The 12 days of Spurs’ contingency plan, from Pochettino to Maresca with Redkanpp and Allardyce in between

Would Mauricio Pochettino risk infuriating Donald Trump? Could Ange Postecoglou return to north London? Or will Sam Allardyce or Enzo Maresca rescue Spurs?

Thomas Frank has finally been defenestrated as Spurs have belatedly realised just what a mess they are in .

They are 16th in the Premier League and five points above the relegation zone with 13 games remaining, reduced to celebrating Manchester United scoring stoppage-time equalisers against West Ham.

Who will inherit this ungodly mess? Spurs are ‘working through a few contingency plans’ but precisely what could they look like? Robbie Keane surely won’t just leave a full-time job with Ferencvaros for the sake of a few months, while Chris Hughton deserves better than to have this inflicted upon him.

With 12 days to prepare for what is likely to be a 90-minute humiliation ritual at home to Arsenal on February 22, here are the candidates to do a job for Spurs until the summer.

There are some logistical obstacles in the shape of a home World Cup and a deranged president who would likely exile him or significantly worse if the USMNT ship was abandoned before it was allowed to take its natural course towards an ignominious group-stage exit.

But the supporters have spoken and still believe Pochettino to be “magic” six hardly glittering years since his Spurs demise, even with his most recent club post coming at Stamford Bridge.

“Pochettino did a top job here and is a true legend, so if the fans sing his name it’s well deserved,” Frank said before they promptly did so during a defeat to Newcastle which removed any doubt as to whether Spurs were in a relegation battle .

It also underlined how Pochettino, for too long an itch the fans have been prevented from scratching, might until his inevitable homecoming forever be their one true love.

The feeling is mutual; in April 2020, six months after he was sacked, the Argentinean expressed his dream that “maybe in five years, maybe in 10 years” he would return, that it was his “dream” to “finish the work that we didn’t finish”, that he was “going to conspire with the universe and throw out the idea that before I die, I want to manage Tottenham again and try if possible to win one title”.

There is no mystery as to Pochettino’s enduring popularity in that part of north London, as one of the club’s precious few managers who actually seemed to enjoy and cherish their experience in charge.

Pochettino and Spurs have felt destined to get back together basically ever since they were torn apart. Him, Jesus Perez and the lads would definitely cast aside a World Cup if they were asked.

The alternative is a bowl of negativity-absorbing lemons. Or Ryan Mason. West Brom fans will tell you there is little discernible difference.

Mason’s two caretaker runs in north London from April to June of both 2021 and 2023 put him out in front as the emergency option who put out the fires set by Jose Mourinho, then Antonio Conte and Cristian Stellini.

The circumstances would be slightly different: he inherited teams which had shamefully slipped out of Champions League contention in both instances, coming in with Spurs 7th (and preparing for a Carabao Cup final ) and 5th, rather than being at genuine risk of playing Championship football next season.

Is Mason equipped for a relegation fight? With Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani rather than Harry Kane, Gareth Bale and Heung-min Son? Probably not.

But he is a devoted Pochettino acolyte and the 53-year-old loves him too, going all High Performance Podcast about how Mason “understood perfectly all that we explained and how we wanted to play”, and that he was always seen as “a player who can bring the coach side to the pitch”.

It’s time for Spurs to invert the wing once again.

The default option and current favourite to replace Frank , who hailed Heitinga’s “ability, personality and character” and said the defensive side “will be one of his main responsibilities on the training pitch”.

Heitinga came in as Frank’s assistant on January 15. Spurs have lost three and drawn two in the Premier League since, but kept clean sheets in Champions League wins over Borussia Dortmund and Frankfurt.

Having lasted barely five months at Ajax earlier this season, been overlooked by the same club after an interim spell in 2023 ended with them finishing third in the Eredivisie and losing the Dutch Cup final, and engendered no upturn in terms of performances or results since joining the coaching staff a few weeks ago, Heitinga instinctively feels quite Stellini.

Who better to be Spurs caretaker than the man who has already done it three times before, once for a hilariously protracted period of time before they announced the impending arrival of a permanent manager who would take over after he had fulfilled his duties at an upcoming major international tournament?

It worked phenomenally with Jacques Santini and can do so again with Pochettino. Or Thomas Tuchel. Or Carlo Ancelotti.

It is fair to point out that Pleat is 81 and hasn’t worked since leaving his role as a Spurs consultant scout in 2024. But he is 20 games from reaching 1,000 as a manager, with that milestone coming in the Champions League final if all goes to absurd plan.

The third season was cancelled but a truncated version could easily be pushed through in a panic.

It is exceptional that Postecoglou was sacked historically quickly from his first post-Spurs job, remains out of work and has still emerged from their summer break-up as the winner.

Would he put things to one side, run it back and somehow outdo finishing 17th with a Europa League trophy by winning the Champions League and getting relegated?

Postecoglou would probably suddenly be blamed for the injuries, indiscipline and lack of coherent tactical identity Frank was absolved of . But it would at least be vaguely fun to watch again.

The budget version of the Postecoglou vibe appointment. Redknapp would come in, put his arm around the players, probably say something deeply inappropriate to them, tell an inaccurate anecdote about Benjani Mwaruwari, give the supporters a lift and burn all the tactics boards on the premises.

He’d also leave as soon as he realised the January transfer window had passed and Niko Kranjcar has retired.

The budget version of Redknapp’s budget version. Get that random Spurs fan in as his gilet-wearing assistant.

There will be no management comeback. A man made specifically for LinkedIn has found his calling and the Southgate ship has sailed.

His final game as a permanent coach will forever be the Euro 2024 final; it is the most fitting end imaginable.

But there is the wildcard option of a handful of months back in the dugout on the proviso that it is only ever a short-term arrangement. It would remove the question mark as to whether Southgate is actually any good at this or not without keeping him away from Henry Winter for too long.

The Dutchman has been enjoying some time off after spells with PSV, Wolfsburg and Royal Antwerp. A co-manager arrangement between Van Bommel, Willian and Leandro Damiao, with none of them ever actually ever signing, makes perfect sense .

That 30-day reign at Leeds cannot be the final chapter in Allardyce’s Premier League odyssey.

He has managed an agonising nine clubs in the top flight for a start. That’s a teeth-itchingly imperfect record that needs to be rounded out, and a previously unthinkable opportunity to do so has presented itself.

It was never going to align that Big Sam would be at the height of his powers when a Big Six vacancy for which he would genuinely be considered opened up, so the gift horse of him being more podcast host than manager at a time when one of the elite has encountered the sort of genuine relegation danger to which he was once the definitive answer should not be examined too closely.

When he did he last actually properly keep a club up? Crystal Palace nine years ago. Everton were never going down in 2018 and Allardyce could save neither West Brom nor Leeds thereafter.

But it doesn’t matter. That Spurs defence needs sorting and Allardyce has a seven-point survival blueprint ready .