Football365

Tottenham have agreed Igor Tudor’s exit by ‘mutual consent’ after their 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest over the weekend, according to reports.

Spurs sacked Thomas Frank earlier this year and replaced him with Tudor in an interim head coach role until the end of the season.

However, the appointment could hardly have gone worse with Tottenham‘s form getting even worse with the Croatian in charge of the side.

Tudor lost his first four matches at Spurs before a draw away at Anfield and a win against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League looked to be turning the tide – but a heavy defeat at home to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest at the weekend looks to be the final straw.

There were reports on Monday that Tudor could be sacked over the international break with the Tottenham board now worried that the club could be relegated to the Championship.

And now our friends at TEAMtalk have revealed that Tudor is expected to leave Tottenham, who are one point above the relegation zone, ‘by mutual consent’.

READ: Arsenal bottle the lot, Spurs relegated, Liverpool glory: The 10 best/funniest outcomes this season

It is understood that the Spurs hierarchy had already agreed before the home clash with Nottingham Forest that a defeat there would trigger Tudor’s exit.

TEAMtalk add: ‘Sources indicate that Tudor himself is ready to step away following the recent death of his father, Mario, and it is believed both parties have now aligned on a mutual parting of the ways.’

And Tottenham have now settled on two preferred options to take the reins until the end of the season with former Spurs defender Chris Hughton and ex-Monaco head coach Adi Hutter seen as ‘viable options’.

Hughton would be no stranger to the role, having become interim boss three times before at Tottenham, while Roberto De Zerbi and Robbie Keane both turned down the opportunity to take charge of Spurs until the end of the season before Tudor’s appointment.

MORE TOTTENHAM COVERAGE ON F365…

* Who will be Spurs manager next season? ‘Dark horse’ joins Pochettino on list

* Tottenham see award-winning coach as ‘serious contender’ as Igor Tudor sack ‘accelerates’

* Alonso, Fabregas beware: Ranking all 25 ex-players returning to manage Premier League clubs

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher thinks Tudor leaving the club will be the right decision for Tottenham as they “need togetherness” to keep the club in the Premier League.

Carragher said on Sky Sports: “To keep this club in the Premier League right now, they need togetherness. That was the first time I’ve seen it for a while, in terms of the scenes outside the stadium. The fans are doing their part.

“But they need something like that between now and the end of the season on the pitch, because right now they have to, unfortunately for Tudor, with the situation he finds himself in with his family [Tudor has suffered a recent bereavement] and the results, I think it would be better if Tottenham parted ways with and looked to bring another manager in between now and the end of the season.”

When asked if now is the right time to make a change, Carragher added: “Yeah, no, they have to do that now, as it just hasn’t worked.

“The managers tried different things as well, different systems, different styles of play. Initially, he came in, he was, you know, playing sort of man-to-man press him with three at the back.

“He’s now changed in the last couple of games with the 4-4-2, very direct football. So he’s trying different things, but it’s just not working.

“As I said, it’s harsh on the man who loses his job so early in his reign, but the whole point of the reason why he got the job was that he has an instant impact, and that has not happened.”

The 2025/26 season is already shaping up to be the best/funniest on record.

With all apologies to both sides of the North London divide, we’re sure you understand but just how funny this season ends up being is going to largely depend on just how much despair you two must suffer over the next couple of months. Sorry about that.

Spoilers be damned: obviously the funniest outcomes to this season involve Tottenham going down and Arsenal bottling absolutely everything.

But that’s not to say there aren’t – sometimes, admittedly, related – opportunities for funny outcomes elsewhere. There are, in total, precisely 10 amusing things that can happen. Amazing how often that happens.

These are they.

Tottenham relegated

In almost all circumstances, these ‘best/funniest outcomes’ pieces rely on an absurd series of outlandish or unlikely events to occur. It makes sense, of course. Almost by definition, the best or funniest thing that can happen isn’t actually that likely to happen.

But this is not most situations, and Spurs are not most football clubs. Having already done the funniest thing possible last season by winning the Europa League and finishing 17th they really are going to go one better this season and get themselves actually relegated for real.

It’s an astonishing outcome – surely the single most stunning end-of-season outcome to hit the Premier League since Leicester’s 2016 title – and also objectively hilarious.

Yet Spurs are still so incredibly Spurs that even that isn’t enough. They’ve even found an astonishing way to achieve the already astonishing feat of getting relegated.

Think about it. Spurs are, very obviously, going down. They are quite comfortably – to both the eye and, across the second half of the season, by results – the worst team in the Premier League. They will go down. They know they are going down. Their rivals know they are going down. Nobody now doubts that they will go down.

And yet, they are not in fact in the relegation zone. More than that, they have never once been in the relegation zone all season long. How does that happen? How can you have a team that everybody knows is definitely getting relegated when we’re going to get as far as April without them ever actually being in the relegation zone?

