-
Postecoglou becomes new 7/24.50 favourite following Slot rejection
-
Nagelsmann has already ruled himself out
-
11/112.00 Graham Potter fits the bill
Tottenham Hotspur are back in crisis territory. There is no denying Daniel Levy's manager hunt has been a car crash, and that whoever eventually ends up with the job will immediately be under pressure.
It is alarmingly similar to the debacle that preceded Nuno Espirito Santo's disastrous 17-game spell at the helm.
Spurs remain hopeful of appointing a more exciting name than Nuno and reportedly Levy is still prioritising an attack-minded coach, but two months into his search we are back to square one.
Mauricio Pochettino was snubbed; Julien Nagelsmann was apparently not given an interview (although it is unclear if he would have wanted the job); and now Arne Slot has turned Tottenham down.
Options are thinning. With ENIC under significant pressure following another poor campaign Levy simply has to get this one right, yet with Harry Kane's future uncertain and Spurs unlikely to be in European competition next season the stench of crisis coming off the club will probably put off a lot of the most attractive candidates.
Here's a look at the six favourites and what each of them would bring:
Ange Postecoglou is the new frontrunner at 7/24.50, and as a very popular figure at Celtic more and more Spurs fans are getting excited about the prospect of the 57-year-old Australian coming into the club. But there is a real problem here, and one that just hasn't been addressed enough.
Relatively unknown managers (to Premier League fans at least) are exciting because we can project whatever we want onto them, filling in the gaps to suit what we hope will happen.
Postecoglou has brought sophisticated attacking tactics to Celtic and restored the club from a low base, and he has also won the Asia Cup with Australia along with league titles at Melbourne Victory and Yokohama F. Marinos.

He has had consistent success, but he is frankly completely untested at a high level in the club game.
The tactical differences between Japanese, Australian, and Scottish football compared to the Premier League are immense, and it would be wildly risky for Levy to give the job to somebody with no experience whatsoever of such a high-quality division.
He would almost certainly accept the job, however, and there is plenty of excitement around Europe about the way his teams play.
And yet Celtic were torn apart in the Champions League group stages this year, failing to win a single game, which means either they were coached poorly or the competition is simply far too high a level for them - in which case, again, Postecoglou is far too inexperienced for the Tottenham job.
The timing is bad for Brendan Rodgers 4/15.00but he has delivered on multiple occasions and, having twice taken Leicester City to within one game of Champions League football, he would be a fairly smart signing.
Rodgers certainly knows how to build over the long-term and play progressive football, plus in 2014 he took a Liverpool team of around Spurs' quality to within a couple of games of the league title.

However, Levy wants two main things: a young up-and-comer like Pochettino last time, so that he can catch a manager as they hit their prime, and a name who will excite the supporters.
Rodgers ticks neither box, and worse than that, it might be tricky to get fans onside given how abject things became over two poor seasons at Leicester.
Rodgers is cheap, though, and if the search rumbles on through the summer then he will start to become an attractive candidate.
The former Bayern Munich manager is still third favourite for the job because of recent rumours that talks have started up again, but it always felt like Spurs were stretching and surely Nagelsmann 11/26.50 will be even more doubtful after Slot turned them down.
Nagelsmann is still seen as one of the best around, and therefore he can wait for something more obviously attractive to come up, rather than invest in a very long project in a league with several richer clubs.
Surely he won't accept any offer, and that's assuming Levy has the humility to go back - which he probably doesn't.
We know Levy is trying to move away from the superstar appointment, which is why Luis Enrique 15/28.50 tends to be on bookies' shortlists but never seriously linked with the job.
However, that might have shifted as Levy gets more desperate and, as an unattached former Champions League winner, Enrique starts to look more appealing.
But he is not the right call. Aside from two excellent years at Barcelona - when he built on the Pep Guardiola foundations and had the easy pleasure of Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez up front - Enrique has not done well as a manager. He underachieved at both AS Roma and Celta Vigo, playing pretty bland football that lacked focus. He is definitely one to stay away from.
Ruben Amorim (11/1) is the sort of manager who, to many Premier League viewers, sounds made up: a fake name to add to every shortlist for managerial vacancies.
It is only now that Spurs are getting through their first, second, and third choices that Amorim's name features so high on the supposed list of candidates.

He isn't the one. Amorim rose to fame first by winning the league with Sporting CP in 2020/21, their first in 19 years, and then by beating Tottenham 2-0 in the Champions League this season.
Naturally that will have got Levy's attention, but the style of football is too big an obstacle. He is a reactive and cautious coach far too similar to Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte in how he sees the game. Spurs fans won't stand for that.
Eight months ago Graham Potter 11/112.00was the perfect choice for Tottenham, or indeed almost any of the 'Big Six' clubs, after his superb work building Brighton from the defensive side under Chris Hughton to the club they are today. What's really changed since September?
Potter's reputation has been hit hard by the catastrophe at Chelsea but to compare that situation - a mid-season appointment into a 30-strong dressing room - to Tottenham's would be very naïve.
In north London Potter would have the time and space to build a long-term project of the sort he has done numerous times before.
What's more, he is a forward-thinking possession coach and is available on a free.
Just because he is a Chelsea reject should not get in the way of appointing the right manager to the right job. Hopefully Levy is savvy enough to see that the man who would have been his first choice - as the next Pochettino - late last year is still here and still the same person.