Why Tottenham's potential hiring of Ryan Mason shows that the board have learned nothing

[p]A once-admired and well-respected club have become something of a laughing stock, due in no small part to what appears to be a chronic lack of direction at board level.[/p][h2]Postecoglou the latest to criticise Tottenham[/h2][p]Former chairman, Daniel Levy, became the whipping boy for supporters, but even with him having left the club, little has changed.[/p][p]Postecoglou is the latest in a long line to go in two-footed on his former employers, suggesting in a recent podcast that, despite a party line to the contrary, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/tottenham/UDg08Ohm/"]Spurs[/a] will never be a club that can attract the game's biggest names, simply because the club won't financially commit in the same way as perhaps neighbours [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/arsenal/hA1Zm19f/"]Arsenal[/a] would.[/p][embed guid="e23b8340-eeb1-4b60-88c3-23a9bf006242" url="https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/2021901757740462145" social-type="twitter" /][p]Current managerial incumbent, Igor Tudor, questioned his players' mentality not long after taking the role too, mirroring the famous Antonio Conte rant from a couple of seasons ago.[/p][p]And therein lie many of the North London club's issues.[/p][h2]Thomas Frank, an experiment doomed to failure[/h2][p]Tottenham might well have one of, if not the best, football stadiums in the country, and loyal fans that have stuck with them through thick and thin, but not only is the standard of players brought in clearly not good enough to compete at the very highest levels, but they have a board unwilling to accept any criticism.[/p][p]Conte couldn't have been any clearer, Postecoglou too. What did the club do? Sacked the pair of them.[/p][embed guid="6bfec06d-2603-4ca6-9128-fe547e90b62a" url="https://x.com/SpursOfficial/status/2021530157094179197" social-type="twitter" /][p]Thomas Frank's appointment, whilst understandable to some degree, was always likely to be an experiment doomed to failure because the Dane had never managed such a big club before.[/p][p]With the greatest respect, ensuring [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/brentford/xYe7DwID/"]Brentford[/a] became a stable Premier League outfit is a vastly different proposition to being the man expected to bring the glory days back to N17.[/p][h2]Worst possible start for Igor Tudor[/h2][p]When the axe eventually fell, the powers that be had the perfect opportunity to scour the market and bring in a big name to shake things up a bit.[/p][p]Settling on Igor Tudor, a manager with 11 previous managerial appointments in the previous 12 years, many of which he was sacked from, was in line with Tottenham's usual way of doing business, and marked another impressive feat of tone-deafness from an out-of-touch board. [/p][image alt="Tottenham's recent form" id="58801929-b3a1-4cb2-a8c4-488cb96994af" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="dfaa2ef6-43bb-43ac-9c34-83c5e7514e03" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /][p]After three games played under the Croatian's tutelage, all of which have been lost, the tide has already turned against him, with both he and his players booed off after their most recent Premier League defeat - a horrendous [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/crystal-palace-AovF1Mia/tottenham-UDg08Ohm/?mid=vwIIJTp9"]3-1 home loss[/a] to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/crystal-palace/AovF1Mia/"]Crystal Palace[/a], in which they were completely outplayed, and had [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/van-de-ven-micky/rotN6HH8/"]Micky van de Ven[/a] sent off for a professional foul.[/p][p]Rumours persist that, should Tudor not have helped Spurs pull clear of the relegation zone after their next two Premier League games against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/liverpool/lId4TMwf/"]Liverpool[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/nottingham/UsushcZr/"]Nottingham Forest[/a], he will be sacked and another interim replacement brought in for the remainder of the 2025/26 campaign.[/p][h2]Spurs could turn to Ryan Mason for the third time[/h2][p]It's understood that the person the club prefer to do that job is none other than Ryan Mason.[/p][p]The same Ryan Mason that had a worse win percentage (46.1%) from his previous 13 games in charge than Nuno Espirito Santo (50%), Jose Mourinho (49.4%), [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/pochettino-mauricio/zuJM7XDg/"]Mauricio Pochettino[/a] and Conte (both 54%), and Postecoglou (46.5%).[/p][embed guid="71ab1e28-ebd3-4077-af88-081c6b027cc3" url="https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1651189363034685440" social-type="twitter" /][p]26 goals scored in Mason's previous tenure is exactly two per game, which sounds good until you realise that the Lilywhites also let in 21 during the same time frame. Six wins, six losses and one draw is hardly the sort of form to inspire either.[/p][p]He was also sacked by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/west-brom/CCBWpzjj/"]West Bromwich Albion[/a], his first permanent managerial role at senior level, after the club suffered a 10th consecutive away defeat.[/p][p]Indeed, his record in the seven months he was there makes for terrible reading. Just nine wins from 27 games, 30 goals scored, and 36 conceded, with a lower than average 33.3% win rate. [/p][h2]Tone deaf from the Tottenham board[/h2][p]The Baggies were 18th in the English Championship when the club took the decision to sack Mason, but they haven't recovered and currently sit 21st.[/p][p]Despite that, it would seem clear that because Mason knows the club and is available, the board believes that to be more than enough to qualify him as the most attractive proposition to Spurs should they dispense with Tudor's services.[/p][image alt="Tottenham's upcoming fixtures" id="c4352578-e497-4c9d-987a-31f4530e6d47" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="ed34136c-3366-4c11-819a-a9d73a882d0e" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /][p]However, in the same way that the Croatian and Frank before him arguably weren't the right fit, parachuting their former player back in for a third interim role has to be seen as a backward step too.[/p][p]Not to mention that, as one of Postecoglou's backroom staff, he was only recently moved on by a club seemingly desperate to turn to him again.[/p][p]The senior figures at the club don't appear to have learned anything from the malaise of the past few years, and if they're not careful, they'll be the ones responsible for leading Spurs into the English second tier for the first time in nearly 50 years.[/p][image alt="Jason Pettigrove" id="e3ab9d25-834b-4e06-af89-31979329e951" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="c991aef7-4e46-4e8a-b79a-a2fa4c823f3e" original-width="1200" original-height="380" /]