It would have been tough enough for Igor Tudor to come into Tottenham Hotspur in its current state but to do so without a vital member of his backroom staff will have only made the job harder.
The Croatian is used to coming into clubs in a crisis and improving them and has done so at Juventus, Lazio and Udinese twice among numerous others in recent years. He had won his opening match at his five previous places of employment but at Spurs Tudor has instead lost his opening three matches at the helm as he experiences the Premier League for the first time.
Little has improved about the team from Thomas Frank's struggling side and one variable, aside from the club he is employed by, is that Tudor's trusted number two and compatriot Ivan Javorcic has not yet been able to join him in north London due to work permit problems.
Javorcic, who can speak English and Italian, and understands Spanish and German, has been an important link to the players at Tudor's previous couple of clubs in helping communicate the 47-year-old's ideas across to the squad quickly in order to rapidly improve results.
Tudor told football.london of his trusted assistant: "Yes it is an ongoing thing. We wait. Still we wait. Yeah, yeah [it's a work permit issue]. We are waiting."
Spurs brought in former Brighton player and coach Bruno Saltor to add to the Premier League experience in Tudor's backroom staff.
Javorcic is another 47-year-old Croatian and he and Tudor know each other well. Also born in Split, he was his assistant manager at both Juventus and Lazio and played his part in both clubs having an immediate surge in form just when they needed it the most.
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Tudor and Javorcic stabilized Lazio after Maurizio Sarri quit in March 2024 and they led the team to an unbeaten run in the league for his first two months after they joined. Then in March last year the duo arrived at Juventus and took them up the table to fourth place and Champions League qualification.
In both jobs, the duo recorded exactly the same set of results in the remainder of the season with nine games, five wins, three draws and one defeat. Tottenham would likely be delighted with a similar outcome.
Before linking up with Tudor, Javorcic was a manager himself at lower levels in Italian football, taking on newly-relegated Serie B side Venezia in 2022, and had worked within the youth set-up at Brescia before enjoying a caretaker stint for that club's senior team. In his playing days, Brescia was where he made his name as a defensive midfielder, playing in Serie A but mainly in Serie B and C.
He will still be hoping to bring his coaching attributes to the Premier League and a third stint by Tudor's side.