Getty ImagesTottenham are interested in appointing Dougie Freedman as their new sporting director, as the club continue with a restructure despite concerns over Igor Tudor’s position as interim head coach.
The club have been searching for a replacement for Fabio Paratici, who left in January after his second stint in north London as sporting director.
Freedman, who excelled during an eight-year period as sporting director at Crystal Palace, left the Eagles in 2025 and has since joined Saudi Arabian side Al-Diriyah.
He was instrumental in the recruitment of players such as Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi, Adam Wharton and Dean Henderson while at Palace.
Spurs hope to have a new sporting director in place in time for them to influence the decision over who becomes the club’s next permanent manager, with Tudor initially in place until the end of the season.
Chelsea sporting director Paul Winstanley and Bournemouth‘s president of football operations Tiago Pinto are also believed to be on Spurs’ radar.
Concerns grow over Tudor
There has been significant structural change at Spurs over the past 12 months, with executive chairman Daniel Levy stepping down last September and Carlos Raphael Moersen joining as director of football operations in January.
But the search for a new sporting director comes at a time when the team are mired in the Premier League relegation battle.
Thursday night’s defeat by Crystal Palace means Spurs are just one point above the bottom three with nine matches remaining.
Spurs replaced Thomas Frank with Tudor in February, with the Croat’s track record of instantly improving under-performing teams one of the key attractions to his appointment.
But Tudor has lost all three of his games in charge, raising concerns about his suitability for the role.
On Friday morning, club sources told BBC Sport that Tottenham have no immediate plans to change manager for a second time this campaign.
The club also confirmed that Tudor is scheduled to undertake the pre-match news conference before Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first-leg tie at Atletico Madrid, providing further indication that Spurs are sticking with him for now.
But even if Tudor can steer Tottenham to Premier League safety, it is now looking highly unlikely that he will be a contender to take the role on a full-time basis.
‘Freedman’s impact at Palace was huge’ – analysis
Spurs’ interest in Freedman is simple to understand.
His track record of identifying untapped talent is well documented: Guehi, Wharton, Olise and Eze are just four of his finds.
But his reputation of being a sporting director whose main strength lies in unearthing players from the lower leagues doesn’t represent a full representation of Freedman’s skillset.
Jean-Philippe Mateta, Daniel Munoz, Dean Henderson, Ismaila Sarr, Cheick Doucoure and Maxence Lacroix were all signed on Freedman’s watch at Crystal Palace.
In a study compiled by Transfer Room, the 51-year-old was ranked third in a list of sporting directors according to the net value added to their respective squads – behind only former Manchester City executive Txiki Begiristain and Timmo Hardung of Eintracht Frankfurt.
The study concluded that Freedman’s signings added €374million to Palace’s squad.
Indeed, Palace have benefited from selling Freedman’s signings.
Olise, signed for £8m, joined Bayern Munich for £60m; Eze, bought for £19.5m, was sold to Arsenal in a deal worth £67.5m.
Palace rejected a £70m package for Guehi from Newcastle in the summer of 2024 before selling the defender to Manchester City for £20m in January – the cut-price deal owing to the fact he had just six months on his contract.
Wharton, who is being touted as an £80m player, was signed for an initial £18m but has top-level interest from the Premier League and Europe.
And, of course, Freedman’s work at Palace was capped by last year’s FA Cup final triumph.
Freedman’s role in building that historic Palace team was huge but he was also central to Oliver Glasner’s appointment.
Those who have worked closely with Freedman describe someone who offers a non-nonsense approach to the job.
He tells it how he sees it, a trait Tottenham – given the situation they are in – may benefit from.
But it is his ability to work closely alongside managers, rather than against them, to sign players who can flourish under the head coach’s team structures that is described as one of his best attributes.
As things stand, it is understood Tottenham want to continue working with a twin sporting director model, so if Freedman is the successful candidate, he would be expected to work alongside Johan Lange.
