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Tottenham Hotspur manager Igor Tudor gave a barrage of great injury updates to the fans ahead of Sunday's must win relegation six pointer against Nottingham Forest. James Maddison's return is in view later this season and Mohammed Kudus will be back after the March international break, meaning Spurs will get the boost of two of their very best players before the 2025/26 season and relegation fight end.

But the third big star who has been out for an extended period for Tottenham - and, indeed, like Maddison, he's been out all season long with a knee injury from last season - still does not have any concrete injury updates.

Tudor said nothing about Kulusevski, and he has really said nothing about Kulusevski since taking over a manager. That is notable, because unlike predecessor Thomas Frank, Tudor has been quite open about giving fans updates on injured stars.

Dejan Kulusevski still has no injury updates

Kulusevski suffered a devastating knee injury, and the word devastating comes to mind here, because it appears to be far worse than expected. Kulu was thought to only be mising a few months, and, initially, his injury did not seem like this much of a cause for concern. And even during this season, Spurs supporters had reason to believe that he would eventually be back by now.

Yet all these months later, there is no real time table of a return for Kulusevski, and there is not even a whisper that the Swedish star will be anywhere near a return. Tottenham Hotspur fans are completely in the dark regarding one of their best players, and, at this point, it is only natural to be hugely concerned about his status.

After all, James Maddison is going to return to the fold, and he had an ACL tear. So if Maddison is going to be back significantly before Kulusevski and he had an ACL tear, then what on earth does that say about the severity of Kulusevski's injury? Is there something career threatening or career altering that Spurs are trying to keep under wraps in the hopes that they can avoid it?

Tottenham fans cannot help but wonder if there is more to the story the longer the club keeps them in the dark. If Tudor is proffering injury updates on everyone else besides Kulusevski, then all Tottenham fans can do is sit in the dark and think the worst. And with all the injuries on the wings this season and Spurs facing down relegation, Kulu has been sorely missed.

This may just be Tottenham Hotspur's biggest league game in a generation, albeit not in a way anyone hoped or envisaged. Well, at least the mood around Spurs right now is exponentially better than it was merely a week ago, even if their precarious position has not exactly improved.

Last Sunday, Richarlison's last minute equaliser at Anfield saw Igor Tudor collect his first Premier League point, pinching a share of the spoils against Liverpool. Then, on Wednesday, the Lilywhites beat Atlético Madrid 3-2 in the Champions League which, despite the fact they exited the competition 7-5 on aggregate, helped increase belief and confidence.

Nevertheless, back in the Premier League, Spurs remain 16th, just one point above both West Ham and their next opponents Nottingham Forest. The Tricky Trees will travel to North London on a high, after reaching the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday, ousting Midtjylland via a penalty shootout in Herning. They too are embroiled in this relegation battle of course, making Sunday's clash unimaginably crucial, so here are three players Tudor must start as he seeks a priceless win.

Destiny Udogie

As Tottenham's injury crisis starts to be alleviated somewhat, the return of Destiny Udogie could be very welcome news. Djed Spence has been primarily filling in at left-back for elongated periods of this season, but, as good a defender as he is, the fact that Spence is right-footed really limits Spurs going forward, especially when another right-footer is ahead of him, which is almost always.

Udgoie, for his part, was introduced shortly after the hour mark against Atlético Madrid. This took his tally to just 1,124 minutes across all competitions this season, missing each of the last five Premier League fixtures since suffering a hamstring injury at Old Trafford. At his best, every Tottenham supporter knows how good Udogie can be, so they'll be desperate for him to enjoy a run in the side.

Xavi Simons

Further forward, with Vítor Pereira's team expected to defend in a low block, the onus will be on Spurs to create opportunities, hence why a statement performance from Xavi Simons is required. After missing out on Morgan Gibbs-White, who will be lining up for the opposition in this game, and then Eberechi Eze, most Spurs fans were pleased when the Duthcman arrived from RB Leipzig for £52m.

However, he is yet to live up to expectations, his one and only Premier League goal coming against Brentford in December. This has resulted in him being on the bench for the last two league games against Crystal Palace and Liverpool, but that surely won't be the case this time round.

