Stellini gives first interview as Spurs interim head coach: “I feel honored”

Let’s not sugarcoat it — it’s been a chaotic two weeks for Tottenham Hotspur, starting with Antonio Conte’s explosive press conference after the Southampton draw that eventually resulted in him leaving the club by mutual consent. It took the club a while to get all of its ducks in a row, but a week later Conte was out, and surprisingly his former assistant, Cristian Stellini, was tapped as his temporary replacement until the club could find another permanent head coach.

Today, the club released a portion of Stellini’s first video as Interim Head Coach, and to nobody’s surprise, the usually composed and calm Cristian talked about how pleased and honored he is to be trusted to lead this team in the last ten games of the season.

I will say this for Stellini — he is definitely not Antonio Conte. While Conte is a raging fireball of emotion, Stellini is in temperament nearly his exact opposite — his presence and the way he speaks exudes a pool of calm around himself. He certainly says all the right things here, and watching this video I can’t help but feel just a little less wound-up over all the zany things that are hovering around this club right now.

Look, a calm and temperate demeanor only gets you so far, I know. I got sucked in by Nuno’s demeanor at first as well which is similar in some ways to Stellini’s. (Thankfully Cristian didn’t promise to “make me proud.”) He still has to do the job, and it’s an open question as to whether the Stellini/Mason Spurs will be functionally much different than Conte’s Spurs.

But y’all. I needed someone to tell me that things aren’t always this crazy. I needed someone to, without actually saying it, let me know that it’s all going to be okay, no matter what happens. This video did that for me. I’m pretty sure I don’t want Stellini to stay on past the end of the season — a clean break is probably what’s needed with this era of Spurs for all involved — but this video did sooth my nerves significantly.