The Tottenham Hotspur of next season is expected to be one that bears only a passing resemblance to the club that has spluttered through this turgid campaign.
Within the next month or so Spurs are expecting to have in place a new head coach, a new director of football and a new chief football officer in Scott Munn, who will take decisions for the day-to-day running of the football side of the club off the hands of chairman Daniel Levy.
football.london understands that Levy has been leaning on various experienced people he trusts within the game for advice in recent weeks in order to try to turn around the fortunes of the club, including the search for the next head coach and director of football.
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Although it might not be the best look, if he wanted to, the Tottenham chairman could technically also call on Fabio Paratici for advice as despite having resigned from his role as managing director of football last month the Italian was able to get FIFA to later partially reduce the global extension of his ban from his homeland, meaning he can still carry out some low level functions within the game outside of Italy.
This summer the club is expected to concentrate on changing the culture within and attempt to rediscover the identity that connected them so closely to the fanbase during the Mauricio Pochettino years. Those in and around Spurs have spoken of a need for improvement and investment made to key modern areas such as the data and medical departments as well as a boost in funding for the academy and its salary structure in order to attract and prevent them losing talented starlets to rival clubs.
New faces at so many defining levels will naturally lead to a turnover in personnel both on and off the pitch as new staff with fresh, different ideas come in and, if Arne Slot walks through the door, a head coach with a very different formation to the Antonio Conte one that this lopsided squad was built for.
There are also natural changes to the squad that will likely happen regardless of the changes above. Lucas Moura will leave this summer after five years at the club. Arnaut Danjuma is understood to have settled in well at Spurs and is open to a permanent move if regular football was on the table but after making one start in all competitions it remains to be seen whether the club will look to do so.
A decision will have to be made over Clement Lenglet's loan. The financial issues at Barcelona could see Spurs get the Frenchman for a low fee and he has proved to be a solid and versatile squad player as well as an experienced head in the dressing room. Dejan Kulusevski's loan from Juventus is expected to be made permanent and it is no coincidence that the Swede's image was splashed over promotion material for Spurs' summer trip to Thailand, for a friendly match against Leicester which will take place after his loan deal ends.
Then there are the list of players out of contract in just over 12 months. Captain Hugo Lloris, who has missed a chunk of this season through injury, is expected by many to leave the club after 11 years in a Spurs shirt, which leaves a leadership void for the next manager to fill. Ivan Perisic is also being tipped to head out of the exit door halfway through his two-year contract, meaning two very experienced, high-earning players departing the club.
Davinson Sanchez has turned down offers to leave Spurs in the past in order to fight for his place at the club, but the expectation is that the Colombian will seek regular football this summer and Tottenham will look to recoup some sort of fee for their former record signing as he enters the final year of his contract.
The future of Eric Dier remains unclear with no new deal agreed yet with the centre-back who has been a key player for most Spurs managers over his seven years at the club but has struggled this season. Although his contract runs out in 2025, Japhet Tanganga is another defender who desperately needs a move and regular football.
Spurs continue to make it clear that they have no intention of letting Harry Kane leave this summer. Even as he reaches his final year, how much of a fee can justify the sale to the under pressure Levy for a player who scored almost half the club's goals this season and has carried them on his back for years? Tottenham will continue to try to convince the England captain to extend his stay in north London.
Then there are the returning 11 loan players, who include some of the club's most expensive in Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso.
Ultimately the next head coach will need to take a look at the bloated Spurs squad and decide whether anyone who looks to be heading towards the exit door can be given a fresh lease of life within their different system. For many players though, their time at Tottenham appears to have come to a natural conclusion regardless, with the club looking to cut their losses or make some funds before they can no longer do so.
If Slot is to be the new man then at least the Dutchman has shown an ability to rebuild to great effect in the Netherlands. His Feyenoord team in his first season, which reached the Europa Conference League final and finished third in the Eredivisie, became a victim of its success as it was ripped apart by player sales.
He lost top scorer Luis Sinisterra to Leeds, Tyrell Malacia to Manchester United, Marcos Senesi to Bournemouth, Frederik Aursnes to Benfica while the loan spells of Reiss Nelson and Guus Til came to an end. In one fell swoop Slot lost the majority of his team's attacking firepower. In all nine players were sold, nine loaned out and 15 were signed permanently or on loan in a busy summer at the Rotterdam club.
Yet the young head coach and Feyenoord reset and used the rebuild to come back stronger with some smart signings and Slot showing a desire to improve younger players. By the time the break for the World Cup came around, the club were top of the Eredivisie, playing the best football of any club and with a tight defence, and they did not look back.
So the task at Tottenham will not worry Slot. He has strong principles and beliefs in the way football should be played with his 4-3-3 formation and he has been very vocal in those beliefs. The challenge at Spurs would certainly be a whole new level for him to imprint those beliefs upon but the 44-year-old will benefit from arriving at a club that is craving a direction and an identity.
Nineteen years ago a Dutchman arrived at Tottenham and today Martin Jol is credited with being the man who began to lay the foundations and the philosophy that Pochettino eventually built upon. It would be somewhat fitting if Slot followed in the footsteps of his compatriot and finished the job.
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