Frank de Boer will give Tottenham a new identity if he's made boss at White Hart Lane

 
Free rein: The Dutchman wants to impose a new identity throughout the club
Tom Collomosse30 April 2014

Frank de Boer would request full control over playing style and tactics from the first team to the junior sides if Tottenham make a firm offer for the Ajax head coach.

Ajax technical director Marc Overmars said yesterday that Spurs had asked earlier this month about De Boer’s “contract situation” but neither De Boer nor his representatives have received direct contact from the north London club since then.

Despite Overmars’s words, Spurs insist no contact has been made. A statement on their website today read: “Reports that we have made approaches to other clubs regarding coaching staff are wholly inaccurate. We have NOT contacted any club regarding coaching appointments. We regret that a statement such as this is necessary, however we feel it is important to clarify matters.”

De Boer’s name is high on a list of managers that also includes Southampton coach Mauricio Pochettino and former Chelsea and Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez, who is now at Napoli.

After he was sounded out last December following the sacking of Andre Villas-Boas, De Boer remains prominent in the thoughts of Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy. De Boer has spoken publicly about his interest in working at White Hart Lane and said yesterday that he would listen to what the club had to say if he is granted an interview.

Standard Sport understands that De Boer, 43, would want free rein to impose a new playing identity on the club, far beyond the first team.

At Ajax, he restored a traditional 4-3-3 system to the first team before putting structures in place to ensure this was adopted at every level of the club, through to the Under-Eight and Under-Nine sides. De Boer would like his next employers to share his long-term vision, which would require time to implement. De Boer wants to start with the first team and ensure eventually that every Tottenham XI adopts their method.

De Boer’s idea is that every representative side at Spurs would play in the same fashion, meaning that youth and academy players would find it far easier to make the transition to the first team.

De Boer has less interest in buying and selling players than he does in coaching every player at the club to play in a certain way. Clearly, this idea would require time to take root — something rarely granted to managers of Tottenham, with the club desperate to secure Champions League football through regular top-four finishes.

De Boer also has an excellent relationship with two of Spurs’ key men, Jan Vertonghen and Christian Eriksen. Under De Boer, Eriksen developed at Ajax into one of the most promising young playmakers in Europe, before he was signed by Tottenham last summer. He has been one of the club’s best players this season.

Spurs are expected to begin formal conversations with the potential successors to Tim Sherwood at the end of the campaign. They say they will review Sherwood’s position only after the final game of the season but the current head coach appears resigned to his fate.

De Boer revealed, meanwhile, that Ajax players had begged him to stay. He said: “I have a contract until the summer of 2017. [Ajax players] Davy Klaassen and Joël Veltman made me an urgent request not to leave, and it is a wonderful thing when players want you to stay.

“Of course, that also determines the decision you make. If an offer arrives, at a certain time you put both clubs next to each other, look at the plusses and minuses and then this kind of detail is very important.”

Yet Daley Blind, who is believed to be on Spurs’ radar, would not hold it against De Boer were he to leave Amsterdam. The Holland international said: “De Boer is ambitious. After winning four league titles, maybe you look further ahead. But he has always had confidence in me and I hope he continues.”

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