Former Tottenham defender Michael Dawson thinks his old Spurs teammate is the man to replace Thomas Frank and galvanise the struggling club.
The Dane lasted just 38 games in charge in north London after his summer move from Brentford.
He won 13 of those matches, losing 14 and the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle on Tuesday night proved to be enough for the board to axe him.
Spurs have actually been doing very well in the Champions League and have already booked their place in the last 16 of the competition, but sitting 16th in the Premier League was clearly not good enough.
Dawson had backed Frank for success and still thought he could turn it around, but with Spurs just five points above the relegation zone, he isn’t surprised a decision was made.
‘It wasn’t inevitable, in my opinion,’ Dawson told Sky Sports. ‘I go back to the West Ham game where they lost 2-1, a really late goal and that was the point where I thought, will they make the change?
‘It’s clear that they didn’t want to do that. But I look back on last night’s performance, they’ve obviously had a meeting and reflected and thought, we are in a relegation battle, we’re five points ahead of West Ham, could have been three if Manchester United don’t score that goal.
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‘They’ve made a decision and now they’ve got a huge decision to make on who comes in.’
There is a lot of important football to play over the rest of the season, domestically and in Europe and Spurs now have to decide whether to appoint an interim boss until the end of the season or hire a permanent manager now.
Dawson feels former manager, and current USA boss, Mauricio Pochettino will be who they have in mind if they choose to wait for the summer.
‘I hear everyone talking about interim,’ he said. ‘We don’t know. We don’t know if it’s going to be interim. If that happens there’s only one manager they’re waiting for and that has to be Pochettino in the summer.’
While Pochettino would be a popular choice among Tottenham fans, Dawson reckons they could make a morale-boosting appointment now in the shape of Robbie Keane.
The Irishman, who scored 122 goals in 306 appearances for Spurs over two spells, is currently in charge of Hungarian side Ferencvaros.
‘Do they go out and get someone now?’ Dawson asked. ‘For me there’s someone there in the making, someone who knows the football club, someone who’s got the passion, played for the club, loves it, will galvanise everyone and bring them in the right direction moving forward and that is Robbie Keane, for me.’
Dawson does not see Keane leaving table-topping Ferencvaros for an interim role at Spurs, but feels he is worth the gamble on a permanent basis.
‘I can’t imagine that, leaving Ferencvaros, joint-top of the league, in the knockout stages of the Europa League, so I don’t know too many managers who would leave a contract there to go for an interim,’ he said.
‘But why not give him it on a permanent basis? They’ve tried Jose [Mourinho], they’ve tried [Antonio] Conte, they’ve tried Thomas Frank and I was someone who was all in for Thomas Frank.
‘The job he did at Brentford was outstanding and he deserved an opportunity. I’m disappointed for him because I’m a big admirer of him.
‘He’s been dealt a really hard hand with the amount of injuries they’ve had. But we’re in an industry where you’ve got to win football matches.’
Keane has taken a unique path in management so far, briefly taking charge of Indian side ATK in 2018 before managing Maccabi Tel Aviv to the 2023/24 Israeli Premier League title, but choosing to leave after just 56 games in charge.
He moved to Ferencvaros in January 2025 and won the Nemzeti Bajnokság (Hungarian top flight) in his first season at the helm.