That's because, on Wednesday, Simons arguably had his best performance in a Tottenham shirt. He scored twice during the spirited victory over Atlético Madrid, the first a thunderous strike from the edge of the area, before converting a spot-kick past Juan Musso in injury time. Overall, he racked up five key passes, created one big chance, had four successful dribbles, mustered four shots and touched the ball 77 times, the most of any player on the pitch. If Simons can carry this form into the Premier League, there is no way Spurs are ending up in the bottom three.

Dominic Solanke

Given that aforementioned well-documented injury crisis, Tudor has had very limited options in pretty much every position, with centre-forward the sole exceptions. Richarlison scored on Merseyside last Sunday before both Randal Kolo Muani and Mathys Tel started in the Champions League, but supporters surely want to see Dominic Solanke spearheading the attack come Sunday. He was absent in mid-week due to a hip problem, but is forecast to return.

Before this, the Englishman did not feature between 23 August and 10 January due to ankle surgery, but still has six goals to his name this season, the best scoring frequency of anyone at the club.

Solanke scored both when Spurs produced that miraculous second half comeback against Manchester City in February, before also opening the scoring against Crystal Palace on a rather less enjoyable night for those in N17. In his Premier League career, the 28 year old has scored four in five against Nottingham Forest, including a hat-trick at the City Ground in December 2023, so Spurs fans will be hoping he can replicate that.

Tottenham Hotspur are going to be in the market for a new manager this summer, and while most fans will be quick to anoint a reunion with Mauricio Pochettino as the right man to succeed Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham will need to conduct a thorough review of many legitimate candidates for a job that is suddenly not particularly desirable.

Spurs have run through a great deal of noteworthy managers over the years, including legends Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho. And this has led many Spurs supporters to feel even more strongly that Pochettino should have never been fired all those years ago.

As Spurs contemplate coaches who could take over for the 2026/27 season, a new name has just sprung to mind. Ernesto Valverde, via Fabrizio Romano, will be officially leaving Athletic Club as their manager at the end of the 2025/26 season, ending a fruitful reign in charge of one of the most historic clubs in European football.

Ernesto Valverde will be available in 2026

In truth, a change is needed for both Valverde and Athletic, as they have been very disappointing this season. That is not on Valverde, per se, as quite a few big names on the team, including Nico Williams, have severely underperformed. And perhaps they need more fresh ideas.

Valverde is a well known name in Spanish football. He used to coach Barcelona, and while his track record there was not necessarily the best, he was a passable manager who was scapegoated a bit too hard by some fanatical Lionel Messi fans. In total, Valverde won La Liga twice with Barca and the Copa del Rey once. He also recently won the Copa del Rey with Athletic Club in his second stint at the club, as well as winning the honor a decade before in his first stint with the club.

It says a lot about Valverde's character that he has not only led Athletic Club to great success in two different stints, but that he is also willing to step away peacefully when he realizes that things are no longer working.

While it is tough to envision Valverde stepping away from La Liga and joining the boiling English cauldron that is Tottenham Hotspur, a coach with his accomplishments, character, and acumen has to be considered on the short list of options for Spurs now that he is available. He is certainly more accomplished than Ange Postecoglou, Nuno Espirito Santo, Thomas Frank, and Igor Tudor.

After enduring the most excrutiating 17 minutes of his young professional career, Antonín Kinsky was written off.

Despite being just 23 and signing a deal last January that lasts until 2031, his performance at the Metropolitano was regarded as so disastrous that his Tottenham Hotspur career would never recover.

And, let's be frank, it was awful.

The goalkeeper fell foul of a curiously slippery surface, allowing Marcos Llorente to open the scoring. Spurs' captain on the night, Micky van de Ven, subsequently lost balance and let Antoine Griezmann through. 2-0. Kinsky's final and lowest ebb arrived almost immediately after, with his earlier mishap undoubtedly in mind as he fluffed his lines with a rather ambitious sweeping pass out to the right, which let Julian Álvarez tap into an empty net.

