The club announced Nuno’s departure, along with his coaching team of Ian Cathro, Rui Barbosa and Antonio Dias on Monday morning.
The next manager will be announced in due course, with former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, Brighton’s Graham Potter and the ex-Roma manager Paulo Fonseca among the favourites to replace Nuno.
Fabio Paratici, Tottenham’s director of football, said: “I know how much Nuno and his coaching staff wanted to succeed and I regret that we have had to take this decision.
“Nuno is a true gentleman and will always be welcome here. We should like to thank him and his coaching staff and wish them well for the future.”
Nuno’s reign was Tottenham’s shortest in their Premier League history. Even Jacques Santini – who spent 155 days in charge of Spurs between June-November 2009 – outlasted the Portuguese, who lost 7 of his 17 matches in all competitions.
The humbling against United in which Nuno’s side failed to register a shot on target has proven the final straw as Daniel Levy and Paratici held talks on Sunday to discuss his future.
He was never the board’s first choice and it was well-documented that they approached Conte, Fonseca, Mauricio Pochettino, and Gennaro Gattuso in the summer.
As the hunt for Jose Mourinho’s successor entered its third month, Spurs turned to a man not exactly known for the “DNA” which Levy was seeking, but who had exceeded expectations by leading Wolves into Europe.
Even his triumphs, including the recent wins over Newcastle and Aston Villa, were unconvincing and when Spurs stumbled they hit lows which had not been traversed since before the Pochettino era: a 3-0 collapse at Crystal Palace, humiliations against Chelsea and Arsenal and even shocks in the Uefa Conference League against Pacos de Ferreira and Vitesse.
The pre-season was overshadowed by Harry Kane’s desire to join Manchester City and even when that move did not materialise, which should have been a positive, the saga lingered on and saw the vice-captain record his worst start to a Premier League season.
The midfield lacked balance – Oliver Skipp was one of the few bright notes of Nuno’s reign – and the squad appeared to lack authority, its South American contingent defying the club’s wishes not to travel to red-list countries for the international break.
In any assessment of Nuno’s time in north London, it was hard to overlook that Spurs went more than 70 days without a manager after Mourinho’s sacking. They are no longer as attractive a proposition as they once were, though Conte is still out of work, Pochettino’s stint at Paris Saint-Germain has not been an altogether happy one, and Erik ten Hag expressed an interest in joining from Ajax – so there is hope yet that this most underwhelming of seasons can be salvaged.
Fingers, nonetheless, will point upstairs. Nuno was the ninth permanent manager appointed in the Levy era and however mitigating the circumstances which led to his appointment might have been, it will go down as another failure of a regime who cannot afford to get it wrong again.
Analysis: Spurs would be mad not to go for Potter
Potter could be the first British manager at a ‘Bg Six’ club since Tim Sherwood (Photo: PA)
By Daniel Storey, i‘s chief football writer
Brighton supporters may not thank me for focusing on their manager rather than a magnificent second-half performance in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool, but these feel like a defining few weeks in Graham Potter’s managerial career. If that says plenty about the undue focus on Premier League performance, given Potter’s over-achievement in Sweden, that doesn’t change the reality: what happens in England’s top flight matters more than anywhere else.
It is an interesting time to be an excellent coach of a non-elite club, with Tottenham manager-less and Manchester United’s boss under serious pressure. The new norm has been to wonder which foreign manager will be the next import to the Premier League – Fonseca, Lucien Favre, Zinedine Zidane, Erik Ten Hag. The last British coach appointed by a “Big Six” club was Tim Sherwood at Tottenham, before him David Moyes at Manchester United. Both of those lasted less than a full season in charge.
But Potter is now well-placed to be seriously considered for these roles. He has proven himself capable of building a team that punches above its weight, coaches players meticulously and plays front-foot, aesthetically satisfying football. If Tottenham have a chance to replace Nuno with Potter, they would be mad not to go for it.
This is an extract of The Score, Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up to receive the newsletter on Monday mornings here
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