Tottenham Hotspur have been handed a new blow in their potential pursuit to appoint Julian Nagelsmann...

What's the word?

Lilywhites chairman Daniel Levy sensationally sacked Jose Mourinho on Monday after just 17 months in charge of the north London outfit, leaving the club in seventh place in the Premier League and with a Carabao Cup final on the horizon.

Former midfielder and academy coach Ryan Mason will now take control alongside Chris Powell until the end of the season.

The youthful RB Leipzig head coach has quickly emerged as a front-runner and Spurs' mooted first-choice to succeed the Special One but latest claims suggest they will have a very tough task in securing his signature.

That's according to The Athletic's Bundesliga expert Raphael Honigstein, who told talkSPORT:

"Leipzig have no intention of releasing Julian Naglesmann and will fight tooth and nail not to let him go. He has no release clause, the slightly bigger issue is he would very much like to go to Bayern Munich next season.

"If it’s between Tottenham and Bayern, for him, it’s not a consideration. He is from a place very near Munich, his family are from Munich and he was a Bayern fan growing up.

"Even with a potential Super League club in Spurs, I still think Bayern are in a different category of club and he wants to go to that kind of club next. Whether Leipzig will let him or not, we don’t know but that’s his plan as far as I know and I think Spurs are going to find it very difficult to change that."

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Bad news for Levy

This will come as a huge blow to Levy and his hopes of appointing the 33-year-old gem this summer, especially as Bayern's current boss Hansi Flick revealed his intention to leave the Bundesliga giants, thus opening the door for an easy change of scenery over in Germany.

It's easy to see why Nagelsmann will be in high demand as he's taken RB Leipzig to a new level, even further than the progression attained under current Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl.

They have run the defending champions as close to a title battle as possible, and have certainly put up a better fight than Borussia Dortmund, and the likes of Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Monchengladbach, too.

The young coach has been tipped to emulate the successes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, too. "Julian is the biggest German coaching talent. He's very mature for his age and has already come very far," claimed ex-Leipzig sporting director Ralf Rangnick to SID (via Bulinews). "If he keeps developing like this, he can reach the level of Klopp and Guardiola."

Such claims have been emphasised by Angelino, someone who has played for both the trophy-laden City boss as well as Nagelsmann. "In certain things they do resemble each other: in the way of preparing for games, training or knowing what they want. I would say they are 95 per cent the same in those aspects," he told Spanish outlet AS (via beIN SPORTS).

On top of an impressive 59% win rate from his 88 matches in charge of the Bundesliga side, Spurs have tasted first-hand the damage his teams can do as they were the side to knock the north Londoners out of the Champions League last season.

If Spurs miss out on the emerging guru, then it will be truly gutting for Levy and many more at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Some of the other names linked to the vacant role, including England boss Gareth Southgate, former Wigan FA Cup winner Roberto Martinez, Swansea's Steve Cooper and another manager sacked by Chelsea in Maurizio Sarri, are hugely uninspiring by comparison.

AND in other news, here's how Spurs could look under Ryan Mason; Alli & Winks comeback?...