15/02/2026

theSun on Sunday FEB 15, 2026

SPORTS 13

Premier League managers are evolving – and so is United’s most promising candidate

BY MIGUEL DELANEY

THE Manchester United leadership have already been giving more and more consid eration to Michael Carrick for the year, only for that shortlist to begin getting shorter. Thomas Tuchel had been seen as one of the strongest candidates for the job, to the point that it became one of those notions well-connected industry figures were regu larly repeating. “It’s going to be Thomas for United.” Such intrigue was only deepened by mur murs over the past two weeks that the Football Association were considering another pitch to Pep Guardiola, to take over England for Euro 2028. That won’t happen now, unless the 2026 World Cup is a disaster. If the prospect of such a failure makes it surprising that national federations still offer new contracts before tournaments have even taken place, it is not exactly a shock that Tuchel has committed. He already had reservations about United, and he is greatly enjoying himself in his cur rent role. England, “the impossible job”, has turned into the German’s perfect job. Most tellingly, he has a great chance of winning two tournaments, both carrying immense emotional symbolism. One could be England’s second World Cup, 60 years after their first. The other could be a first European Championship, and at home. Even more enticingly, despite that emo

lowing: proven success at the top level or close to it, all delivered through a progressive modern tactical ideology, that was generally shaped by Guardiola’s positional game, since that was the dominant trend. Formative coaches don’t get anything like the time to develop proper experience at elite level – particularly when certain decisions are made for non-football reasons – with their very dispensability ensuring it is too difficult to plan a career in the same way. There are lots of coaches that Brighton might appoint but not as many as before for United. Hence Tottenham being desperate for Pochettino again. They know he’s worked before. Most clubs are now increasingly trying to just look at what fits, rather than necessarily what’s “best”, which is partly why Unai Emery has done so well at Aston Villa. More and more, meanwhile, are talking of “doing a Mikel Arteta”. That is essentially giv ing a young figure connected to your club the space to grow. This is where Carrick might end up making more sense for United. If there’s no Tuchel, there is instead an increasingly obvious logic. – The Independent

That may instead mean a market that proves advantageous to formative coaches such as Carrick. United want a coach with the experience to carry the weight of expectation, which was why Tuchel was so favoured... but how many others have that? If you compare to when United went for Jose Mourinho in 2016, or came close to Mauricio Pochettino in 2019, the profiles are now completely different. The summer of 2016, after all, was proba bly the high point of an era; the start of the Premier League’s “league of managers”. All of Guardiola, Mourinho and Antonio Conte landed big Premier League jobs, with Pochettino, Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp already there. One of the reasons United even went for Mourinho was that they felt they needed to respond to Manchester City getting Guardiola, who the Old Trafford hierarchy previously thought they had. United then needed a similar “big beast”. Guardiola undeniably “won” the era, through so many titles, to offer the long standing template for big-club coaches. Over the last 15 years, the ideal appoint ment for any such club has required the fol

tional weight, the job comes with virtually none of the pressure it once did. It barely compares to a major club role any more, at least outside tournaments. You can sense that when you see Tuchel whizzing around central London on a Lime bike. Why wouldn’t he continue with this health ier work–life balance, especially once he looks at some of his counterparts? This has been another bad week for man agers, aside from the financial compensation. Another two went in the space of 16 hours, taking it to nine in the Premier League this season. That is still five short of the 2022–23 “record” of 14, but you would not count on it staying that way. Sean Dyche had his boyhood Nottingham Forest dream crushed, albeit amid some mundane football. Thomas Frank, long considered one of the few modern coaches as charismatic as Tuchel, cut a beaten figure by the end of a try ing stint at Spurs. The latter now have a tricky decision and are understood to be going back and forth in meetings about what to do next, in a market that offers fewer guarantees than ever before.

Clowns still running the circus Spurs have found their successor to Frank – and he’s not an inspiring pick at all

Igor Tudor, now appointed as Spurs’ interim manager, reacts while in charge of Marseille during the Champions League match against Spurs at the Orange Vélodrome in Marseille in 2022. – REUTERSPIC

ball. Again, just ask Ange Postecoglou how that ended up. There is a world where this all works out pretty nicely. Tudor comes in, drags Spurs away from a relegation scrap (the fact that’s the reality for Tottenham is alarming enough), while keeping the manager’s seat warm for Mauricio Pochettino or Roberto De Zerbi in the summer. The early indications are that this isn’t an interim appoint ment with a view to making it permanent, and given Tudor’s track record at holding down a position, that is probably for the better. – Express Newspapers

instead! By October 2025 he’d been shown the door, having gone eight games without a win. Prior to Juventus, Tudor’s coaching career includes spells at Lazio, Marseille, Udinese, Hellas Verona, Hadjuk Split, Galatasaray, PAOK and Turkish side Kardemir Karabukspor. His play style doesn’t exactly scream a perfect fit for Spurs either. The 47-year-old tends to favour a three-at-the-back set up, which could prove difficult for Spurs who have struggled to field two fit centrebacks, let alone three. He’s also a fan of high-intensity, front-foot foot

scenes, the club has a tendency to pose as a circus, with clowns often the ones running it. Which makes the appoint ment of Igor Tudor as interim all the more baffling. A man with no experience in English football, whose most recent stint in the dugout ended even more catastrophically than Frank’s. Having just about steadied the ship at Juventus as a care taker last season, he was given the job on a permanent basis. Not so much because the Croatian had excelled, but more so because there weren’t that many alternatives to turn to

But, it would be unfair to place all of the blame on Frank specifically. For starters, his two chief creators, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski have been unavail able all season, while summer signing Mohammed Kudus also picked up a long-term injury towards the back end of 2025. Couple that with the other fit ness problems that plagued the Tottenham ranks and it’s easy to see how things so easily derailed. That’s just the sad reality of Tottenham in 2026 though. Be that through bad luck, or mis management behind the

BY AMOS MURPHY

IT’S deja vu at Tottenham Hotspur. For the sixth time since 2019, the north London outfit are searching for a new manager. It’s the second time since May, with Spurs fans understandably frustrated. Thomas Frank is the latest casualty who leaves the Dr Tottenham’s medical practice without finding a cure. The Dane will go down as the club’s worst-ever Premier League manager, at least from a win ning percentage perspective. Across his eight-month stint, Frank won just 27% of matches.