Thomas Frank has been dismissed as Tottenham Hotspur manager after only 38 games in charge of the club. But who might go on to replace him in the dugout? We run through some of the potential contenders.
It might’ve taken a little longer than many Tottenham fans wanted, but Thomas Frank’s reign as manager was brought to an end on Wednesday with Spurs precariously close to the relegation zone.
Frank was hired as Ange Postecoglou’s replacement in the summer after doing a stellar job at Brentford, getting them promoted and then establishing them as a Premier League club. But the Dane was unable to be similarly impactful at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
He leaves with Spurs just five points above a resurgent West Ham – who’ve lost just one of their past five league games – in the final relegation spot after managing just 1.12 points per game in the Premier League, the worst record of any Tottenham manager.
So, who’s next? Here, we run the rule over their dream targets, more realistic options, and some out-there curveballs…
Dream Appointments
Mauricio Pochettino
Some believe you should never go back, but Mauricio Pochettino would perhaps be the ultimate dream appointment for many Tottenham fans. They even sang his name on Tuesday night, which couldn’t have been easy for Frank to hear.
The Argentine oversaw an impressive five years at the club between 2014 and 2019, finishing in the top four in four of his five completed seasons. Prior to that, Spurs had only finished in the top four in two of their 22 Premier League campaigns. He ended his time there with an average of 1.89 points per game.
Pochettino also took Spurs to their first ever UEFA Champions League final in 2019, just months before he was sacked in November 2019 after a poor start to the season.
Spells at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea ultimately didn’t work out, and now Pochettino is coaching the United States men’s national team as they prepare to co-host the World Cup this summer.
It is therefore very unlikely that any return happens now, but should the Spurs hierarchy be willing to appoint an interim and wait for the summer to address the issue long-term, the fans could be serenading Pochettino in person next season.
54% – Of managers to have taken charge of 50 or more competitive games with Tottenham, only Andre Villas-Boas (55%) had a better win percentage than Mauricio Pochettino (54%), who won 159 of his 293 matches in charge of the club. Spurred. pic.twitter.com/0nk6fRHqJo
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 19, 2019Xabi Alonso
Things might not have worked out for Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid, but that is arguably the toughest managerial job in world football. Failures there are rarely down to results alone, with off-field dynamics and player egos often just as influential as what happens on the pitch.
On the results front, Alonso’s record stands up pretty well. He left Madrid with a 71% win rate, winning 24 of 34 games in all competitions, along with four draws and six defeats.
That win percentage puts him sixth all time among Real Madrid managers to oversee 25 or more games. Even the manager who has the best win rate of them all – Manuel Pellegrini (75%) – is not that far ahead.
Alonso struggled to handle Madrid’s high-profile stars, notably falling out with Vinícius Júnior. Tottenham would be a far different environment, with fewer egos to manage and less player politics, which could better suit his coaching-led approach.
Tactically, Alonso would bring structure and clarity. His teams are defined by strong positional principles, clearly defined roles and detailed planning. He showed flexibility at Madrid, too, moving from a back-five system in Germany towards a back four, given Madrid were always expected to dominate the ball.
We’re also not that far removed from Alonso masterminding Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten Bundesliga title in 2023-24. That achievement established him as one of Europe’s most admired young coaches and saw him heavily linked with the Liverpool job after Jürgen Klopp’s departure.
He’s still one of the hottest managerial talents in the game and will likely be holding out for a bigger gig. Still, Spurs fan can dream – right?
Andoni Iraola
Tottenham have long admired Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola. He was identified as a potential successor to Ange Postecoglou before the club eventually opted for Frank instead.
Iraola has transformed Bournemouth since joining in June 2023 from Rayo Vallecano, implementing an intense, high-pressing style. He broke the club’s Premier League points record in his first campaign, and proceeded to go one better in 2024-25, with Bournemouth amassing 56 points.
There have been wobbles this season, but they have navigated losing most of their first-choice defence in the summer and superstar Antoine Semenyo in the winter extremely well. They are unbeaten in their last five games and are just two points off the top six.
Iraola’s philosophy is direct, vertical and aggressive. In possession he wants his side to progress play speedily up the pitch. Without it, he demands high pressing. In that sense, his principles are closer to Frank’s current Tottenham model than to Postecoglou’s slower build-up play. The below styles comparison confirms that, with Frank’s Tottenham a lot more similar to Bournemouth than they were under Postecoglou.
