
Burnley manager Sean Dyche shouts from the touchline during the Premier League match at Turf Moor, Burnley. Picture date: Saturday November 20, 2021. (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images) | PA Images via Getty Images
Iâm going to do something that I almost never do: link to a talkSPORT article. I know, I feel gross about it too, feel free to not click the link. But itâs also interesting â apparently noted worm-muncher and former Burnley, Everton and Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche was never approached by Tottenham Hotspur to become their next manager, and even if they had approached him, he wouldâve turned them down.
Dyche was a popular potential managerial candidate amongst a certain segment of Spurs fan after Igor Tudorâs tenure was mutually terminated, for a variety of reasons â heâs a well known figure amongst Premier League players, he plays a style of football that while not exactly glamorous has been known to keep struggling Premier League clubs afloat, and also he was available. I donât think most Spurs fans wanted Dyche because they thought he would be a good long-term manager for Tottenham Hotspur (his style of football is pretty far from the âAudere est facereâ style Spurs fans are clamoring for), but there was a vocal segment that thought he could do enough to keep Spurs from the drop.
But Dyche, speaking on talkSPORTâs White and Jordan show, said that while he didnât laugh off the links to Tottenham when they emerged, he was never going to take the job.
âI didnât laugh it off by the way, I told a true story. I spend a lot of time in London, not working but socially and I just happened to be here at the same time the Tottenham job opened. Once youâre in the city, people put two and two together and it was never about getting drawn into the rumours.
âIâm telling the truth, there was a lot of speculation and talk and I was playing it down correctly so. Itâs no disrespect to anyone, itâs a brilliant club and Iâve said that but itâs nonsense to pre-suppose an outcome just because youâre in the same city.
âŠ
âObviously in the career I have, it does pay well but I wouldnât go in there looking for money. They could offer me a massive amount of money, Iâm sure theyâre capable of it and allegedly theyâve offered [Roberto] De Zerbi a massive amount of money.
âIt would have been about what are [Spurs] going to help me gain as a human being. What would I gain? Letâs say you go in there and get the job done, then next season if youâre not in the top four and the footballâs not what they want, then youâre rubbish and they want you out.
âSo youâre not going to gain a lot there, are you? And thatâs if you get the job done, because itâs not easy. If you donât get the job done, then somehow itâs on my neck that I took Tottenham down. That ainât good for me as a human, this isnât even about football at this point. Then you get some money and I go, Iâm not thirsty for that. Iâve got some money.â
Heâs not wrong, and that sentiment is probably a wall that Spurs ran into with any number of candidates. It doesnât make a lot of sense for him to take the job. At best he keeps Spurs up and then ends up being a terrible fit for the style of football they want to play. At worst he fails, Spurs get relegated, and then heâs castigated for failing and is likely out of a job anyway. Itâs the definition of a poisoned chalice.
Itâs probably why they decided to throw a bunch of money at someone like Roberto De Zerbi, whom, ethical considerations aside, is a talented manager and clearly decided the money was worth sticking around Spurs even if they do get relegated. Weâve said what we want to say about De Zerbiâs sexual assault apologia and his non-apology for defending Mason Greenwood (and no, I wonât be shutting up about it), but in some ways De Zerbi makes more sense than hiring someone like Dyche, the very definition of a short-term appointment for a club like Tottenham.
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