Just like that, Tottenham's Champions League campaign was over. Igor Tudor's gamble had backfired horribly, with the Croat opting to "preserve" his haunted shot-stopper by removing him from proceedings. Distraught, Kinsky ventured down the tunnel, consoled by his teammates. The interim manager's lack of public empathy drew criticism, with that sequence supposedly depicting the "cold" nature of a coach that's already lost a broken and vulnerable squad.

But those narratives have dissipated somewhat on the back of two positive results, including an actual win, and the footballing Gods have offered Kinsky a shot at swift redemption in north London.

Vicario injury sets the stage for Kinsky redemption

Tudor supplied a glut of positive injury news ahead of Sunday's relegation six-pointer with Nottingham Forest. We can expect to have Mohammed Kudus and Rodrigo Bentancur back next month, and there's even a chance James Maddison appears before the season draws to a close.

However, Spurs also confirmed on Friday that the man Kinsky replaced in Madrid, Guglielmo Vicario, will undergo surgery next week on a hernia. The Italian should be back within a month, and he'll also be available this weekend.

Thus, Kinsky's potential revival won't begin until after the international break, but he'll likely be between the posts for three critical Premier League outings, including trips to Sunderland and Wolves.

Since that night in Madrid, the goalkeepers' union has come to Kinsky's aid, with mainstream discourse focusing on Tudor's treatment of the young Czech as opposed to the player's error-strewn outing. A suddenly hopeful fanbase, apart from a select few folk online, have rallied around Kinsky, too.

Those two mishaps have undoubtedly done much damage to the 23-year-old's stock, but we shouldn't forget that so many of us were crying out for Kinsky to start prising minutes away from the increasingly chaotic Vicario, who's been the Premier League's worst-performing shot-stopper this season in terms of goals prevented, per Opta.

Some are lamenting more misfortune after the Italian's setback, despite his dire campaign, but this should be seen as an almost romantic opportunity for Kinsky to seize. It's a classic Hollywood comeback story, right? After sinking to the lowest of the low in the Spanish capital, Kinsky could yet be remembered as the goalkeeper who helped Tottenham retain their Premier League status.

It's a huge test of his character, no doubt, and we'll see whether Tudor's decision to protect the player pays dividends.

With the mistakes piling up and the save percentage dwindling down to the worst record among current Premier League starters, Tottenham Hotspur supporters were not at all sad to read reports that starting goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is on the verge of a big move back to Serie A to start for expected champions Inter Milan as the Yann Sommer replacement.

The jubilation Tottenham fans thought they would feel about hearing of a Vicario exit has not exactly settled in. Beyond the mixed feelings about losing a key player and hearing about all these transfer rumors during a literal relegation fight, Spurs fans now see an alternative explanation behind how poorly Vic has been playing this season.

As Spurs themselves confirmed ahead of the game against Nottingham Forest, Guglielmo Vicario will have to undergo hernia surgery repair soon. He will be able to start against Forest and has been playing through the pain for a while now, but it will be too much for him. Vic has held out long enough and will need the surgery after the match, though there is hope he can return later this season. Antonin Kinsky will be the starter in the mean time.

Guglielmo Vicario was playing through a hernia

Now it all make sense why Vicario was playing so poorly. He must have been gritting his teeth through unbearable pain, and it is unimaginable to picture a starting Premier League goalkeeper gutting it out for potentially months with a hernia requiring surgery.

There has been a lot of criticism about Vicario's character for yelling at teammates after his own mistakes, but after hearing about his grit in playing through this hernia, it is hard not to have the fullest respect for the goalkeeper. All the questions about his dedication to Spurs have been answered, as you could not possibly be more dedicated than this.

If Spurs only sell Vicario to one of the best teams in European football for what they paid for him, which was a bargain 17 million pounds from Italian relegation level side Empoli, then that may not be such a great deal. Because if Vicario has only been this poor in large part due to the hernia, then he should be a lot better than this and worth more than what Spurs are rumored to get this summer out of Inter.

Now, Spur should be aiming for a better, younger goalkeeper like James Trafford if they can get him, but it is hard not to feel for Vicario after hearing this news and to have some second thoughts about a sale - or, at the very least, being so happy about one.

