Tottenham have appointed Nuno Espirito Santo as their new head coach.
The former Wolves boss has signed a two-year deal with the north London club bringing an end to their long-running search for Jose Mourinho’s successor.
Spurs’ new managing director of football Fabio Paratici has led the club’s search for a new permanent head coach and close the deal as he flew into London for the first time on Tuesday.
The Spurs hierarchy have held talks with Antonio Conte, Mauricio Pochettino, Paulo Fonseca, Gennaro Gattuso and Julen Lopetegui since the end of the Premier League season.
Nuno was not a candidate when he left Wolves at the end of the season as Spurs pursued other targets, but emerged as the leading contender in the last week.
“When you have a squad with quality and talent, we want to make the fans proud and enjoy,” Nuno told Spurs’ club website.
“It’s an enormous pleasure and honour [to be here], there’s joy and I’m happy and looking forward to starting work. We don’t have any days to lose and we must start working immediately as pre-season starts in a few days.”
“First of all, I’d like to welcome Nuno to the club,” said Spurs chairman Daniel Levy. “We should like to thank our supporters for all their patience throughout this process.
“I’ve spoken already about the need to revert back to our core DNA of playing attacking, entertaining football and Fabio and I believe Nuno is the man who can take our talented group of players, embrace our young players coming through and build something special.”
Nuno Espirito Santo led Wolves back to European football by qualifying for the 2019/20 Europa League tournament
“The brief for this appointment has always been clear, we wanted a head coach that can instil all the values that are important to this football club,” Paratici said.
“You only have to look at Nuno’s time at Wolves to see his ability to take a group of players and implement an adaptive style that brings success and allows players to develop and thrive. We are all looking forward to getting started in what we hope will be a successful time with the club.”
The Portuguese brought Wolves into the Premier League in 2018 and established them as a top-half side – twice finishing seventh and once qualifying for the Europa League – until last season, when they ended 13th.
Previously, he had stints at Valencia, Porto and Rio Ave, where he steered the side to two cup finals and qualification for the Europa League for the first time in their history.
Analysis: Is Nuno pragmatic?
Sky Sports News’ Paul Gilmour:
“The wait is over for Tottenham fans. The long drawn-out saga of the summer, the managerial search, has come to an end.
“We know that when Nuno first left Wolves, he was not even in Spurs’ thinking. They have tried to get Antonio Conte, Paulo Fonseca, Gennaro Gattuso among others.
“This is the beginning of a new structure completely at Tottenham, with Fabio Paratici coming in.
“The in-tray will have one name at the very top: Harry Kane. If he stays, great. If he does leave, it could well be a complete rebuild of the squad. We know Man City are prepared to pay £100m for Kane, Tottenham have rejected it, but that is not the end of it. We go from one saga to another, and that one could go on all summer.
Harry Kane’s future will be the first item in Nuno’s in-tray
“There is the belief within Tottenham that Nuno can play attacking football. You talk to people who followed Wolves over time, and they will say he was pragmatic, but there have been nights and moments where that Nuno side adapted and went in for the kill on sides.
“We know he played the 3-5-2 at Wolves a lot, and might be able to get the best out of Matt Doherty. There is a belief within Spurs that when he has a full complement of players, that his teams can play this brand of football.
“People will talk about how long the process took, but if this is a success, and after the first couple months of the season he is on track, that will be forgotten quite quickly.”
