Ange Postecoglou has three new coach options to replace Chris Davies at Tottenham

Ange Postecoglou is set to look both internally and externally to find the right candidate to replace Chris Davies as his Tottenham Hotspur assistant head coach.

It would not be a summer at the north London club without some form of upheaval and this year's has come early with the exit of 39-year-old Davies to League One side Birmingham City to embark on his first managerial role in the game. The move will not come as a shock to Postecoglou or the club though with Davies having turned down a switch to Swansea earlier in the season in order to see out the campaign with Tottenham and having been keen to start his management career for some time.

"Chris is an outstanding individual, he's done some fantastic work with us in the last season and as I've said before, that will attract attention, so it's no surprise to me that a club of Birmingham City's stature have shown an interest in him," said Postecoglou. "I'd like to thank Chris for all his hard work, and we wish him all the best."

Davies was chosen by Birmingham from 1,000 coaches who they evaluated with more than 40 being spoken to directly or through their representatives. The young coach impressed during his season at Tottenham, both on and off the training pitches, and was a key link between the first team and the development squad and academy.

Postecoglou would have been anticipating the potential departure of the well-regarded coach within his set-up and football.london understands that the Australian will look at all options, both internally and externally, to restock his staff and ensure the club builds on its fifth-place finish last season in the Premier League.

It took Postecoglou and Spurs 21 days to appoint his coaching staff after he was appointed just over a year ago and he does have a couple of weeks before the staff will return to Hotspur Way to begin preparing for pre-season. The coaches normally return four to five days before the players do to start their planning.

READ MORE: The lessons Tottenham wonderkid Mikey Moore can learn from those who came before him

READ MORE: Tottenham set for summer transfer approach as Ange Postecoglou eyes key addition

Despite the titles, there is not too much of a hierarchy within a Postecoglou set-up as the Australian lets his coaches share the load in training sessions, each taking 15 minutes a piece to get the sessions fresh, always changing and constantly challenging for the players.

So what are the potential options when it comes to replacing Davies? football.london takes a look.

A new face

Despite only being 39, Davies was the most experienced member of Postecoglou's team as he had worked with Brendan Rodgers in various roles from his mid-20s at Swansea and Liverpool before a stint at Reading as a first team coach. He then re-joined Rodgers as his assistant manager at Celtic and then took on the same role for him at Leicester City.

So Postecoglou could well look for someone new to work with once again who brings with them experience across the game. The Australian likes to give people chances in the game and help develop coaches so he often takes on staff who are in their 30s or early 40s, but some like Davies have that experience after going into coaching at a young age.

Postecoglou will examine the best candidates currently on the market or looking for new challenges and see which ones fit his style of football perfectly and can transfer his ways to the players by using their own innovative methods. The 58-year-old always looks for clear communicators like himself because he knows he has a lot of ideas to get across to the group.

An old face

This is something that Postecoglou has very rarely, if ever, done, which is go back to get a former coach he's worked with before at a club. The Australian mostly likes the buzz and challenge of getting a new set of coaching staff to develop and take on his ways and spread that through the group of players.

However, that's not to say he doesn't consider bringing back former members of staff, particularly at Tottenham where there would have been more pressure to make a fast start so coaches that already knew his demands and philosophy would have expedited that process.

Postecoglou looked at bringing both John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan with him from Celtic but both ended up staying with Brendan Rodgers, with the Spurs boss instead taking the northern Irishman's long-time collaborator in Davies. A move for another Celtic protégé in Harry Kewell was mooted but the Australian ended up staying and is now head coach of Postecoglou's former side Yokohama F Marinos.

There was some talk that Postecoglou's former assistant manager Peter Cklamovski in Japan might link up with him at Spurs last year but his compatriot is a manager in his own right now and is head coach of FC Tokyo.

While this might seem the least likely of the three scenarios, Postecoglou bringing in someone who knows his game inside out and has been there in year two at his projects before could help him move quickly in a year when he is looking to challenge at the top with Spurs.

Promote from within

Postecoglou also has coaching talent within the walls at Hotspur Way and two highly-rated young staff members who are, like Davies, on the cusp of moving into management.

Matt Wells came through the club but has plenty of experience as an assistant manager, despite being only 35-years-old. He went with Scott Parker as a coach at Fulham and then was the former England and Spurs midfielder's assistant at Bournemouth and Club Brugge. Those who have watched Wells' training sessions often remark upon the clarity of his information to the players and the innovative nature of the work.

Postecoglou has praised Wells' work this season and the young coach, the grandson of Spurs' double-winning wing wizard Cliff Jones, was instantly impressed with the Australian when they met last summer.

"I flew to Italy to meet Ange on his family holiday which again was an incredible experience. I went there and I had prepared something and I presented to Ange. I had a good four to five hours with him, talking football, talking his pathway, my pathway, his coaching philosophy, my beliefs on the game and then Ange's vision for the club and how he wanted the team to play and how he was going to transform things," he said earlier this season.

"I came away from that conversation just so invigorated and inspired and desperate to be a part of it. Obviously though you're still not sure. You're never certain. I thought we connected quite well but you can never be sure of the impression you've left. To then get the phone call from the club that Ange wanted me to stay on as part of his coaching staff was a massive honour."

Wells will certainly be a strong candidate to step up in Davies' absence, although his own future plans of becoming a manager will also be a factor to keep an eye on this summer as jobs open up across the game.

Ryan Mason is another option. Still just 32, the former Spurs midfielder has already had those two spells as a caretaker manager and was credited inside the club with bringing a lot of the departments back together to lay the foundations for Postecoglou after the fractured final months of the Antonio Conte regime.

He and Postecoglou got on well on their first meeting last summer and the former England international is highly-rated within the game while his training sessions have also been praised by those involved in them in recent years. Like Wells and Davies, Mason has also made no secret of his ambition to become a manager and the next step for him might be as an assistant manager as he is still so young.

Mason gets tagged with being part of the old regime at Tottenham after being part of Conte's coaching set-up and previously the academy set-up, but his coaching philosophy lies far closer to Postecoglou's and Mauricio Pochettino's and his spells as caretaker boss were mostly successful in picking up the pieces left behind by others, particularly for someone so young. He was still in his twenties during his first spell.

While older at 39, Mile Jedinak is the least experienced of the three coaching candidates currently within the first team set-up as he took his first steps on the senior coaching ladder this season.

Other options for Postecoglou, possibly to fill the gap left if either Wells or Mason were promoted, could be found within the club's academy. The club's experienced 52-year-old U21s boss Wayne Burnett has had a remarkable season in developing players for the first team at the same time as leading his team to the Premier League 2 title and subsequent play-off final triumph.

U18s manager Stuart Lewis has also enjoyed an eye-catching couple of years with the younger crop of players and the talented 36-year-old has been working with and helping to develop Jermain Defoe as a coach trying to gain his coaching qualifications.

Postecoglou will look both outside and inside the club as he seeks perhaps a couple of changes to his coaching staff this summer and there are plenty of candidates who can make a difference.

Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham by clicking here! In depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.

Want breaking and top Tottenham stories sent straight to you? Join our Spurs WhatsApp community by clicking this link. If you're curious you can check out our privacy policy here.