Nuno Espirito Santo sacked by Tottenham

Tottenham have sacked head coach Nuno Espirito Santo after an alarming drop in form.

The 47-year-old was only appointed as Jose Mourinho's permanent successor in June, but it was apparent at the time of his arrival that he was not the club's first - or even second or third - choice to take charge of first team affairs.

Nuno got off to a decent enough start in north London, winning each of Spurs' opening three Premier League games, but an abysmal performance in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday has followed a number of desperately poor recent displays - ones that have seen the club slip to convincing defeats to Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Arsenal, as well as narrow losses to West Ham and Vitesse - the latter in the Europa Conference League.

Things have dropped off so quickly, Spurs have decided to remove Nuno from his position before their place in the Premier League's top ten comes under threat - confirming his departure in an official statement.

"The Club can today announce that Nuno Espírito Santo and his coaching staff Ian Cathro, Rui Barbosa and Antonio Dias have been relieved of their duties," it read.

Fabio Paratici, Managing Director, Football, added: "I know how much Nuno and his coaching staff wanted to succeed and I regret that we have had to take this decision.

“Nuno is a true gentleman and will always be welcome here. We should like to thank him and his coaching staff and wish them well for the future.”

Spurs will now begin the process of recruiting a new head coach, though many will be sceptical about how the club will go about appointing a new man after a clear conflict of ideas between chairman Daniel Levy and director of football Fabio Paratici last time around.

Levy is known for wanting Spurs to have an 'attacking DNA', but Paratici - who himself was only appointed in June - is known to prefer a head coach that is more pragmatic and defensively minded.

As for Nuno, it's back to the drawing board after turning down the advances of both Everton and Crystal Palace over the summer in favour of taking over at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Previously, he enjoyed a very successful four-year spell with Wolves, leading them into the latter stages of the Europa League after securing promotion to the Premier League in his first year in charge.