For the first half of the 2025/26 Premier League season, new Tottenham Hotspur right winger Mohammed Kudus was pretty much carrying the team. When he went down with a hamstring injury for multiple months, Spurs could not buy a win and looked even more dysfunctional in an attacking sense, failing to penetrate the box or create chances.

Spurs have been thin on the wings after selling Brennan Johnson, watching Kudus get injured, and still not getting any sort of a positive word on the status of Dejan Kulusevski. But finally - and even before hearing anything on Kulu - Spurs fans are learning when Kudus will be back.

Tottenham manager Igor Tudor has been far more open with the media regarding injury updates than predecessor Thomas Frank. Via The Sun's Tom Barclay, Tudor told reporters at the press conference before the massive relegation clash against Nottingham Forest that Mohammed Kudus is "progression well" from his injury. Per Barclay, it appears Kudus should be ready to return after the March international break.

Mohammed Kudus will be back very soon

Spurs will be on break after the Forest game, so the next game after the break will be a battle with Sunderland to kick off April. And given how well Sunderland defend and the overall importance of that match, having Kudus back would be a huge boon to this team.

Wilson Odobert's ACL tear further destroyed Spurs options on the right wing, as he was shining there right before the unfortunate injury. Tottenham do not currently have a healthy right winger, and, in fact, their only out and out winger remaining is young Mathys Tel.

So the good news on Kudus could not have come at a better or a more desperate time for Tottenham. After a draw with Liverpool and a 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid, Spurs are beginning to show signs that they are not totally doomed, but they are still barely above the relegation zone in terms of points in the table.

Kudus is a match winner for Tottenham and the best player on the team at progressing the ball and creating from wide positions. His work rate, skill, and technical quality have been missed greatly, and it is not an exaggeration to state that Kudus's injury has been the biggest absence out of the myriad of key absences throughout the 2025/26 campaign. Spurs are now just one game away from Kudus, and that could not be better news for this team.

Tottenham Hotspur sporting director Johan Lange is obviously not the most popular person in North London, except maybe among Arsenal fans (including potentially Vinai Venkatesham), but even his biggest detractors in the Spurs fan base have to admit that there is one thing about him that deserves the highest of praise: his talent ID.

Spurs have a great collection of young talent on their hands, and with Igor Tudor actually competently leading the ship and getting more out of them than Thomas Frank did, we are starting to see the extent of some of the players Lange brought in for cheaper than what they are worth now.

Lucas Bergvall was obviously a huge hit from the get for for Lange, but now Archie Gray is looking at least as brilliant of a signing in the center midfield. And even though Lange totally botched helping Tottenham Hotspur in the short term by signing the underwhelming Conor Gallagher - and nobody else - in the January transfer window, the signing of the future Souza has been even better than advertised as a left back - and even in the other random positions Tudor is throwing him in.

Johan Lange has a great eye for talent

Imagine if Tottenham were able to have a sporting director a step above Fabio Paratici who could sign established players and broker smart deals with well constructed contracts and innovative transfer fee packages that could compete with the other elites of Europe. If they could have a better traditional sporting director and then let Lange focus on leading a scouting network that could find more players like these guys, Spurs would be a formidable force in English football.

As it stands, Tottenham have to take a whole lot of issues with Lange in order to obtain the positive of his talent identification. But that positive is huge for a club like Spurs that does need to cycle in young talents in order to build a team that could potentially compete at the highest level of the Champions League in the future.

Watching Archie Gray play these last few weeks has been an absolute treat, and the only thing Tottenham Hotspur fans can think - other than absolute joy at having one of the best young holding midfielders in the Premier League - is how on earth Thomas Frank was keeping this guy locked up behind Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur to start the season.

That was not Frank's only ill with Gray, of course. Despite burying him to start with, Gray was so good that even Frank had to start him over Bentancur at some point. But even then, Gray, like Lucas Bergvall and Xavi SImons, was being actively held back by Frank tactically despite being the one deep lying midfielder brave enough to try and drive the ball forward.

With Igor Tudor stepping in charge as Spurs manager, Tottenham have been more expansive and capable of creating chances. While it only yielded the one goal against Liverpool in a draw last weekend, Spurs were able to grab three against a usually tough Atletico Madrid defense, ripping them apart with precision with Gray as the grand architect from deep, siphoning play to Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons.

