Tottenham Hotspur’s decision to keep the faith with Igor Tudor could cost the club their Premier League status, a range of pundits have warned, with all five agreeing that the club have gone backwards under the Croat and having warned they must sack him before it’s too late.
Spurs turned to the 47-year-old as the replacement for the sacked Thomas Frank after growing concerned at a downturn in results that had seen the club tumble towards the relegation zone. But after losing all three of his first matches at the helm, Tottenham now sit just a point clear of the chasing pack and have now gone 11 Premier League games, dating back to December 28, without a win.
That had led to calls that the interim boss could himself be axed, though it was revealed on the weekend that Spurs have decided to sit tight for now and give Tudor a little longer to prove himself.
Time, though, is not on his side, and Tudor has now reportedly been given a deadline by which to prove himself worthy of seeing the job through and with two alternatives lined up to see them through for the remainder of the season.
However, the decision to hire him and subsequently back him has been met with widespread condemnation from a series of observers who all now fear Tottenham’s season is heading in one direction only.
The criticism was led by Tim Sherwood, who told Sky Sports: “I’d like to know who makes the decisions to give him [Igor Tudor] the job in the first place. I mean, they’ve taken the lead off someone. No one at that football club would know anything about Igor Tudor, absolutely no.
“There’s not anyone would know anything about his career, but they would have spoken to Fabio Paratici, he is the only one who would have come across him. I know that Damian Comolli has a good relationship with Tottenham going back a lot of years. He’s the one who sacked him at Juve.
“If Daniel Levy were there, he would surely have spoken to Damien Comolli. He’s not there anymore, and I don’t know who’s making the footballing decisions, because whoever it is, he’s not doing a very good job of it, is he? I think, secretly, I think they wish they had never made this change. I think they would have hoped that they would have kept hold of Thomas Frank or rolled the dice in a different direction. I know it’s easy in hindsight, but did we really believe this guy [Tudor] was going to come in and hit the floor running?”
He added: “I keep saying it, this club cannot get relegated, well, it certainly can.
“The pressure of it, and I think he’s been slapped straight in the face by the competition in the Premier League, it ain’t easy, this is a tough competition. He knew nothing about it, and you keep chopping and changing [the team], and I understand why you chop and change when you can’t get the result, you chop and change.”
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Igor Tudor sack: Tottenham warned the ship is sinking
Those views were also backed up by former captain Michael Dawson.
He told Sky Sports that the onus is now on the players to roll up their sleeves and focus on the matter in hand.
“He [Tudor] comes out after and says, ‘I want to take players who are on the boat going in one direction’. There’s one direction this boat’s going, and that’s sinking. It’s worrying because managers can come in and talk about tactics, forget that, forget tactics, they’ve gone out the window.
“It’s about trying to find some belief. I look at the players, it’s desperation at times. You see the decision from Micky van de Ven. When they get fortunate to be leading the game, I think, the goal disallowed is very unfortunate for Crystal Palace’s point of view, but Archie [Gray] actually does great down the right-hand side, pulls it back to Solanke, great.
“They’ve had a lifeline, they’re 1-0 up. Then, within the blink of an eye, a penalty’s being given, Micky van de Ven pulls Ismail Sarr down and now everything’s gone out the window. The clouds are coming in, the pressure’s on, you can feel it in the stadium.
“The players are looking around thinking, ‘can someone help me?’ No, there’s no one there to help. You look at each other, only we can get us out of this trouble and that is where they’re at at this moment in time.”
Appearing on talkSPORT, Teddy Sheringham also feels Spurs are going down.
“If they keep this manager in charge, then yes [they will be relegated],” Sheringham said.
“I’ve got to be honest, and when I heard the appointment first of all, it was like,e who, what, where have they pulled him from? So, I don’t know who’s uh pulled the trigger on that one, but for me, he’s learning on the job.
“I said that he doesn’t know enough about the Premier League. He doesn’t know enough about his players at Tottenham. He doesn’t know where to play him.
“You only have to look at the players that you look at the back five that he played last night, every one of them was slightly out of position. And if you’ve played football, you understand what I’m talking about. If someone asks you to be 20 yards different on a football pitch, it’s uncanny to you; it doesn’t feel right.
“You’ve got Danso playing as a sweeper. You got Porro playing as a right centre half. You’ve got Van de Ven playing as a left centre half. That none of them are in the right position. You got Souza playing, making his home debut, and he’s playing as a wing-back rather than a fullback. You know, last week, Gallagher was playing out on the right wing. It’s all wrong for me.”
The messages of doom keep coming too, with Jamie O’Hara revealing on Sky Sports when the manager should be sacked.
“I’d sack the manager. International break coming up, you’ve got a guy to come in and do a job. He needed to get quick results, he’s done that in the past. But if you look at the end of most of his managerial reigns, he’s terrible. Falls out with everyone and they get rid of him.
“But he’s lost three on the bounce, and the performances have got worse. His tactics are terrible. He’s miles off it, he’s shown no evidence he can get results, all he’s done is come in and moan about the problems there are at Tottenham. We know there are problems! That’s why he’s in the job. We’ve got worse.
“From what I saw on Thursday night, we’re going down at this moment in time. West Ham are performing better than us, Nottingham Forest have got fight in them. This team has got no fight whatsoever. They don’t want to be there, you can tell.”
Alan Shearer agrees that Spurs now need to sack Tudor before it is too late.
“I could see Spurs getting rid of Igor Tudor before the end of the season. It would not be a surprise to me with that club,” Shearer said.
“I have said all I can on Spurs, there is a real-life possibility that Spurs could be relegated and can you imagine that stadium in the Championship. Somehow, from somewhere, they are going to have to get some unity, because on Thursday, they just looked as if they were done.
“Unless that improves big style, then they are going down, because at least the others, at least Forest went to City and showed some fight. West Ham have dragged all of them back into it.
“It would be one of the biggest Premier League shocks if they were to go down. I mean, what would be bigger, Leicester winning it, or Spurs being relegated? I guess it is on a similar scale.
“It would be a shock to the system. It would, without doubt, be one of the biggest shocks of all time. I suppose, with that training ground, with that stadium. I mean, it is just unthinkable for them. I mean, you can imagine what it would do to them as a football club.”
Tottenham latest: Star ‘drained’ by struggles; move for January target rekindled
With regards to a new manager, Spurs’ hopes of turning to Roberto De Zerbi have taken a significant downturn after the Italian’s number one job objective this summer was made clear.
On the transfer front, reports in Italy claim a big-name Spurs star has been left feeling ‘drained’ by their struggles and has already made clear his wish to leave this summer amid claims he has ‘not warmed’ to Tudor.
Another star Tottenham look in serious danger of losing this summer, regardless of what division they find themselves in, is Micky van de Ven.
Now, a transfer expert has given his take on the £100m-rated star’s thinking this summer and with two major clubs leading the charge for his signature.
