Igor Tudor was not a popular figure around Tottenham Hotspur a week ago. After feeding Antonin Kinsky to the wolves and then hanging him out to dry after he frequently siipped on the notoriously slippery Atletico Madrid pitch, not even acknowledging the young goalkeeper, Tudor has recovered quite abruptly from the 5-2 demolition at the hands of Diego Simeone.
He patched things up with Kinsky and strongly hinted at him starting again. Then, he did something even better, taking a point off Arne Slot to hold the tide at bay in the intense Premier League relegation fight. And finally, he picked up his first win as Spurs manager, taking down Simeone's Atleti 3-2 in the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16.
Obviously, a 3-2 win in the second leg was too little, too late after losing 5-2 in the first leg, but how well Spurs played at home was a reminder of what they are capable of and that maybe, just maybe, Spurs would hae eliminated Atleti in shock fashion if they were not so unlucky with Atleti's comically horrid grounds.
Igor Tudor suddenly doesn't look incompetent
In the span of one week after reaching rock bottom with his treatment of Kinsky, Tudor is riding high, and Tottenham Hotspur fans are no longer cursing his name as a downgrade on Thomas Frank, but rather appreciating the fact that, contrary to media speculation, Tudor has the locker room fighting for him much more than Frank ever did.
Of course, the Tottenham dressing room is - and should be - fighting for a lot more than Tudor, but the positive changes are palpable. And Tudor is believing in young players like Spurs have not before. Archie Gray and Maths Tel are rapidly becoming untouchables for Tottenham, as they should be. Even the previously forgotten Callum Olusesi is impressing and playing an important role in the Tottenham midfield.
The narrative on Tudor has suddenly shifted from a blithering oaf who is inaccessible, unrelatable, and outright incompetent to a potential stabilizer. Tudor's tenure at Tottenham is necessarily going to be brief, and no Spurs supporter has illusions - or, rather, delusions - of him spending more time at the N17 than he needs to.
But with how well Spurs played against Atleti and how much more fire they displayed for the first time in months, perhaps Tudor's brief period at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium can ultimately prove to be a highly fruitful one in the short and even long term.