Igor Tudor has called the Tottenham job the biggest challenge of his career, and an update has now been shared on his future at the club amid links to USA manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Tudor calls Tottenham his biggest rescue job
Tudor has been parachuted into his first managerial role in England with Spurs’ Premier League future at stake after a horror run of form over the winter months.
A painful 4-1 debut defeat at home to rivals Arsenal extended Tottenham’s winless league run to nine matches and made it only two wins from their last 18 in the division.
Asked if this was his biggest challenge, Tudor said: “Probably, if I see, if I recognise the difficulties there are, probably, yes. It’s even a bigger challenge, even a bigger motivation to do this and we do it.”
The former Juventus boss also admitted the role was harder than expected, but believes work on the training ground can turn around the club’s fortunes before Sunday’s trip across London to Fulham.
“Probably yes,” Tudor reflected. “Yes, very tough, but it’s what I said before, I don’t change my opinion, it is how it is, so, daily work, focus, raising in all things we need to do, physical condition, mental confidence, performance and waiting for the players to come back.
“We need to be focused on us, what we can do, less thinking about others, that’s always good and it will be good.”
Spurs will discover their Champions League opponents for the last 16 on Friday, but Tudor promised to waste no “energy” on fixtures with either Atletico Madrid or Galatasaray due to the current situation.
Tudor added: “I don’t think too much about the draw. If you ask me whether I expect the draw tomorrow, it won’t change for me nothing.”
The Croatian coach will be boosted by the return of defender Kevin Danso and full-back Pedro Porro for Sunday’s fixture at Craven Cottage.
The duo could line-up alongside Micky van de Ven, who has faced criticism this week after a clip on social-media implied the Dutch centre-back had ignored the instructions of Tudor to push up during the loss to Arsenal.
Tudor said: “It was not an instruction to Micky, it was an instruction to the team to go up. It was about the team coming up and what we were speaking before.
“We want to go up because we want to have this style where we press high, but in this moment it’s too much for them, so that’s why I was a little frustrated on that, but this is part of it.
“If you watch carefully now, you see that I don’t speak with (Van de Ven) because after that one (team) advice, I said to him, come closer and he came closer. In that moment, I stood there like this, it was all for the defence to go up.
“We didn’t even speak about this me and Micky because there was nothing to speak about. He’s a fantastic guy, a very good professional and he would never do these things.”
Sharing an update on Tudor's possible replacement this summer, Alan Brazil told talkSPORT that contrary to several reports linking USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino with the role, Tottenham chiefs haven't even contacted their former boss.
"I had a chat with someone yesterday and the latest is Poch... they've not even spoken to Poch," Brazil told co-host Ally McCoist.
In response to McCoist exclaiming Pochettino should have been the "automatic" choice, Brazil continued: "No, not even spoken to him. So I don't know what they're doing and I don't think they know what they're doing."
The 53 year-old's last spell in the Premier League with Chelsea did not go to plan, winning just 50 per cent of his games in charge, but Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was full of praise at the time: "Chelsea have definitely improved throughout the season, they have got better and better, they have top quality players and an outstanding manager."
It certainly is surprising to hear the Lilywhites haven't even sounded out the USA boss, and it's hard to think they could find a more popular appointment elsewhere.