Thomas Frank was making Archie Gray look less brilliant

While Gray is far from the only Tottenham Hotspur standout to have suffered under Frank, his transformation almost immediately into a top class midfielder with Tudor in charge is perhaps the biggest indictment on how incompetent Frank was as a manager in his lack of talent ID and especially his inability to organize a functioning Premier League unit in midfield that can create chances.

Frank was hailed as a genius at Brentford, and now the fan theory that he was simply hired because he would just implement the Bees pre defined analytical principles is gaining more credence. He may a fraud of the highest order, simply propped up by a media that was inexplicably treating him with kid's gloves even as he turned a club as massive as Spurs, that had just won the Europa League and made a ton of signings that even Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho never got, into an utter laughingstock in the relegation zone.

Xavi Simons stole the show in Tottenham Hotspur's 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16, scoring an insane goal from beyond the blue before depositing a penalty that he himself had won.

It was a vintage performance from Simons, the best yet in a Tottenham shirt and a throw back to win he was regularly carving up defenses in the Dutch Eredivisie and the German Bundesliga. Simons is one of the best young midfielders in world football, and when Spurs signed him for 60 million euros this summer transfer window, that is exactly the player they thought they were getting.

But anyone could plainly see that under Thomas Frank, he was being set up to fail. Tottenham were playing the most lethargic and uninspiring football of any team in the Premier League, with Simons totally isolated as a No. 10 who never even got to play as a 10.

Xavi Simons actually has options now

He had nobody to pass it to. Simons would get the ball and immediately be met with double the defenders as attacking players, and Frank never tweaked the tactics so that his best player would have people to actually play off of.

Igor Tudor immediately fixed that. Well, not immediately, but he has pretty quickly found a way for Simons to get more involved with the rest of his attacking teammates. The Dutch star's two goals will get the headlines for Spurs, but he also had five key passes and was just as brilliant as a creator as he was as a scorer - maybe even more brilliant, considering one of the goals was a penalty.

Tottenham Hotspur spent big on Simons to be their main creator both in terms of his passing and dribbling, and we finally got to see both of those traits together - and against a big opponent like Atleti, no less.

Tottenham Hotspur fans were initially satisfied with the loan move for PSG striker Randal Kolo Muani. Though he started his Spurs career with the deadest of dead legs, the woodenness of his limb had recovered, and Kolo Muani was playing some good football, certainly better in terms of all around play than Richarlison.

Kolo Muani seemed to have sealed his status as the top guy at striker for Tottenham after a brilliant hat trick in a losing Champions League effort against parent club PSG, with some fans even clamoring for Johan Lange and Co. to begin permanent transfer negotiations.

But that purple patch lasted all too quickly, as Kolo Muani's play devolved into something worse than even Richarlison's bad days. Kolo Muani became lethargic and listless, a character who did not even care, to the point where he was reportedly asking for a cancellation of his loan move in the winter.

Randal Kolo Muani made the latest French squad

Lately, though, with Tottenham Hotspur in their moment of need, Kolo Muani is starting to show up. He assisted the winner against Liverpool last weekend and scored the opener against Atletico Madrid. And now, despite all his poor play these last few months, he has found himself in the official French national team squad for the March international break.

And therein lies the likely reason behind Kolo Muani's sudden return to scoring and assisting form, as well as the most compelling reason for the hired mercenary to actually care about Tottenham. If Kolo Muani can play well and help Spurs stay up, the French federation and manager Didier Deschamps will have to take notice and keep him in the World Cup squad this year.

Randal Kolo Muani is probably the weakest forward in the French team, and it is still surprising, even looking back, that he had such a key role in the last French World Cup squad in Qatar. But the French brass have taken a liking to Kolo Muani for some reason, and if he can avoid screwing it up by, you know, not giving a crap about his current club, then he should maintain his spot in the squad for the World Cup.

A selfish motivation in Tottenham's favor is certainly much better than no motivation at all, and if playing for Les Bleus in the Americas is what Kolo Muani needs to hear to start playing to the (relatively) high level he is capable of, then Spurs fans will gladly take that to the bank for these final few months.