Sean Dyche was not approached for the Spurs job, and wouldn’t have taken it

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

I’m 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 it’s also interesting — 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 would’ve turned them down.

Dyche was a popular potential managerial candidate amongst a certain segment of Spurs fan after Igor Tudor’s tenure was mutually terminated, for a variety of reasons — he’s 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 don’t 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 “Audere est facere” 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 talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show, said that while he didn’t laugh off the links to Tottenham when they emerged, he was never going to take the job.

“I didn’t 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 you’re in the city, people put two and two together and it was never about getting drawn into the rumours.

“I’m telling the truth, there was a lot of speculation and talk and I was playing it down correctly so. It’s no disrespect to anyone, it’s a brilliant club and I’ve said that but it’s nonsense to pre-suppose an outcome just because you’re in the same city.

…

“Obviously in the career I have, it does pay well but I wouldn’t go in there looking for money. They could offer me a massive amount of money, I’m sure they’re capable of it and allegedly they’ve offered [Roberto] De Zerbi a massive amount of money.

“It would have been about what are [Spurs] going to help me gain as a human being. What would I gain? Let’s say you go in there and get the job done, then next season if you’re not in the top four and the football’s not what they want, then you’re rubbish and they want you out.

“So you’re not going to gain a lot there, are you? And that’s if you get the job done, because it’s not easy. If you don’t get the job done, then somehow it’s on my neck that I took Tottenham down. That ain’t good for me as a human, this isn’t even about football at this point. Then you get some money and I go, I’m not thirsty for that. I’ve got some money.”

He’s not wrong, and that sentiment is probably a wall that Spurs ran into with any number of candidates. It doesn’t 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 he’s castigated for failing and is likely out of a job anyway. It’s the definition of a poisoned chalice.

It’s 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. We’ve said what we want to say about De Zerbi’s sexual assault apologia and his non-apology for defending Mason Greenwood (and no, I won’t 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.