Nuno Espirito Santo is expected to win the Manager’s Prize for the Year of the Premier League if he can finish the jump from 17 to top five in a year and bring the Nottingham forest back to the elite in Europe.
You could make a very good case for Arne Slot during her first season in Liverpool or Eddie Howe, ending Newcastle’s long wait for a trophy and on the right track for a return to the Champions League.
Perhaps for Unai Emery or Oliver Glasner if they finish progressing with a victory in FA Cup. Upon entering the semi-finals of this weekend, Nuno is also in this conversation.
There is so much to admire in the transformation of the forest. The beautiful balance of the team with defensive rocks and an electrical rhythm. The visceral energy of the city’s land, released from years of suffering.
A year ago, they were fighting relegation and deductions of fear points. Now, an era of sumptuous excessive expenses is announced as a model for promoted clubs. Strange indeed.
Then there has been Nuno’s Redeemer Arc since Tottenham dismissed him after four months and eight victories in 17 games. So much results, it was his austere football and his taciturn character who made Nuno a so badly suited to a club that loves his fanfaron.
Nuno Espirito Santo (photo above) transformed the fortune of the Nottingham forest after his arrival at City Ground
The forest shocked the world by going up an offer to qualify for the Champions League this term
All of this seems relevant when clubs collide on Monday evening. One savoring its most successful season for decades and the other trapped in another existential crisis. What do they really want? Success, they will tell you. Isn’t it all? And what is the success anyway?
For the forest, it was to fight against elite adversaries without fear and to shake up some of the best teams in the country – and who cares if the damage is caused to the counterattack with 30% possession.
To compete to qualify for the Champions League, a trophy that they have won twice as a European Cup, or to raise the FA Cup for the first time since 1959 are successful measures that fans did not dare to consider in August.
The Spurs tackle the debate from a different angle, after having spent the last 75 years, except one, in the upper flight. They did not work in exile or plunged into the third level like the forest.
Call that aristocratic arrogance if you wish. Or the right of the rich. As one of the richest clubs in the world, they expect to challenge for the Grands Prix, even if they have only won three in 40 years. And they want to do it with Flair because it’s like that. On occasion, romance gives way to urgent materialism, the principles suspended to tolerate the appointment of George Graham or Jose Mourinho.
Graham called on the League Cup. Juande Ramos too. Mourinho reached a final of the League Cup to be dismissed less than a week before the match.
None of them was really kissed. Graham, who was in charge when I reported for the first time in the club, could never compensate for his inheritance of Arsenal. He had led the Spurs in a semi-final of the FA Cup against their northern London rivals when he became the first dismissal of Daniel Levy.
Glenn Hoddle entered and lost the semi at Arsenal and therefore started the spiral of madness. Rentals and shots. Managers have variously condemned as too tactical or not tactical enough. Too far away and detached or too involved and emotional.
Angel Postcoglou has been subjected to immense criticisms this season, but the Australian still has the opportunity to lead the Spurs to silverware this term
Forest fell to sixth row of the Premier League after having suffered consecutive defeats
None of them can take a catch on something that they can pass for success. Not even five exceptional years under Mauricio Pocsettino fueled by Harry Kane’s goals. And now, Ange Postcoglou is fighting for his work.
These glorious weeks in the fall of 2023 collapsed in what could end as the worst Tottenham season of the era of the Premier League. Those who sang the name of Postcoglou have lost faith and most of them want it even if they suspect the root of the problem elsewhere.
And yet, in the world of football fine lines, everything could still go backwards for these two coaches before the end of the season. The forest has faded, engulfed by the hunting pack. The dream of the Champions League is suspended in balance, and they could really do with spurs which, despite all their problems, are about to get their hands on the Europa League.
Bodo / Glimt, Athletic Bilbao and Manchester United will have other ideas, but what an obtuse reversal of makeshift is if the forest has failed anything and the Spurs found themselves with a major trophy and a place in the Champions League of next season after such a purification campaign.
No one will vote for PostCoglou as director of the year. In fact, there is no guarantee that winning the Europa League would spare him the bag.
Five things we have learned this week
1 and 1 Tony Bloom and Matthew Benham show no sign to end their personal quarrel. Bloom got involved in Brighton fans in a nearby ad and looked at the external end on Saturday. He always takes off Brentford’s conference room, although the scientist that Benham remains reclusive remains hidden in his private box. Bloom must have grinned, when fans outside around him targeted a choir of “You don’t know what you are doing” to his head coach Fabian Hurzeler.
2 The Premier League clubs are jostling for Tyler Dibling, 19, attracted by his young promise despite the valuation of Southampton of 100 million pounds sterling, but I can’t help but think that those who have money to spend big for an attacker are better to go around for the constantly brilliant and proven talent of Jarrod Bowen of West Ham or Bryan Brentford.
Premier League clubs are jostling for Tyler Dibling, 19, attracted by his young promise despite the valuation of Southampton of 100 million pounds sterling
Thursday, nine goals were scored in more than three European links – five in Man Utd
3 and 3 Nine goals were scored in addition to three European links on Thursday. Five at Manchester United, two at Lazio and two in Rapid Vienna. A timely reminder of the value of an additional 30 minutes of real football and the thrills that it can offer, despite what seems to be a campaign led by the BBC to send cutting links drawn directly to penalties for an additional TV drama.
4 Michael Cheek from Bromley scored his 22nd goal from the League two season on Good Friday. 33 years old, he is the top scorer in the EFL in his first season of the competition. Cheek worked part -time in a cafe when he takes place on the goal track with Stanway Rovers and Téy Marque in the Senior Essex League. He has 127 goals in six years in Bromley.
5 Antonio Conte lives up to his old things, I see. His team from Napoli is dueling with his former Inter Milan club for the title of Serie A as he throws threats that he could leave if he is not supported on the transfer market. “I’m not stupid, I don’t see the resources to do so,” said Conte. Some things will never change to paraphrase your separation shot in Tottenham.
