Nuno arrived, and leaves, to a shrug of the shoulders

Everyone knew wasn’t the first, second or even third or fourth choice. He never had a chance

The most damning element of Nuno Espirito Santo's demise is that it came as no real surprise. 

That’s entertainment. It can be hard to remember that sometimes. What most fans want is a decent day out, some emotional sustenance, the sense that their team has given it a good go. That’s been missing for some time now at Spurs, and whoever is in place as the new manager — assuming the club manages to close a deal — by the time you read this has a big job on their hands. Because the problems at the club go right to the top.

Success in football is cyclical — despite the best efforts of some clubs to ensure otherwise. So by definition you can’t always improve on what went before. But it is undeniable that Spurs have gone backwards since they appeared in a Champions League final just two years ago. Whether those in charge of the club recognise this and are therefore able to address the problems and resolve them will determine whether the new man has any success. But the worry is that they don’t recognise this or, worse, are incapable of doing so.

Fans have asked what’s the plan, Dan? We need some sense of purpose, identity, a feeling that everyone is pulling together for the same objective. We had that under Mauricio Pochettino. But the club’s board ignored his calls to refresh, it failed to back the best manager we had in a generation. Worse, it opted to replace him with a manager who had no intention of building on the foundations laid over five wonderful years. After dismantling the project and erasing much of the club’s identity, Jose Mourinho was sacked.

It was the appointment everyone said the club had to get right. So when it didn’t, people said the next appointment was the one it absolutely had to get right. But after a shambolic few months of lurching from one candidate to another, Nuno Esperito Santo arrived to a collective shrug of the shoulders. He came, apparently, at the behest of newly-appointed director of football Fabio Paratici, and after club chairman Daniel Levy had made a rare intervention into the public domain — and even rarer admission of culpability — by saying those at the top of the club had taken their eye off the ball and it was time to rediscover the club’s DNA of attacking, free-flowing football.

We like to believe, us fans. We really do. And so those words went down well. But there was a nagging doubt that appointing a director of football not known for embracing the same style was, at best, a bit odd. Nuno was rumoured to be more defensively-minded too, but the bigger issue was everyone — including the players — knew he wasn’t the first, second or even third or fourth choice. He never had a chance.

That said, having two of the best attacking players in Europe in your team and yet not managing to have a shot on target for over two games wasn’t evidence of great coaching. Spurs looked bereft of confidence, cumbersome, low on energy, and out of ideas. It was awful to watch, there were some truly terrible performances, four London derby losses and some baffling selections in the third-tier European competition Spurs now flit about in.

The outburst of “You don’t know what you’re doing” when Lucas Moura was substituted against Manchester United at the weekend will go down as one of the great catalytic events in English football. But it was about so much more than just Nuno. It was an outpouring of frustration and anger and years of poor decisions, of loss of identity and verve, of supporting your team becoming a thoroughly miserable experience that drained rather than nourished the soul. It didn’t need organising and it didn’t need prompting. And it was all the more genuine and effective for it.

So where are we now? On Sunday the Club’s official Twitter account posted a picture of club captain Hugo Lloris with a quote about the need to stick together. On Monday they sacked the manager. Sacked him just 10 games into his tenure. But the damning thing is it came as no great surprise. But what of the people who made the decision to appoint him? And who have made poor decision after poor decision for two or three years now?

It would be nice to see some acknowledgement of what went wrong, some bucks stopping where they should. Those thoughts might be crossing the mind of new candidates for the job too.

Martin Cloake is a Spurs season ticket holder and author of a number of books about the club and its support.