Igor Tudor has taken charge of just one Spurs game, but it was a resounding defeat to arch-rivals Arsenal - and some think he might have lost the dressing room already
Arsenal icon Ian Wright has accused Tottenham stars of 'checking out' on new boss Igor Tudor already after what he saw in the north London derby at the weekend. The 47-year-old Croatian has taken charge of just one game, but his side were comfortably beaten 4-1 by arch-rivals Arsenal on home soil.
Spurs are currently 16th in the Premier League and just four points off the relegation zone after parting company with former Brentford boss Thomas Frank. The Dane would not see out the season and former Lazio and Juventus boss Tudor has been appointed as interim boss until the end of the season.
However, Wright isn't convinced that Spurs' stars are backing Tudor, pointing out a moment involving Micky van de Ven in the north London derby that surprised him.
Speaking on The Overlap's Stick To Football podcast, Wright said: "Against Arsenal I saw Igor Tudor try to speak to Van de Ven, he blanked him, totally blanked him. That says to me they have checked out already."
However, fellow pundits Gary Neville and Roy Keane disagreed with the former United duo saying it was 'harsh' while Keane claimed Spurs' players did that under Frank.
Wright was unwilling to back down and said: "This guy is new, he wants him to come up and Van de Ven just looks at him and stays there. You think to yourself, that doesn't look good. That does not look good."
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Tudor would deny any conflict between himself and Van de Ven at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, claiming he was addressing the entire team.
He said: "If you watch carefully, I don't speak to him (in that moment). Afterwards, I said to him to come closer, and he comes closer.
"We didn't talk about it because nothing happened. He's a fantastic professional and a fantastic guy, he would not do something like (ignoring me)."
Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez was also on the podcast and made it clead Tudor has to do whatever he can to ensure Spurs avoid the drop to the Championship.
Martinez said: "When I was at Wigan you almost prepared for that last third of the season because that is your opportunity. The last third for us was that we are going to get out of trouble.
"The problem is when you are going into the last third hoping you are not going to get dragged down into a relegation battle because your club wasn't ready for that. This is where it becomes very, very dangerous.
"What happens now is that you should forget about these general terms that "we shouldn't get dragged down", what does this mean to a player (looking to hear) "do I need to run more, less".
"It is basic language (you use to a player) about everything you can control, "you have to do 12km, six sprints into the box and run to the near post". Everything has to be so measurable. It is about winning the next game."
The former Everton and Wigan boss warned Spurs they can't afford to wait for important players to return from injury, calling for a change in mindset.
He added: "I think Spurs will get one or two players back from injury, you win a game and then you have got too much (of a gap).
"The problem is there are no easy games in the Premier League. As a player at Spurs you might think there are easy games we can win, no - there are no easy games. It is about reducing that to, it is the next game and you have an opportunity to get points rather than if you don't win and you are out.
"The moment that the club see it as "wow, if we don't win..." - the mindset is so negative and it drags you down. We have seen teams that are "too good to go down" go down because they weren't prepared for that final third of the season."