Tottenham turn back to Ten Hag after Conte talks stall

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:47 CDT
• 4 min read

Tottenham have reportedly turned back to considering Ajax boss Erik ten Hag as their pursuit of a new manager continues.

Talks with former Inter boss Antonio Conte have stalled over recent days, with the levels of investment Spurs are looking to put in for transfers cited as one of the stumbling blocks.

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With other top candidates having ruled themselves out, The Mirror report Tottenham will now look again at Ten Hag, who had been strongly linked as a candidate when Jose Mourinho was sacked in April.

The situation is complicated by the fact the 51-year-old recently signed a new two-year deal with Ajax and insisted his "head and his heart" were with the team.

Ten Hag appeared to reference the links to Spurs after signing the deal.

"You know what it is like with football rumours from outside - it tells you that we are doing good work at Ajax," he said.

"I don't want to rule out that that could have happened, but I know what I have here."

How well has Ten Hag done with Ajax?

Ten Hag took charge of Ajax in December 2017 having previously been in charge at Utrecht.

He led Ajax to a league and cup double in his first full season (2018/19) and famously led the club to the Champions League semi-finals that season, where they lost a heart-breaking tie to Tottenham.

They were top of the table when the 2019/20 season was abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic and then last season he led Ajax to another double in the Eredivisie and KNVB Cup.

His consistent success has come despite the sale of many of the clubs star players like Hakim Ziyech, Donny van de Beek, Sergiño Dest, Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt.

Who are the other Tottenham candidates?

A swoop for former boss Mauricio Pochettino, now at PSG, was previously mooted, although getting the French side to agree to release the Spaniard appears to have been more difficult than first thought.

Other names connected with the post along with Ten Hag are Belgium boss Roberto Martinez, Brighton manager Graham Potter and ex-Bournemouth head coach Eddie Howe, whose proposed move to Celtic recently broke down.

Brendan Rodgers was previously thought to be in the mix but has stressed his continued committed to Leicester City, while Julian Nagelsmann and Massimiliano Allegri are no longer options having joined Bayern Munich and Juventus respectively.