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National League side Woking have appointed former Tottenham and England striker Jermain Defoe as their new head coach.

It is the 43-year-old's first permanent role of his managerial career, having previously been part of an interim coaching staff in charge of Scottish giants Rangers in 2021 and worked in the Spurs academy.

Woking sacked former Wimbledon midfielder Neal Ardley earlier this month, with interim head coach Craig Ross overseeing four wins, three draws and a defeat in eight games in charge.

Ross will also be in charge for Tuesday's game against Altrincham (19:45 BST), before Defoe takes over.

Woking said they had opted for Defoe "following a detailed recruitment process" and said his "values, leadership style and footballing philosophy best aligned with its long-term vision".

Club chairman Todd Johnson added: "Jermain's achievements as a player speak for themselves, but what stood out to us during the process was how he sees the game, how he drives standards, and his approach to leadership and player development.

"We have a clear plan for where we want to go as a club, and we believe Jermain is the right person to build on the strong foundations already in place and help take us forward in the next phase of that journey."

Defoe will be assisted by the former Fulham and Halifax manager Paul Bracewell, with Ross and Jake Hyde remaining on the club's coaching staff.

Tottenham Hotspur want to convince Roberto de Zerbi to become their new permanent head coach, according to sources.

Igor Tudor has left the club by mutual consent after just 44 days in charge, with chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange tasked with appointing his replacement.

It is understood Tottenham had resolved to part ways with interim boss Tudor following last Sunday's 3-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest, a result that left them just one point clear of the relegation zone, but wanted to give the Croat a period of time to mourn the death of his father last weekend.

De Zerbi, who is available following his exit from Marseille earlier this season, is a primary target and Spurs, prior to the official announcement of Tudor's departure, tried to ascertain whether the Italian is open to the job.

Multiple sources have told BBC Sport that initial indications are De Zerbi is open to becoming the club's next permanent head coach, but would prefer to wait until the end of the season when he knows whether the club are still in the Premier League.

It now remains to be seen whether Tottenham renew their efforts to land former Brighton boss De Zerbi immediately following Tudor's departure.

Elsewhere, there is believed to be an interest in appointing Sean Dyche on a short-term basis.

Dyche, who is available after his sacking by Forest in February, has a record of keeping clubs in the Premier League - a relevant trait given Tottenham's relegation fears.

However, it is understood Dyche would seek a minimum 18-month contract if he was to replace Tudor, which could prove a stumbling block towards any agreement.

Mauricio Pochettino would be the choice of many supporters given his relatively successful previous reign at the club, but his commitments to the USA national team before this summer's World Cup would make such an immediate move extremely difficult.

Candidates with Tottenham connections such as Ryan Mason, Harry Redknapp and Tim Sherwood would be open to taking the job on an interim basis until the end of the season, while current player Ben Davies has also been considered as a possible short-term fix.

Former Monaco head coach Adi Hutter is another potential candidate, while former players Glenn Hoddle and Chris Hughton have also been touted as interim appointments.

Here are some more of your views on Igor Tudor's Tottenham exit and who you want to be appointed as his successor:

Steven: Igor Tudor's departure is the right call, though it's hard not to feel some sympathy for him given the nightmarish circumstances. He inherited a squad depleted by injuries and a team already in a downward spiral. However, with the club now sitting just one point above the drop zone, we couldn't afford to wait for a turnaround that didn't look likely to materialise. With seven games left, we need a decisive appointment - someone who can command the dressing room immediately and inspire a squad that looks completely bereft of confidence.

Charles: Tudor was a high-risk appointment by the management which has left Spurs in a very vulnerable position. Let's please hope for Sean Dyche - a pragmatic manager with heaps of experience at the lower levels of the Premier League and a decent, empathetic man who will surely get the best out of a team wholly lacking in confidence.

Sebastian: They should get Ryan Mason, Robbie Keane and Harry Redknapp in to try to sort this mess out.

Dave: Just seemed to be a desktop/spreadsheet-based appointment by the obviously highly able football experts who run the club, which was always doomed to fail. We needed, and need ( though too late, I think), a battle-scarred Premier League savvy, survival expert. While I'm up for, say, a Spursy Tim Sherwood/Robbie Keane ticket, I recall the experience of Alan Shearer not being able to keep Newcastle up a few years ago, so am wary of an emotional appointment.

Julie: When are people going to realise that keeping on sacking managers is ridiculous. It's the players that need sacking, not the managers. Any decent manager should stay away from this club and the fans are just as bad for keeping on asking for managers to be sacked. Tottenham have won nothing.

Mervyn: Who should manage Spurs until the end of the season? Harry Redknapp! Do you think that he would be the new Roy Hodgson? I don't think so. Harry is too old and just a celebrity now. Glenn Hoddle could turn out good partnered with any current member of staff who might be thought suitable for managing the club next season.

So 44 days might not sound like a long time, but in the case of Igor Tudor and Spurs, it was 44 days too long.