As has proven to be the case with Frank, question marks are there around the transition to a bigger, wealthier club with expectations to be progressive and proactive in possession. But Iraola has done nothing but continually prove himself at Bournemouth and would be a real coup.
Enzo Maresca
Another former Chelsea boss, but one who would be less popular with Spurs fans than Pochettino, is Enzo Maresca. In that sense, he wouldn’t really be a ‘dream’ appointment, but it does seem like an unlikely marriage, so we’ve categorised it as such.
However, if you’re willing to gloss over the fact he managed a London rival in Chelsea (which, to be fair, Tottenham often do when hiring managers), Maresca did a relatively solid job at Stamford Bridge, and his departure last month was more about off-field disagreements with the board than anything else.
He secured a top-four finish last season, also winning the UEFA Conference League, before following that up with success in the FIFA Club World Cup last summer.
That said, under Maresca, Chelsea only averaged 1.74 points-per-game in the Premier League. Among managers with 30+ league games in charge of the club in the 21st century, only Frank Lampard (1.52) and Pochettino (1.66) had a lower rate.
Given Frank had an average of just 1.12 points per game at Spurs, 1.74 would be much appreciated if Maresca was able to get similar output should he make the much-trodden journey from Chelsea to Tottenham.
Realistic Choices
Roberto De Zerbi
They say the best ability is availability; could Roberto De Zerbi’s sudden departure from Marseille have come into Tottenham’s thinking when making their decision on Frank?
Marseille announced in the early hours of Wednesday morning that De Zerbi had left the club by “mutual agreement”. Although his exit came in the wake of a 5-0 hammering to Paris Saint-Germain in Sunday’s Classique, the Italian’s future had been in extreme doubt ever since their elimination from the Champions League last month.
It may be purely coincidental that Frank’s dismissal was confirmed just hours later, but De Zerbi was always likely to attract interest from big clubs once he was available again. And he has experienced the Premier League before.
Tottenham fans want front-foot, dominant football, and there’s certainly evidence to suggest De Zerbi would bring that.
While in charge of Brighton, only Manchester City averaged a greater share of possession than his side (61.1%) in the Premier League. And, of the 17 ever-present top-flight teams in that period, just four bettered their 114.4 non-penalty expected goals (xG).
De Zerbi expects his teams to play out from the back, press high and attack. On the face of it, there’s plenty to suggest he’s exactly what Spurs fans are crying out for.
Oliver Glasner
Some may be inclined to let recency bias take over when considering Oliver Glasner as Frank’s replacement. And it’s true that things have unravelled somewhat at Crystal Palace in the past two months.
But until then, the Austrian’s reign was rather positive.
After taking over in February 2024, Glasner’s Palace went on to equal their record Premier League points tally (49) in 2023-24.
They then broke that record in 2024-25 by accumulating 53 points, but more importantly, Glasner led the club to the first major trophy in their history with a 1-0 defeat of Manchester City in the 2025 FA Cup final.
This season began very well, too, winning the Community Shield and starting promisingly in the league. Going into Matchday 16, Palace were fourth in the Premier League and looking very much a part of the race for European football.
But their small squad struggled to cope with fixture congestion, injuries and the Africa Cup of Nations, with their form subsequently falling off a cliff; Sunday’s 1-0 victory at Brighton ended a 12-match winless run in all competitions.
Nevertheless, Glasner has generally done a fine job at Palace, helping them overachieve by playing vibrant, transition-based football. And while he has mostly used a back three at Palace, it’s not a system he’s been married to throughout his career.
Some fans might be concerned that’d he’d be too similar to Frank, however; another manager who’s thrived without being expected to dominate games. The fact his contract is up at the end of the season and he’s already confirmed he won’t sign a new one would also make negotiations for Spurs much easier.
Ruben Amorim
If Ruben Amorim’s stock wasn’t already low enough, it’s likely plummeted further since Michael Carrick took over Manchester United and led them to four successive wins – something the Portuguese coach never managed at Old Trafford – in his first four games.
But Spurs were one of the clubs reportedly interested in Amorim during his impressive time at Sporting CP, and, to be fair to him, his United side had improved a reasonable amount this term compared to last.
Amorim’s United exit seemed to be more about his relationship with the club’s hierarchy than results this season. Granted, they hadn’t been spectacular, but they were relatively functional and more cohesive in attack, their non-pen xG going up from 1.2 per game under Amorim last term to 1.6 in 2025-26 prior to his exit.
