Johan Lange future is in serious doubt after a disastrous Premier League campaign that saw Spurs only escape relegation by two points, with the club now seeking a world-class sporting director
Sporting director Johan Lange's position at Tottenham remains under serious threat following their dismal season.
The Dane has become a prime target for Spurs supporters' fury after a campaign in which the club only avoided the drop by two points, thanks to Roberto De Zerbi hauling the beleaguered side off the canvas and claiming 11 points from the final six fixtures to instead condemn West Ham to the Championship on the last day.
Having cycled through four different head coaches over the past year, Lange has emerged as the club's leading football voice and was handed a step up in October last year from technical director to sporting director. Fabio Paratici's brief three-month return alongside him concluded with the Italian departing to take up a role at Fiorentina in February. The 53-year-old has already been linked by the Italian press with a summer switch to AC Milan.
Lange's transfer activity, heavily driven by data following changes made to the club's scouting structure, has produced mixed outcomes since his arrival from Aston Villa in 2023. The 46-year-old has overseen numerous signings of young talent, with the more successful acquisitions including Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, who have claimed the supporters' player of the year accolades in back-to-back seasons, alongside others who are yet to feature in a single competitive match for the club, such as Kota Takai and Yang Min-hyeok.
The club's most notable senior acquisitions in recent years, including Dominic Solanke, Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus, have all fallen victim to lengthy injury lay-offs. The side picked by De Zerbi to dispatch Everton on the final day was largely comprised of players brought in before Lange's appointment, though that was also a consequence of the club's dreadful injury crisis.
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Spurs have finished 17th in both of Lange's full campaigns in the role, and he further frustrated supporters in February by claiming the club were right to hold back on January signings, insisting injured players would soon return — yet many of the key absentees never did.
Tottenham's non-executive chairman Peter Charrington penned an open letter to fans on Monday, stating that "the board are committed to this leadership group and will give them the stability and support they need to run this club in the right way".
That was widely taken to include Lange, but football.london understands that while CEO Vinai Venkatesham remains firmly within the club's future plans, sources both inside and outside the north London club believe it is increasingly unlikely that Lange survives the year, having been the figurehead of a dismal season.
Should he remain, it is thought he would serve in a supporting capacity to a new sporting director or in a transitional handover role.
Spurs are searching for a world-class new sporting director to fill the gap left by Paratici and spearhead the football operations of the club, ensuring they never endure another campaign like the one just gone and instead mount a challenge towards the opposite end of the Premier League standings.
De Zerbi made it plain that transfer strategies for the upcoming summer window must be finalised this week, and those discussions will take place with the Italian, while Tottenham are eager to appoint their new football chief as swiftly as possible to drive the club forward, with resources available to strengthen the squad alongside offloading those players the head coach deems unnecessary.
"We have to start to organise and to build a new team," said De Zerbi on Sunday. "I don't think we have now to change too many players. We have 10, 11, 12 players good enough to stay. Good enough. Like players. Especially like people, and then we have to complete the squad with the first level of players.
"First level of players because we suffered too much. I suffered a lot but I think the fans, the club, the board, the players. They suffered too much. We are Tottenham and we can't suffer like this until the last second of the last game to stay up.
"I will be stronger. I don't want to decide alone because football is a group - sporting director, scouting, CEO - but my target now is finished to stay up. My target is to start the pre-season with the team I have in my dream."
It is now up to Tottenham to make De Zerbi's ambitions a reality — and that may well not include Lange at the helm.