen. Teams filtered their play wide and counted on the absence of an aerial threat to restrict Madrid’s creativity outside of the individual brilliance offered by Kylian Mbappe.

Mauricio Pochettino

During Frank’s final game in charge at home against Newcastle on Tuesday, Spurs fans were also vocal in their desire to see Mauricio Pochettino back in the dugout following his successful stint between 2014 and 2019. Trouble is, Pochettino’s contract as head coach of the U.S. men’s national team, one of the co-hosts of this summer’s World Cup, runs until September.

The 53-year-old Argentinian’s most recent spell in the Premier League — with Spurs’ bitter London rivals Chelsea for the 2023-24 season — carried a lot of the traits that made him beloved among those supporters.

As the graph below shows, his Chelsea side played a high-intensity style predicated on suffocating the opposition far up the pitch and turning high possession regains into quality chances. They could combine slow build-up with faster attacks, too.

The knock on Pochettino’s Chelsea came in their inability to keep teams from breaking through their press to create chances of their own. Naivety among a young squad was a factor, but the system offered limited protection as they often got dragged into end-to-end matches that required them to defend large spaces with limited players.

Their 11 goals conceded from direct attacks (defined as shot or goal-ending open-play sequences that start inside the team’s half and move at least 50 per cent towards the goal) that year were only exceeded by Luton Town and Sheffield United (13), who both ended up relegated. Chelsea conceded 1.7 goals and 1.6xG per 90 minutes, their worst marks for those metrics across the past seven completed seasons, while their 24 errors leading to goals topped the Premier League.

Spurs’ current group of players does not have the counter-attacking threat Pochettino covets, or the defensive cover his teams need.

As with almost every other name on this list, his return would need the club to alter the make-up of their squad.

Oliver Glasner

When he leaves Crystal Palace in the summer, Glasner will be another highly-touted name on the managerial carousel.

The 51-year-old Austrian’s systemic demands are simple. While lining up in a 3-4-2-1, his teams adopt a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 without the ball, with a heavy emphasis on counter-pressing — the art of winning the ball immediately after losing it. Palace often set up in a narrow mid-block without the ball, aiming to shut out progression through the centre of the pitch.

The 4-2-3-1 shape extends to how they position themselves in the final third, too, as seen below.

Their attackers, a midfielder and a wing-back are targeting the box as the opposite wing-back aims to deliver crosses. The second central midfielder and a centre-back position themselves at the edge of the penalty area, while the other centre-backs stay upfield to defend transitions.

As The Athletic has explained, however, there are questions over how scalable Glasner’s approach is to a club such as Spurs, where there are greater expectations for entertaining attacking football.

His Palace side have routinely struggled in games where they are allowed possession and opponents dare them to break down low blocks — an issue Frank faced throughout his brief tenure in north London.

John Heitinga

A current Spurs assistant and possible interim option, as mentioned above. The sample size with Heitinga is small, with his only senior tenure lasting 37 games across two different spells at Ajax.

The more recent one – between July and November last year – saw the Amsterdam club win five and draw five of their 11 domestic league matches but lose all four Champions League contests. Heitinga, 42, preferred a 4-3-3 starting shape, but players had the freedom to shuffle around to create overloads when Ajax had the ball.

The goal below against PEC Zwolle in September comes from a slick move from back to front, and is finished off by Davy Klaassen.

At times, they used a 3-box-3 shape too, with the right-back joining the centre-backs, the left-back operating high and the left-winger (often Oscar Gloukh) shifting infield as a No 10.

Out of possession, Ajax adopted a man-marking approach to try to prevent teams progressing the ball through the middle of the pitch. But this was exploitable when their player rotations were not quick enough. In the example below from October, right-back Anton Gaaei is slow to jump up, and Sparta Rotterdam easily work through the press to score in a 3-3 draw.

Set pieces, which were a strength for Frank’s Spurs, were a major issue for Ajax under Heitinga, as their organization from corners and lateral free kicks was often imperfect. The 2-0 home loss to Inter in the Champions League in September was a particularly damaging example of this, with both goals coming from corners.

Robbie Keane

The final name is that of former Tottenham striker Robbie Keane, who is currently managing Hungarian top-flight club Ferencvaros.

Keane, 10th on Spurs’ goalscorers list with 122, has won 38 of his 63 games since being appointed just over a year ago, with the Budapest-based side scoring 143 times and conceding 74. Describing his football philosophy in a column after getting the job, he said, “Attacking football on the front foot, trying to win the ball as quickly as possible and play an attractive style that the fans want to see… with a purpose, a bit of speed.”

The 45-year-old has experimented with various formations in his 13 months in charge, shifting between a 4-3-3, 3-5-2 and 3-4-2-1.

Wing play is a crucial part of Keane’s style. Ferencvaros regularly tried to find centre-forward Barnabas Varga, who scored 28 times in 51 matches under the former Republic of Ireland striker.

Varga departed to AEK Athens last month, along with midfielder Alex Toth, one of Ferencvaros’ best crossers and set-piece specialists, who joined Bournemouth. But Keane has stuck to his principles, with others taking on the responsibility of delivering and finishing off crosses.

This goal by January signing Franko Kovacevic against Ujpest last weekend is a great example of how Keane wants his teams to attack.

Ferencvaros also pose a significant threat from set pieces, with a preference for attacking the area around the near post against zonal defences. Thirty per cent of their total shots in this season’s Europa League have come from set-pieces, the third-most among teams to have played at least eight games in that competition.

Defensively, Ferencvaros’ preference to build out from the back has led to trouble, with Spurs’ fellow Premier League strugglers Nottingham Forest most recently punishing them for it for their first two goals in a 4-0 win last month. They are aggressive in pressing up the pitch from the top but more conservative with their midfield and defensive lines, creating gaps for opponents to exploit with runs in behind.

We don’t know yet quite what Tottenham have in mind for replacing Frank, but Keane has made it clear he would not consider an interim role.