There’s also a very reasonable argument this Spurs squad – when they don’t have 12 first-teamers out injured – is more suited to Amorim’s infamous 3-4-3 system.
For one, Spurs’ full-backs are generally more obvious fits for wing-back positions than their United counterparts, and generally the team aren’t strangers to playing three at the back – much of Amorim’s squad at Old Trafford were.
Out of a job and with plenty to prove, Amorim would surely jump at the chance of moving to Spurs and rebuilding his reputation.
John Heitinga
In terms of potential short-term appointments, John Heitinga seems to be the obvious choice. The former Everton and Fulham defender only arrived at the club as an assistant to Frank last month and has recent managerial experience.
Granted, it wasn’t a great experience. After being a part of Arne Slot’s backroom staff at Liverpool when winning the Premier League title last season, Heitinga was headhunted by his former club Ajax to be their new head coach.
However, things didn’t work out back in Amsterdam. Heitinga won five of his 11 Eredivisie games in charge (D5 L1), and left with the team in fourth place, eight points off the top.
It was the Champions League that was largely Heitinga’s undoing, though. Ajax lost each of their four league-phase games under him, conceding 14 goals and scoring just one. He was sacked in early November, before being brought to Spurs as part of Frank’s staff.
Manchester United have shown the benefit of relying on an interim manager who perhaps doesn’t have the CV to be considered long-term. But given Spurs are in a relegation fight, turning to an inexperienced option who hasn’t exactly shone as a head coach before would be quite a risk.
Curveball Options
Robbie Keane
One manager who’s been learning his craft in some of Europe’s more obscure top-flight leagues in recent seasons is former Tottenham striker Robbie Keane.Across 2023-24 and 2024-25, he won top-flight league titles as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel and Ferencváros in Hungary.
Admittedly, the Hungarian side were already two points clear at the top of the league when he took over in January 2025, but he still completed the job with 17 games to play. In fact, since he took the Ferencváros job, no team have won more games (22) or points (75) than they have.
He’s also guided Ferencváros to the UEFA Europa League play-offs this season, beating more established European sides such as Red Bull Salzburg, Rangers and Ludogorets Razgrad along the way, while also securing a very credible draw at Fenerbahçe.
This would be an appointment to tug at the heartstrings of Spurs fans, with Keane’s playing days at White Hart Lane fondly remembered by supporters. A former club captain and one of only 10 players to have scored 100+ goals for Tottenham, Keane would have the fans onside from the start.
But that relationship could be soured if things don’t work out with him in the dugout.
Kieran McKenna
Despite spending seven years in their academy as a player, Kieran McKenna was cruelly robbed of a professional playing career at Tottenham due to a serious hip injury.Turning his hand to coaching instead, McKenna spent time in an analysis role with Spurs’ academy before being placed in charge of their under-18s and guiding them to the FA Youth Cup semi-finals in 2015. He then moved to Manchester United to work under José Mourinho alongside Michael Carrick before getting the Ipswich Town job in December 2021.
McKenna led Ipswich to sensational back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League in 2022-23 and 2023-24, but he was ultimately unsuccessful in keeping them in the top flight in 2024-25. He remains the manager with the lowest points-per-game (0.58) and win rate (10.5%) of those to have taken charge of 30+ games in the competition.
Don’t let that record fool you into thinking he’s not a fantastic coach, however. Since taking the Ipswich job, only three managers have won more games than McKenna (86) across England’s top four tiers: Pep Guardiola (108), Mikel Arteta (104) and Dave Challinor (90).
Despite McKenna’s overall success as a manager, his previous time in the Premier League would make this a curveball appointment, but far from an unwise one.
Ange Postecoglou
The grass isn’t always greener…Ange Postecoglou guided Tottenham to their first major trophy in 17 years when his side defeated Manchester United in last season’s UEFA Europa League final.
Despite that, he was dismissed by Spurs in June, becoming the first Premier League manager to win a major trophy and be sacked at the end of the same season since Antonio Conte in 2017-18 with Chelsea.
Admittedly, their horrendous Premier League campaign in 2024-25 was the main reason behind his dismissal. Tottenham finished 17th, their worst final league position since 1976-77 when they were relegated from the top flight.But this season has arguably been even worse (despite a higher points-per-game average), and they are very unlikely to secure silverware having been knocked out of both the League Cup and FA Cup already.
Postecoglou’s gung-ho style was used as a stick to beat him with on many occasions, but most Spurs fans would prefer that to the turgid displays under Frank.
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