The appointment was always inappropriate and unlikely to succeed. A strict disciplinarian who had never coached in the Premier League before, let alone with any connection to Tottenham Hotspur, was always going to struggle to galvanise a squad this severely lacking in confidence and so desperately depleted by injuries.

Indeed, Tudor never seemed comfortable with the players or committed to the significant task at hand.

His Antonio Conte-style news conferences served as early warnings as he appeared to distance himself from the challenge. His physical training sessions did little to boost morale or improve players' understanding of what was expected tactically.

His mishandling of our young goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky was a red flag that, ultimately, could not be ignored.

There was a moment of respite as we clawed a point off Liverpool and claimed a victory against Atletico Madrid, but even the most hopeful of fans sensed these were probably false dawns.

The fact that someone, somewhere in Lilywhite House thought it was the right move to appoint Tudor in the first place is what concerns me most.

The club wasted time waiting for things to click with Thomas Frank, who should have been sacked weeks, if not months, before he eventually was.

To then appoint someone like Tudor simply speaks to the astonishing incompetence playing out in the boardroom right now.

There is no room for error any more. There is no time left to waste. The next move has to be perfect.

We need a manager who is going to remind these players of their quality, connect with them, inspire them and lead the way to Premier League survival.

Ideally, it will be someone who knows and loves Spurs as much as we do.

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Katie Smith is joined by football correspondents Sami Mokbel and John Murray, as well as former Spurs goalkeeper Brad Friedel, for an emergency edition of BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast after Igor Tudor left Tottenham after just 44 days in charge.

What is the root of the problem for Spurs? Who is capable of keeping them in the Premier League? What should the club do next? And how much worse would things get if they were relegated?

Tottenham Hotspur's hierarchy have finally addressed the mistake they made with the outlandish appointment of Igor Tudor as interim head coach – but the stakes are now so high they cannot afford another.

Tudor's departure after only 44 days concludes a bizarre and potentially hugely expensive episode that leaves fingers pointing firmly in the direction of chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange.

If Venkatesham and Lange get the next big decision wrong it could conceivably end with Spurs in the Championship, leaving a scar on their record that would be impossible to recover from.

If there is merit in the argument that it is better to correct a mistake as quickly as possible, the counter argument is that appointing Tudor was a mistake that should never have been made in the first place.

Time will tell, but Tudor's spell in charge may yet end up as the 44 days that sealed Spurs' Premier League fate.

Tottenham fans, who carefully note Venkatesham's links to Arsenal from his previous job, will be waiting to see what he can pull off now. The ominous spectre of relegation is even more of a possibility after Tudor's seven games in charge, which brought one pyrrhic victory, while exiting the Champions League against Atletico Madrid, and none in the Premier League.

Venkatesham and Lange will know the stakes as Spurs stand one point and one place above the relegation spots, the end coming for Tudor after the humiliating 3-0 home defeat by fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest.

They were behind the decision to bring in Tudor, the combustible Croatian with a chequered coaching career and no Premier League experience, to succeed the sacked Thomas Frank.

Having delayed dismissing Frank, seemingly hoping for a revival that was never coming and a change in the toxic mood among fans that was too far gone to be rescued, turning to Tudor was left-field at best.

There seemed little logic in Tudor taking over, even for an interim period, and will certainly have brought Venkatesham and Lange into the crosshairs of the Lewis family, who own the club and have entrusted them with taking Spurs into a brighter future.

One source close to Spurs suggested Tudor was a leaving gift suggestion from former sporting director Fabio Paratici. If it was, it was one they must now regret accepting.

There must be a measure of sympathy for Tudor, who also had to deal with the death of his father after being parachuted into a role he was clearly unsuited for, while taking over a squad ravaged by injuries and a complete loss of confidence.

Sympathy will be in shorter supply for Venkatesham and Lange.

Tudor's arrival raised eyebrows all round, with his unique selling point supposedly his status as an impact coach with a capacity for getting quick results.

This was soon proved to be a myth as he lost his first four games, the low point - even considering the opening 4-1 defeat by Arsenal - coming in the 5-2 embarrassment away to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last 16 first leg.

Tudor dropped first-choice keeper Guglielmo Vicario for young Czech Antonin Kinsky, only to take him off after just 17 minutes following two mistakes that handed Atletico a 3-0 lead.

He was then criticised for ignoring Kinsky as he went off, comfort left to team-mates on the pitch, then Conor Gallagher and Dominic Solanke, who followed him down the tunnel.

It was an example of what appeared to be Tudor's 'tough love' approach, as opposed to Frank's warmer and more empathetic style, leaving the Spurs squad looking even more dispirited than when he arrived.

Tudor was considered fortunate in many eyes to survive that, although a deserved draw at Liverpool and that second leg win against Atletico offered hope until the capitulation against Forest.

As his departure is digested, it can be reasonably asked what Venkatesham and Lange detected in his previous track record, other than some fast starts, that made them believe he was the right man to navigate Spurs out of trouble.

