This morning, The Athletic’s Tottenham Hotspur beat writer Jack Pitt-Brooke released a new piece about the recent statement from Spurs owners the Lewis family and CEO Vinai Venkatesham, all commenting on the season that just finished. JPB’s piece, which is worth a read, is very similar in tone and conclusions to the opinion I wrote and published yesterday, noting in particular how the current Spurs leadership appears perfectly willing to throw Daniel Levy under the proverbial bus, but that move can
only be done so many times before it loses effectiveness.
But there was one paragraph near the end that I want to highlight, since it addresses the future of current Sporting Director Johan Lange. Tottenham had been public about its search for a co-Sporting Director to work alongside Lange, the way Fabio Paratici had done for a couple of months at the start of the year before Paratici departed for Fiorentina. Names such as former Crystal Palace director Dougie Freedman, currently in Saudi Arabia, and former Dortmund SD Sebastian Kehl. However, there were murmurs from Alasdair Gold that Lange’s future might not be as secure as what we once thought.
And here’s Jack with more detail.
Tottenham have been looking for a new sporting director for months, ever since Fabio Paratici left at the end of the January transfer window. While the initial brief was to find someone who could work alongside Johan Lange, someone with experience working in a structure, someone used to being a No 2 rather than a sole decision-maker, the hierarchy are now looking for something slightly different: someone world-class in that position. What that means for Lange remains unclear.
— Jack Pitt-Brooke, The Athletic
That is… significant, not just as a signifier that the club is aware of the Lange Problem™ and is taking steps to address it, but that they are now looking at a future in which Lange does not hold his current position, whatever that means. It could mean that the club lets Lange go after a series of underwhelming transfer windows resulted in a hugely unbalanced and flawed squad the club’s near relegation this season. It could mean that Lange stays, but in a demoted role subservient to the new Sporting Director.
Honestly, if the writing is as on the wall as what it looks like at the time of this article’s publishing, I don’t understand why Lange doesn’t just resign. After all, his Spurs career seems like it’s mirroring what happened to him at Aston Villa, a place where he underwhelmed before being demoted and eventually leaving.
I’ll say that from my perspective this is welcome news. It’s clear that, whatever else happened (and a LOT happened), the executive structure and staff at Spurs has been deeply flawed and disappointing. The club has already signaled that significant change is coming, starting with the appointment of a new Sporting Director. This report suggests that change will involve a notable and “world class” figure, and may not include Johan Lange after all.
