Is Murat Yakin the right man for Daniel Levy?

Tottenham manager Murat Yakin, how does that sound?

We looked at the only three potential managers from the World Cup that were probably, Jurgen Klinsmann signed in December with the USA until 2018 ruling him out, so we'll continue the search with three more suggested by readers, Murat Yakin, Marcelo Bielsa and Diego Simeone.


Tottenham Manager Murat Yakin


Back in December when Andre Villas-Boas and Tottenham parted company there was talk in Switzerland that we spoke to Murat Yakin about taking over at White Hart Lane. His Basel side had knocked us out of the Europa League before losing to Chelsea who they then beat home and away in the Champions League in 2013.

Yakin denied rumours of talking to Lazio, said he wasn't interested in Hannover but according to Swiss reports admitted talking to Spurs.

”I had no contact with Lazio, but with Tottenham, yes.”
“Hannover is not interesting. A change in the winter is not an option. My work in Basel is not yet over.”
Then a few days later he told Swiss paper Blick:

"I an enjoying my holidays. I have had no contact with Lazio or Tottenham."
"I am enjoying my holidays. I have had no contact with Lazio or Tottenham."
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 With reports in the paper then saying his agent had flown to London for talks the Basel president, Bernhard Heusier, was reported as saying:

"There has been no contact between the clubs."

Now we all no media denials mean absolutely nothing, clubs. players, managers mislead the media all the time so it's a story that can be read both ways, we did or we didn't talk.

Technical Director Franco Baldini  was at many of the Champions League games Basel were involved in so Spurs will have done their homework on him. Yakin is young so could be a long term manager if successful and has demonstrated his capabilities against Premier League sides, albeit in European competition.

Basel played the kind of football Spurs fans would enjoy so he ticks the style box, he ticks the attacking play box. Question marks over experience, specifically Premier League experience would have to be weighed up but coming from abroad he would be happy working with a technical director so suits the club structure.

The former Swiss centre-back is not a big name but is working wonders with Basel, a Europa League semi-final and Swiss trophies, so is becoming sought after. He has no league management experience outside Switzerland so would be a gamble, especially as we still remember the last Swiss manager we had, Christian Gross.

He played a flexible 4-2-3-1 system at Basel which is not unfamiliar to Spurs fans but also adapts it to 4-1-4-1, again a system that with our abundance of midfielders would suit. He switched between the two systems at Stamford Bridge to tactically out do Jose Mourinho which rarely happens to Chelsea on home soil.

Against us they were very disciplined and then burst into life when they had manoeuvred us around. Their fast counter-attacks simply cut us open at White Hart Lane causing us all sorts of problems.

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Yakin's contract is up at the end of the season so there would be no compensation to pay and you would expect he would jump at the chance. Louis Van Gaal was our first choice but with him having agreed to go to Manchester United we need to look elsewhere so Yakin will come back on our radar unless Daniel Levy has already dismissed him.

The 39 year old is reportedly currently a target for Serie A side Sampdoria but if we are interested he will certainly know about it.

It will be extremely difficult to find a manager who ticks all our boxes so we may well have to compromise somewhere. With AVB we went for potential, with Van Gaal we were after proven top quality, which currently looks rather thin on the ground.

We may just have to revert to potential again and if we do Murat Yakin will be very near the head of the list.