Okay, let’s have a quick vote.
Hands up everybody who knew the marriage between Nuno Espirito Santo and Tottenham Hotspur was going to end this quickly.
That’s everybody in the room then. Well, everyone apart from those two shifty, twitchy gentlemen in the back that look suspiciously like Daniel Levy and Fabio Paratici.
Regular readers will know my opinion of this appointment – the only reason Nuno got the job in the first place was that he was out of work, knew what a football was, and didn’t say no. His defensive style was never going to sit well with the Spurs supporters, especially if it didn’t bring in results.
With results crumbling, it was only ever a matter of time before the former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss was put out of his misery. And misery it apparently was as, by all accounts, he has spent the past few weeks wandering around Tottenham HQ with a cartoon-like cloud of anger and grumpiness hovering over his head.
The question now is whether Antonio Conte, who was one of the hundreds of managers to turn down the job in the summer, can shake the club out of its malaise.
On paper you have to say he is. This is a proper winner, a man who doesn’t do a job for the sake of it and who has won titles with Juventus, Inter and, more pertinently, Chelsea.
He may be high maintenance, both in terms of having an abrasive personality and in terms of wanting money to spend, but if Spurs really do want to start to fill their desperately empty trophy cabinet, then a manager who is not going to settle for second best is what they need.
Undoubtedly there will be some big spending done in January and again next summer because, let’s face it, this flailing Spurs team needs a major overhaul. Conte, who was a player of supreme talent himself, knows how to recruit wisely. His stature in the game could also be enough to persuade Harry Kane to hang around a while longer and maybe start playing some football again.
In short, I think this is a good move by Levy and Paratici (when you put them together, they sound a bit like 1970s cabaret act), a deal they should have made sure happened in the summer instead of going through the motions with a place holder of a manager.
My worry about this appointment is that Antonio only signed an 18-month contract, albeit with a possible additional year. It almost feels like both parties are not sure if things are going to work out, if the other side is going to break promises or make demands that can’t be met.
My worry is that Antonio only signed an 18-month contract. It almost feels like both parties are not sure things are going to work out
Instead of going into this new marriage full of hope, expectation and looking forward to the pitter patter of tiny feet, it’s almost like they’ve tied the knot with grimaces on their faces and a tight prenup in place.
While that makes me slightly concerned, it doesn’t mean it won’t work out. I would just have liked to see Spurs and Conte approach this with a bit more excitement.
When greed gets out of control
The older I get the less I can fathom the concept of pure greed.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people would want to be in a position where they are properly comfortable – having the ability to do all the things you want in life, having money tucked away for a rainy day, having assets to leave your children.
I get all that, and don’t see it as remotely evil.
But if you have all those things – and more on top of that – why would you feel the need to do immoral or even illegal things in the pursuit of more, more and more?
This inability to know when enough is enough in terms of wealth is something that has irritated me for a long time. But it was once again thrust into the centre of my thoughts with the news that Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are being charged with fraud and other offences after a seven-year investigation in Switzerland.
The former presidents of FIFA and UEFA have obviously denied all the charges, but I think we all knew there was rampant corruption at the top levels of football in that era.
So the conclusion that the two have charges to face does not exactly surprise me, or anybody else who watched football go through a period of darkness under the latter years of Blatter’s leadership.
But while it isn’t exactly shocking that some fingers were in the till, I still can’t get my head around the idea of why these two in particular felt the need to further line their pockets.
At the time of the (alleged) wrongdoings both men were already multimillionaires.
Platini had, of course, been a brilliant footballer and a good manager, earning fortunes from both roles. And from 2007 he had been UEFA president, a position which enjoys a hefty seven-figure salary and comes with a life of luxury.
Blatter too was not exactly living on the breadline. After starting his working life in the private sector, he joined FIFA in 1975 as technical director, before coming general secretary and eventually president in 1998. Again, all those roles come with hefty pay packets, the latter commanding a multimillion euro salary and a lifestyle most of us can only dream of.
So if we can conclude that both these guys were loaded and enjoying a champagne existence, why would they even think about throwing that all away in pursuit of extra money they couldn’t possibly have needed?
I have little doubt that both these men have the money to hire lawyers capable of getting them off these charges or at least reducing the punishment to easily payable fines.
But even if that happens, their reputations will never recover, and they are highly unlikely to be meaningfully involved in football again. They won’t even be able to attend games without receiving a torrent of abuse.
What a stupid, stupid way to mess up your life, career and legacy.
Twitter: @maltablade