Tottenham Hotspur: 6 Managers to Take over for Harry Redknapp

Few people expected Tottenham to sack manager Harry Redknapp. With key players such as Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart all on the edge of possibly leaving, it seemed the last thing the key individuals needed was to lose their leader.

It is true that the speculation of Redknapp taking the England national team job appeared to take a major toll on both Redknapp and his players, and that is perhaps what caused Spurs' poor run-in.

A fourth-place finish appeared to be enough, but Chelsea's cinderella run to Champions League victory saw Tottenham suffer the final piece of straw to break the camel's back, knocking them down to the UEFA Europa League group stages.

It appeared that it was time for the club to rally around their manager, but instead it was announced that Redknapp had been sacked and Spurs were on the lookout for a new man to lead the club forward.

Darren Ferguson

Although a long shot to be on a short list for Spurs, it is not entirely impossible for them to rule out a move for a young protege.

Darren Ferguson, son of Manchester United's legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, is currently in his second stint at the helm of Peterborough United.

The young manager led them from the bottom of League two into the Npower Championship over the course of 2007-09 before being dismissed by the club and joining Preston North End.

His time at Preston was not the best and saw him sacked before the end of his first full season.

Once more, Peterborough called upon the younger Ferguson to bring them back up, and in his first season back with the club in 2010-11 he once again earned promotion to the Championship and managed top keep them up with a comfortable 18th-place finish in 2011-12.

Although he is young, his talent is there for all to see and although it could be a risk to sign a less proven manager, it also could be a major success.

Gus Poyet

Brighton & Hove Albion have a strong manager in Uruguayan born Gus Poyet. The 44-year-old former midfielder nearly led his side to the English Premier League this season, but the club appeared to run out of gas in the run-in and they will be looked at as promotion hopefuls in 2012-13.

However, the club know they have a talented manager at the helm, and despite the allure of the club's brand new American Express Community Stadium, the mystique of White Hart Lane would be a hard job to pass up if Spurs went for past loyalty.

Poyet retired from football as a member of Spurs in 2004, after three seasons saw him make 98 total appearances scoring 23 goals for the Lilywhites.

His past history with the club could see him at least warrant a sniff and his 46 percent winning percentage at Albion is also a great stat to consider after three full seasons on the southern shore.

Brian McDermott

Reading manager Brian McDermott has fought hard to get the Royals back to the English Premier League having compiled a 50 percent winning percentage since taking the helm in December of 2009 following the departure of now Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.

McDermott would be hard to pry away from Reading, and like both mentioned before him is considered "up and coming" more than "been there and done that" material in the eyes of bigger clubs.

However, if Tottenham once again decided to take a risk, McDermott would not be a bad one to take. Coming off of a strong Championship wining season and a Championship Manager of the Year award winning season there would be few worse times to bring in a manager on a high.

Roberto Martinez

Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez has been linked with moves to big club all offseason. His first sniff appeared to be with Liverpool, but he was to fall short as the Reds appointed Brendan Rodgers, the man that had succeeded Martinez at Swansea City in 2009.

Since then, Martinez has been the second-youngest manager linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur. The former defensive midfielder has managed to keep Wigan in the Premier League over the three seasons he has been at the club, but has only won a pathetic near 26 percent of his games. That is a far cry from the 50 percent record he had at Swansea in the same amount of time.

Martinez is a manger that Tottenham should only sign if they truly are willing to give him at least two or three full seasons to build a squad, and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has to be willing to back his manager in the transfer market.

Without either of those two commitments from the club there would really be no point in bringing in a young manager.

Andre Villas-Boas

Where is there to truly start with the youngest candidate of the six in former Chelsea and FC Porto manager Andre Villas-Boas? There is no doubt the 34-year-old has talent and tactical ability in the hot seat as well as a vision of players he wants.

However, his true downfall seems to be controlling a locker room, after seeing the trouble he had at Chelsea with all the major personalities at the club.

AVB is the most decorated manager linked to the club having won a treble with FC Porto in 2010-11 of the Portuguese double and the UEFA Europa League. The manager is also the youngest, but boasts the best career record of the six with a winning percentage of 62 percent having only lost 22 matches in three seasons between Academia, Porto and Chelsea.

But, once again, the need for a two- to three-year window of full support and transfer market backing must be allowed to see if there is a chance of success, and in the same spirit as that of possibly signing Roberto Martinez, without the mentioned conditions there is no point in bringing in AVB either.

According to Yahoo Eurosport, AVB is the odds on favorite at the current moment for the job.

David Moyes

The first man to come to the press and the lips of readers everywhere that would replace Harry Redknapp was Everton manager of 10 years, David Moyes. When the Guardian first broke the story on their website, Moyes was immediately mentioned in the same article as Redknapp's sacking announcement.

Moyes has been a magnificent leader at Everton. With the Toffees always finding a way to compete despite the Scottish manager never having significant funds for new signings at any point.

Perhaps the value that Moyes has always been able to find and coax out of players is part of the model that Tottenham would like going forward into the future as they look to be competitive on all fronts year after year.

Spurs are in no way capable of competing with the spending power of clubs like Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or even Arsenal most of the time, and a manager like Moyes could draw in great talent for better value.

On top of his spendthrift ability, Moyes has proved year in and year out that he can get results no matter how his club starts the season and no matter if there is a lull in their performance.

Only twice has Everton finished below 8th in the table under Moyes, the worst finish being 2002-03 in his first season in charge that saw the club finish 17th. The following year he led them to the UEFA Champions League places in fourth.

The next season he finished in 11th before starting a run of three straight UEFA Europa League campaigns before an eight, seventh and 2011-12 seventh place. For a club with no money to spend, Moyes certainly finds a way to make things happen.

If he were to have even the mid-level financial backing of Spurs there is no telling what he could possibly accomplish, and at only 49 years of age, he has plenty of time left to do so.