Tottenham coach in shock running to be new Blackburn manager
Tottenham Hotspur could be set to lose one of their coaching staff to become the new Blackburn Rovers manager.
John Eustace left the Lancashire club to join Derby County, meaning a vacancy has arisen with a Championship club looking to mount a promotion challenge this season.
Blackburn – whose top players have been targeted in North London down the years – have been out of the Premier League since 2012, but lifted the league title in 1995. Spurs did the double over Rovers in each of their last three top-flight seasons and the two clubs have not met competitively since.
Ryan Mason in the running to join Blackburn
According to Oddschecker on Thursday morning (13 February), Ange Postecoglou’s first-team coach Ryan Mason is a 25/1 outsider with BetVictor to make the move to Ewood Park.
While it appears unlikely, the fact Mason is even a considered name is a surprise given he is also in the running to jump into Postecoglou’s role if he gets the chop from Daniel Levy in the near future.
Mason, 33, has been on the coaching team at Spurs since 2018, when his playing career ended at Hull City.
The former midfielder in 2021 became the first coach to manage a Premier League game in his twenties, aged just 29 when he filled the interim position after the exit of Jose Mourinho.
Mason is trying to build his management credentials and the Spurs job on a full-time basis would be a massive ask, but Tottenham fans are willing to try plenty of alternatives to the torrid season they have endured thus far.
Some, however, remain convinced that the manager is not the issue and that nothing will change on the pitch while Levy is still pulling the strings, as he has done now for 24 years.
Tottenham must take advantage of players returning
For Postecoglou, Mason, Mile Jedinak and the other members of the Tottenham coaching staff, their own CVs will look considerably better if the team end the season well.
There is little excuse not to make some kind of improvement from the 14th-place berth in the Premier League and just the Europa League now left to pursue.
Players are slowly beginning to return to an injury-plagued Tottenham squad, ravaged by long-term absences.
The late deals in the transfer window for Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso are likely to provide a welcome boost, the two having already been integrated firmly into the side, when for much of the market it looked as if every target was a failed mission.
Spurs have to end the season well, or it could turn toxic very quickly and benefit absolutely no coach’s credentials.