Tottenham have been one of the most dismally disappointing teams in all of European football this season, and as we head into the March international break, Spurs sit just 14th in the Premier League table.
Manchester United’s impressive 3-0 win over Leicester City have brought the Red Devils over Tottenham, making Spurs the biggest flops of the 2024/25 Premier League season, just one year after manager Ange Postecoglu gave them Champions League hopes in their first season at the helm.
But now, Spurs are back where they started – and actually further behind, despite making some expensive additions to the squad like James Maddison and Dominic Solanke.
Following a 2-0 loss to Fulham and now without a Premier League win since Feb. 22, Postecoglu is facing more calls for his firing, including a report from the Telegraph’s Matt Law and John Percy stating that the club is already looking at Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and Fulham’s Marco Silva as possible replacements.
While Tottenham have mostly backed Postecoglu this season and the manager seems to be more “in” than “out” in North London, you don’t start thinking about replacing a coach if all is well – and the results, unfortunately, speak for themselves.
So here are five possible candidates for Tottenham to replace “Big Ange” with in 2025, should they decide to can the former Celtic boss.
Andoni Iraola
With 406 caps at Athletic Club and even 7 appearances as a Spanish international, Andoni Iraola was one of Europe’s best and most overlooked right backs for more than a decade in the 2000s and 2010s.
He’s now actually made a bigger name for himself as a manager, first guiding Rayo Vallecano to flirtation with European football before now doing the same with Bournemouth at a bigger venue – and with much more supportive ownership – in the Premier League.
Iraola will be one of the hottest managers on the market this summer, as Bournemouth are in the top half of the table and Iraola is known for having a great way of relating to players with more innovative tactics suiting the modern Premiership.
Thomas Frank
Linked closely with the Chelsea and Manchester United jobs this past summer, Thomas Frank ultimately stayed at Brentford, where he has continued their tradition of mildly toying with European football.
Currently in 11th, Brentford are a better side than their place in the table indicates and are, like Bournemouth, ahead of Tottenham in the table with a significantly more impressive attack.
Frank is one of the best in the Premier League at getting the most out of attacking talent. He turned Ivan Toney into one of the league’s best strikers and is now doing excellent work with Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo, and Mikel Damsgaard to form one of the English top flight’s best attacking tridents.
Marco Silva
Another former right back in his playing days, while Marco Silva didn’t have as impressive of a resumé as a footballer as Iraola, he arguably has an even better one as a coach.
Silva has won four different leagues in his career, including the EFL Championship to bring Fulham back to the top flight. Fulham are one of the trickiest customers in the Premier League, as Silva has almost single-handedly reframed the perception of the club from toilers to a legitimate threat to go to Europe.
Once again, Fulham are on the cusp, sitting in eighth place, and Silva has consistently delivered positive results for the Cottagers. It’s no wonder why he is being linked to the Spurs gig.
Michel
Girona have faded badly this season after losing two of LaLiga’s best attacking players in Savinho and Artem Dovbyk, who were both very likely the best players in their respective positions during the 2023/24 season when the Catalan club were, briefly, title contenders to Real Madrid.
Although Girona have struggled this season, Michel is doing a decent job and is keeping the club safely afloat in LaLiga. His innovation with the fullbacks as auxiliary midfielders and ability to get something out of a washed-up, 35-year-old Daley Blind are accomplishments worth keeping in mind.
Sebastian Hoeness
Initially written off in the Bundesliga, Sebastian Hoeness, nephew of the infamous Uli, first emerged on the scene a few years ago when his Hoffenheim side decimated Bayern Munich.
Now, Hoeness is the architect of the rise of VfB Stuttgart to a Champions League side, and they didn’t look entirely out of place in the competition this year despite losing their best players – Serhou Guirassy and Waldemar Anton – to Borussia Dortmund.
In fact, Stuttgart are still in the Champions League hunt this season despite those departures and are annihilating Dortmund in the table, including a 5-1 victory over them in September.
Another intriguing young coach, Hoeness utilizes the high-pressing, aggressive modern German scheme to a much better effect than some of his contemporaries, and his tactics are clearly superior – and more proven at the top level – than Postecoglu’s.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.