Romano: Spurs will meet directly with Erik ten Hag

Tottenham Hotspur may have their top target in their sights.

Fabrizio Romano, one of the most trusted sources with European football, is reporting that Spurs brass have scheduled a meeting with AFC Ajax manager Erik ten Hag regarding their opening at manager.

In the last couple of days, Romano has talked about Julian Nagelsmann going to Bayern Munich and stated on his podcast that Spurs made contact with him but were never really close to getting the 33-year-old. That’s led Spurs to look at options across all of football. The same names were being reported as possible targets to varying degrees, but ten Hag is the one that seems to have stuck.

Ten Hag, 51, has all but wrapped up the Eredivisie title for Ajax. They’re twelve points ahead of PSV with four to play and enjoy a +33 goal differential gap. Basically, they’ll be formally crowned champions this weekend barring someone turning the FIFA sliders down to 0 on them. Ajax appear resigned to the fact that they’re about to lose their manager and ten Hag looks ready for a new challenge.

I wrote about ten Hag in Tuesday’s edition of Daniel Levy’s Imaginary Shortlist so you’ll want to give it a read if you haven’t had the chance yet. Simply put, the only concern I have is he hasn’t managed in one of the top leagues yet and this is his opportunity to do so. He’s won trophies and made deep runs in Europe while maximizing his squad’s abilities.

It’s important to note that there is nothing official yet, as Romano states. The timing makes sense, though: Ajax’s season is basically done and Spurs know they’re bringing someone new in after Ryan Mason finishes out the season. We know there will be more on this so stay tuned and don’t move.