Five days after Thomas Frank was given his marching orders, sources have told ESPN that Igor Tudor is set to be the man tasked with ensuring Tottenham Hotspur avoid a once-unthinkable relegation from the Premier League.
While there were few indications of who the club might be able to turn to in their hour of need, Tudor's name was not one on the lips of most Spurs fans. Sources have told ESPN that Tottenham looked at a small group of candidates and identified Tudor as a leading option due to his extensive head coach experience.
Performing a rescue act is nothing new to Tudor -- he was parachuted in in at Lazio in March 2024 and led them to a seventh-place finish and qualification for the Europa League.
Last season, the Croatian manager replaced Thiago Motta as Juventus boss and managed to secure Champions League football with a late-season turnaround.
But what is there to learn from the numbers behind Tudor's coaching career?
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Tudor coming for a good time, not a long time
Should his appointment to the role until the end of the season be confirmed, Spurs would be Tudor's 10th different club as a head coach and the Premier League would be the sixth different league in his managerial career.
The only time Tudor has stayed at a club for longer than one full season was in his first career managerial job at Hajduk Split who he managed from 2013 to 2015.
Tudor coached Hajduk Split for 70 matches and they remain the only club he has managed for more than 50 games. He lasted 24 games at Juventus (from March to October 2025).
He was winless in his last eight matches in all competitions for Juventus earlier this season, including three straight losses to end his tenure. Juventus were eighth in the table when he was sacked and the club has since risen to fourth in Serie A.
Comparing Tudor's Juventus to Frank's Tottenham
If Tudor is to make a success of his time at Spurs, he will have to find a way to deliver their first wins of 2026. Under Frank, Spurs were toothless in attack and porous in defence, hence their spiral towards the drop zone.
Encouragingly for Tottenham, Tudor's Juventus -- the most comparable team to Spurs he has coached so far in terms of quality and reputation -- were much more solid at the back than Frank's Spurs. Juventus on average conceded less than a goal a game under the Croatian while Spurs were conceding 1.4 per game under Frank.
While Tudor's win percentage at Juventus (47%) could hardly have been worse than Frank's at Tottenham (27%), if Tudor can replicate his win rate in the Premier League it would rank exactly the same as what José Mourinho managed at the club and 6% better than during Ange Postecoglou's reign.
Another factor in Frank's unpopularity with the Spurs fans was the perception of his team's negative style of play. While statistics cannot always offer a clear indicator of aesthetics, Spurs fans have some reason for hope as Tudor's Juventus side averaged a higher share of possession (55.2% vs. 50.6%) and a slightly higher pass completion percentage (85.8% vs. 82%).
A lack of coaching pedigree?
News of Tudor's apparent arrival has certainly raised eyebrows among the Spurs fanbase who perhaps expected a manager with Premier League experience ready to have an instant impact on their battle against the drop.
While his lack of Premier League pedigree may not turn out to be a disadvantage, Tudor's relatively unheralded CV means he'll have to quickly win hearts and minds in north London.
Croatian side Hajduk Split is the only club for which Tudor has won a title as a head coach (2013 Croatian Cup).
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While he may end up keeping the seat warm for another manager in the summer, Tudor would need to hit the ground running at Spurs in much the same way he has done in his previous two managerial stints.
His first task? A north London derby against Mikel Arteta's table-topping Arsenal.
Information from ESPN's Global Research and James Olley contributed to this story