Another Tottenham manager has bitten the dust, and so the club’s hierarchy will take another financial hit.
Antonio Conte finally left the club on Sunday night, eight days after his outburst in reaction to his team’s collapse at bottom side Southampton, parting with the club by mutual agreement.
He become’s Tottenham‘s eleventh sacked boss since the club was taken over by ENIC and chaired by Daniel Levy in 2001 and the sixth in 10 years.
Spurs have won just one trophy under their current hierarchy – the League Cup in 2008, explaining the regular chop and change in the dug out.
But those managerial changes haven’t come without their financial burdens.
Conte has already had one decent pay-off in the Premier League, getting £26.2million when he was given the heave-ho by Chelsea in 2018.
Now he’s set for another payday despite having just three months left on his contract and that’s a blow for Spurs who appear three times when ranking football’s top 10 biggest managerial pay-offs.
So who were those managers and just how much money have the north Londoners wasted on sacking managers in the last 10 years? talkSPORT takes a look…
Andre Villas-Boas – Sacked December 2013
After being dismissed from his role at Stamford Bridge in March 2012, Spurs hired Villas-Boas in July 2012 on a three-year deal.
But despite becoming the first Tottenham manager to win at Old Trafford in 23 years and winning Manager of the Month twice in his first season, he left by mutual consent in December 2013 following heavy losses to Manchester City and Liverpool.
As a result, the Portuguese manager received a £4.5m pay-off, and so this decade’s pay-off expenses began.
Tim Sherwood – Sacked May 2014
Ex-Blackburn captain Sherwood lasted just six months in his role after stepping up from Spurs Under-21s following Villas-Boas’ departure.
However, the Englishman is not included in the money list as he was technically released in May 2014 via a break clause in his contract rather than a sacking.
Levy didn’t have to get his wallet out for that one, at least!
Mauricio Pochettino – Sacked November 2019
Pochettino boasted the longest reign as Spurs manager out of any of their appointments over the last decade.
But the Argentine didn’t get the biggest pay out from the Tottenham hierarchy, despite signing a second five-year deal in May 2018, just before his dismissal.
Given the sack in November 2019 after a poor run of form, Pochettino was given a pay-off of £12.5m.
Jose Mourinho – Sacked April 2021
‘The Special One’ comes just behind Conte TWICE when it comes to ranking the biggest managerial pay-offs in football, first earning £18m from Chelsea in 2007 and then £19.6m from Manchester United in 2018.
And the now-Roma manager earnt pretty penny off Spurs too when they cut his four-year deal short and sacked him in 2021 as he left a club without winning a trophy for the first time since 2002.
After seeing the north Londoners knocked out of the Europa League and the FA Cup, Mourinho was dismissed – but the blow was softened by him having an extra £20m in his back pocket.
Nuno Espirito Santo – November 2021
Former Wolves boss Espirito Santo was in charge of Spurs for less than four months, an even shorter tenure than Sherwood’s.
After losing five games in seven of his final matches, the former Portugal international was shown the door.
Nevertheless, he still left with a hefty sum despite his short stint at the club.
That’s thanks to him signing a two-year deal when he joined, meaning Spurs had to fork out a whopping £14m to get him out the door when things went pear-shaped.
Antonio Conte – Sacked March 2023
So far, Spurs have spent an eye-watering £51m on pay-offs to failed managers in under 10 years.
Now, Conte is set to add to that figure, with The Mirror reporting he’s set to get £4m to cover the final three months that were left on his deal.
Whatever figure it pans out to be, Spurs will definitely be hoping whoever they recruit next season won’t hit their back pockets quite so hard as those that have come before them…
