New Tottenham manager Nuno Espirito Santo determined to 'make fans proud'

Portuguese signs two-year deal with Premier League club

Nuno Espirito Santo spent four years as Wolves manager. PA

Nuno Espirito Santo has said he is determined to hit the ground running after being appointed Tottenham Hotspur manager on a two-year deal on Wednesday.

Spurs have been in the market for a new manager since sacking Jose Mourinho in April. Reports claimed a number of candidates were in talks to fill the vacancy, including former manager Mauricio Pochettino, Antonio Conte, Paulo Fonseca and Gennaro Gattuso.

Now Tottenham have opted for former Wolves coach Nuno, who will get to work at the start of pre-season training on Monday when players not involved in international tournaments return to the Premier League club's training complex.

"When you have a squad with quality and talent, we want to make the fans proud and enjoy," Nuno, 47, said in a statement on the club's website. "It's an enormous pleasure and honour (to be here), there's joy and I'm happy and looking forward to starting work.

"We don't have any days to lose and we must start working immediately as pre-season starts in a few days."

The Portuguese manager guided Wolves from the Championship into the Premier League in 2018 and secured consecutive seventh-place finishes in their first two seasons back in the top-flight.

Last season saw some regression by Wolves in the Premier League with a 13th place finish as Nuno and his team struggled following the departure of some key players and the season-ending head injury of lead striker Raul Jimenez early in the campaign.

"First of all, I'd like to welcome Nuno to the club," said Spurs chairman Daniel Levy. "We should like to thank our supporters for all their patience throughout this process.

"I've spoken already about the need to revert back to our core DNA of playing attacking, entertaining football and (managing director of football) Fabio Paratici and I believe Nuno is the man who can take our talented group of players, embrace our young players coming through and build something special."

Nuno, who has previously managed Valencia and Porto, has been available since May after his four-year stint at Wolves ended.

Spurs fans will be desperate to challenge again for the Champions League places after missing out on European football's premier competition for two consecutive seasons.

They were regular top-four finishers under Pochettino, reaching the Champions League final in 2019, but have not won silverware of any description since 2008.

The club also risk losing England captain and talisman Harry Kane, who told Tottenham he wanted to leave after growing frustrated at his team's 13-year trophy drought.