Spurs Premier League Managers – From Worst to Best…

If there’s one thing that sets Spurs apart from the rest of the Premier League, it’s the roster of coaches who have passed through our doors.  

At their best, previous managers of Tottenham Hotspurs have gotten us through qualifications for the Champions League and taken on some of the best clubs in Europe. At their worst, however, they’ve left us drifting further and further towards the dreaded bottom half of the table.  

Having just passed the six-month mark of Antonio Conte’s tenure, we thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and cast our minds back to the greatest and worst managers we’ve seen in our Premier League days.  

Jacques Santini 

The 2003-4 era was a rough one for any Spurs fan. If you recall, we were wandering in the wilderness for 10 months in search of the right manager to lead us back up to the top of the table. According to Chair Daniel Levy, that right manager did manifest in the form of Jacques Santini, who was appointed in June 2004. 

The former France manager was supposed to be the “big name to take the club forward”. In reality, however, he only lasted a total of 13 games before handing in his resignation. We weren’t too let down by this turn of events though, as under his rule Spurs only managed to score six goals out of 11 games.  

Jose Mourinho 

Mourinho was handed the reins by Mauricio Pochettino in November 2019 and there were high hopes for the former Chelsea F.C and Man U coach. He did, in fact, meet these hopes in some ways, leading the team to sixth place and our subsequent Europa League qualification – but on so many other levels Mourinho’s tenure was an utter disappointment.  

From the complaints to the run of the mill football on display, the two seasons under Mourinho’s reign were the only ones when we’d failed to reach the top four since 2015. However, while he was certainly not without many flaws, we can thank Mourinho for being so outspoken about the negative effects of fixtures congestion during the 2020-21 season.  

Ossie Ardilles 

Having played for Tottenham for ten years and led us into winning the 1981 World Cup in only his third season as a player, fans in the 1990s were sure that Ossie Ardilles would become the manager of the decade when he returned to White Hart Lane in 1993. The previous season – which was our first in the Premier League – ticked along nicely but was largely boring to watch, so there was hope that Ardilles would bring the spark to get Spurs playing some truly exciting football.  

Well, he did deliver on the exciting front, but his tenure was a huge letdown overall. Take the 1994 signing of Jurgen Klinsmann, for instance. The former striker for Monaco managed to score no less than three times during his first two appearances playing for Spurs, but within months he was ousted after the team conceded a total of 24 goals across 12 different league games.  

He may have made football fun again for Spurs fans, but his wacky methods resulted in the team finishing in 15th position by the end of the 1993/94 season.  

Tim Sherwood 

They’ve not all been bad, mad, or just generally sad, however, as Tim Sherwood’s tenure reminds us. In fact, on a win percentage basis, Sherwood could easily take the number one spot as, under his instructions, Spurs achieved a 59% win ratio in the 2013/14 season. It probably helped that he’d already spent five years at the club, growing from assistant first-team coach to club manager.  

However, in terms of fan engagement, Sherwood just couldn’t quite cut it. Spurs may have jumped up to sixth place during his half-season as boss, and he was responsible for Harry Kane’s start in the Premier League, but club supporters just couldn’t gel with him.  

Harry Redknapp 

All things considered, ‘Arry worked wonders at White Hart Lane during his four-ish seasons in charge. When he came into the fold in 2008, Spurs had just played their worst ever season start and were languishing at the bottom of the table with two points from eight matches. Within two weeks, however, Spurs were out of the relegation zone and creeping back up the table.  

That first season under Harry Redknapp’s tenure, Spurs made it to the League Cup and finished in eighth position in the PL. The years that followed would bring about some of the club’s biggest successes to date, including that unforgettable Champions League quarter-final in 2011.