Arnesen offered Pleat's job

The managerial saga at Tottenham took a major new twist today as Standard Sport can reveal that Frank Arnesen has been offered the job to become the club's new technical director to replace David Pleat.

And the new front runner for the firstteam coach's job is Real Madrid's Carlos Queiroz.

News of the Queiroz-Arnesen team emerged as the former favourite to take over at White Hart Lane, Giovanni Trapattoni, declared he would still be interested in the job after Euro 2004, despite talks with Spurs falling through twice.

The announcement of former Danish international Arnesen, PSV Eindhoven's general manager, has been pencilled in for later this week. But, embarrassingly, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has yet to finalise any deal with current director of football Pleat to go, or stay in a new role. Pleat took over as caretaker manager after the sacking of Glenn Hoddle last September.

Arnesen is officially due to leave PSV on 1 July, but said his farewells last week. The Dane will take special responsibility for scouting and transfers at Spurs, a similar role to the one he performed in Holland.

Pleat is expected to be sacked, but could be given a reduced role with no first team influence under the new regime.

The former Manchester United coach Queiroz is now the definite favourite for the hot seat. It is certain he will leave Real after four consecutive league losses, but it has already been speculated that he would prefer a move back to Old Trafford where he was No2 last season to Sir Alex Ferguson.

Queiroz moved into pole position for the job at Spurs after soundings made to the Martin O'Neill camp were met with a luke-warm response while Claudio Ranieri is also a possibility once his Chelsea career comes to an end.