Journalist Alasdair Gold has claimed he was "lost for words" after Tottenham Hotspur claimed they had no interest in hiring Julian Nagelsmann as manager.
What's the latest on Julian Nagelsmann and Spurs?
Over the past weekend, Spurs tasted defeat in the Premier League as they lost 2-0 away against Aston Villa with interim boss Ryan Mason in charge.
Perhaps the club's shaky form of late can be put down, in part, to all the chaos behind the scenes as they look to appoint a new head coach and sporting director.
The squad quite likely wouldn't have been helped by the fact that shortly before the game, news broke that Tottenham have not met Nagelsmann to talk about him joining and will not be hiring the former Bayern Munich manager.
While speaking about this development on his YouTube channel, Gold suggested that this is all just a ploy by Spurs to avoid looking as though they've been rejected by the 35-year-old.
He said (10:25): "Less than 24 hours before they're about to kick off this important game [against Aston Villa], news started to emerge from within Tottenham Hotspur.
"With the club insisting that they had not met with Julian Nagelsmann, despite their respect for him, and they did not intend to meet with Julian Nagelsmann at all. He was not a candidate for them right now.
“Honestly, I was a bit lost for words on many levels. For Spurs fans and a lot of the journalists, it made no sense whatsoever.
"It was Tottenham, clearly trying to get ahead of the curve, shape the narrative. I think there's just this fear right now at the club of being seen to be rejected by anyone.
"But without putting too fine a point on it, they ended up making themselves look even dafter by kind of trying to get in there first because it made no sense."
Did Julian Nagelsmann reject Spurs?
It certainly does seem strange of Spurs to completely deny all contact and any interest in hiring Nagelsmann when it's been widely reported that talks did take place and he was a genuine candidate for the job.
In fact, it seems the German may have even turned them down first – with a prior article in Bild suggesting as much – so maybe this was just a tactic from Daniel Levy and co to try and save face.
All in all, it's another odd incident behind the scenes in north London as the Tottenham circus continues and they look no closer to actually hiring someone to replace Antonio Conte on a permanent basis.