Spurs was Tudor's 11th club as a coach after starting his career at Hajduk Split in Croatia in 2013.

Tudor's belief in a three-man defensive system looked an ill-fit for Tottenham, while constant changes in tactics and personnel suggested even he did not know how to get the best of the flatlining squad he had inherited.

For Spurs to now be searching for a third coach this season does not just smack of growing panic, it also reflects poorly on the decisions they have made at the top of the club that has put them in this situation.

The ideal solution would be to persuade Roberto de Zerbi, their main choice to take over on a permanent basis, to take the job now – but would it appeal to the highly-rated Italian with the knowledge if he cannot inspire an instant turnaround he could end up in charge of a Championship club?

Igor Tudor was a left-field gamble that went wrong from the start.

His unique selling point, in an appointment that smacked of panic from Tottenham's hierarchy, was that he had a chequered coaching career but a record of having the sort of instant impact the club required.

This never materialised. He became the first man in charge of Spurs to lose his first four matches, starting with that heavy 4-1 home defeat by Arsenal.

Tudor's brusque, plain speaking style got no more out of the Spurs squad than Thomas Frank's more empathetic approach. It never made any connection with the Spurs players, while a welter of tactical shifts hinted that he was struggling to work out how to get the best out of the shambles he had inherited.

The low point came in the Champions League last 16 first leg at Atletico Madrid when he gambled on selecting Antonin Kinsky in goal ahead of first-choice Guglielmo Vicario, only to remove the young Czech after just 17 minutes following two catastrophic errors that left Spurs 3-0 down in an eventual 5-2 defeat.

Tudor was also criticised for the manner in which he ignored Kinsky when he went off, comfort being left to his colleagues on the pitch, as well as Conor Gallagher and Dominic Solanke, who followed him down the tunnel to console him.

Improvement could be detected in the deserved draw at Liverpool before an honourable win in the Champions League exit to Atletico – but normal dismal service was resumed in last Sunday's highly damaging 3-0 home defeat by fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest.

In Tudor's defence, he took over a shell-shocked and struggling squad decimated by injuries and stripped of confidence. There is no guarantee anyone else would have done markedly better.

In this emergency situation, Spurs had to act, but the whole episode reflects more badly on those at the top of the club than it does on Tudor.

We asked for your views on Igor Tudor leaving Tottenham after just 44 days in charge.

Here are some of your comments:

George: I'm relieved, frankly. I was optimistic to begin with because of his saviour pedigree on the continent, but the Premier League is an entirely different beast. Please get Harry Redknapp in - nobody else available makes as much sense to me.

Steve: We now need stability and confidence. We need a Spurs man. Harry Redknapp and Tim Sherwood. Maybe Ryan Mason and Ledley King too. Harry will bring confidence, the other three belief and tactical nouse. One last roll of the dice for the Spurs board - don't mess it up!

Clare: We should never have gone with Tudor and took too long to sack Thomas Frank (should never have sacked Ange Postecoglous either). They have to get this right. At this point in time they need to get the players on board to find out who they're actually going to listen to. Maybe Ryan Mason? He's done it twice already but I'd hate for it to go wrong for him.

Derek: Might as well go for Ben Davies. He's been at the club longer than anyone and seen a lot of managers come and go. Then get Kieran McKenna after relegation as he knows the Championship well.

Leslie: Wishing Tudor the very best after his sad loss. However, he was never right for the job. We need to win three of our last seven games. I would like to see Glenn Hoddle and Ryan Mason take over as both are Spurs through and through.

John: Tim Sherwood would get us out of trouble and I still feel he is the man we need.

Pete: A gamble that hasn't paid off when we should have been looking at a manager with a proven track record. The players need to be held accountable for the position we find ourselves in. It's all very well blaming our injuries, but we still should have enough to be a lot further up the table than we are. Whoever comes in now needs to identify a leader and build the squad around them.

Philip: It makes no difference who the next head coach is unless and until something fundamental changes with the overall management of the club. Who is planning and strategising now for next season in the Championship or to improve significantly on 17th in the Premier League, and how will this be achieved? A quick-fix managerial appointment now or in the close season, or worse still, after the World Cup finishes will not address all the fundamental issues of rottenness in the management of this once great and proud club.

Before being appointed by Tottenham, Igor Tudor had been out of work since being sacked by Juventus in October following an eight-match winless run.

He leaves Spurs as one of only six managers to take charge of at least five Premier League games and fail to record a win.

Among the reasons given for Tudor's appointment was to introduce more attacking football, following criticism of their style of play under Thomas Frank.

Spurs did average slightly more shots per game under Tudor (11.6) than Frank (11.1), but they regressed in other metrics, including goals scored (0.8, down from 1.4), expected goals (xG) (1.0, down from 1.1) and touches in the opposition box (21.0, down from 24.3).

Tudor's Tottenham had the third lowest xG across Premier League teams during his tenure - and only three teams managed fewer big chances.

Defensively, they faced the fifth most shots, fourth most shots on target and conceded the second most xG.