It is the present and future of the Tottenham.

Arsenal remain potless

Until Sunday, Arsenal ending a trophy drought by winning literally everything loomed as an undeniably funny but also very obviously nightmarish possibility.

Now, alas and alack, the only funny outcome for Arsenal’s season is for them to win nothing at all. It’s far less likely than Tottenham’s relegation as well as less harrowing on the grand scale of North London woe. But suddenly very possible. Fair to say some of the more skittish elements of the Arsenal fanbase have got a serious case of The Fear after watching another trophy opportunity go awry.

We’ve all perhaps been guilty of just assuming Arsenal would obviously win something this season – and it will still take something extraordinary for them not to win the Premier League at the very, very least – but Sunday offered a reminder that Arsenal are absolutely at their best and funniest when not winning things.

Keeping faith with the ultimate Carabaoman Kepa Arrizabalaga was always a monumental gamble, and banter is the absolute last of the fates you want to be tempting.

Especially when you’ve got entirely out of the habit of winning trophies at all.

Arsenal’s kindly paths in both the FA Cup and Champions League also offer the most delicious of all possible outcomes on the red half of North London. They could absolutely finish second in all four competitions.

Liverpool win Champions League

Not the most original thought, because Liverpool ending a difficult and challenging league season by winning the Champions League wouldn’t even be a novelty for them.

But it would also throw all the currently straightforward Slot Out positions for a loop. And given it was already funny to see Slot match Klopp’s tally of Premier League titles when he was doing a good job, it would logically be even funnier for him to also match Klopp’s tally of Champions League titles when not doing a good job.

Man City win domestic treble

We really wanted them to win the quadruple but in a way this is actually better. The quadruple would actually have got Man City some attention, and that won’t do. But for them to win a second domestic treble – an achievement previously considered essentially impossible – that nobody either cares about or notices would be a sensational bit of business.

Especially if the above trio of events have come to pass. Spurs going down, Arsenal somehow winning nothing having strutted around all season with main character energy – albeit anti-hero, Walter White-type energy – and Liverpool ending a dismal campaign with their seventh Big Cup success would genuinely relegate City doing another treble to a footnote in the season.

Nobody will ever talk about City winning the league if they do so this season, will they? They will talk long and hard and with great joy about Arsenal losing it. It would become even less about City than their 2013/14 title, one that is now so exclusively remembered through the prism of Liverpool’s collapse against Chelsea that we still think a sizeable percentage of really quite keen football fans will have a rock-solid false memory of Chelsea in fact being the league winners that season.

Spurs and Arsenal launch joint legal campaign against Man City

With Spurs finishing 18th and Arsenal second behind Man City yet again, the two rivals set aside well over a century of mutual loathing to embark on a mortifying and desperate joint legal battle with the aim of getting the 60-point punishment that everyone now agrees seems just about spot on for whatever squiffy business City were up to for all those years applied to the season just finished because reasons.

Fans of both Spurs and Arsenal will unanimously agree that this whole sorry attempt at an AFCON-style retcon shows just how embarrassing the other club really is.

Forest win Europa League and finish 17th

An absolutely brilliant bit last season. In our view, the Premier League should go full Stewart Lee with this one. Just keep on having teams win the Europa League while finishing 17th every season until it stops being funny and then continue having teams win the Europa League while finishing 17th until it becomes funny again. And then keep on having teams win the Eur… well, you get the idea with that.

Bonus points to Forest, of course, for winning the Europa League at all when they didn’t even qualify for it. Not even Spurs managed that.

Next season their challenge is to pretty much win the same number of Champions League games as Premier League games. We already know they’re perfectly happy to appoint former Tottenham managers with comically disastrous recent Premier League records, so getting Thomas Frank in to oversee proceedings shouldn’t be an issue.

Forest winning the Europa has the added bonus of extending Aston Villa’s absurd trophy drought and once again placing their fans atop a tightrope where they must attempt their delicate, awkward balancing act of insisting Villa are simultaneously a very big boy who should be taken seriously but also too teeny and tiny to be expected to ever actually win anything.

Crystal Palace win Conference League

Oliver Glasner going out with a bang as a third London team win a trophy the rest of England couldn’t care less about.

Another European trophy in the hands of an English club that shouldn’t actually have been in that competition. The prospect of all three European trophies landing in Premier League hands to once again set the Premier League Ruining European Football, Actually pendulum swinging anew.

All of it the very ideal kind of thing. And the more trophies teams like Palace win during the Arsenal trophy drought (that, if you remember, we decided earlier does somehow get extended for another year) the better.

Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa all finish outside top five

Unlikely, yes, but suddenly not impossible. Liverpool and Chelsea appear determined to f*ck their Premier League seasons directly into the sun for unknown reasons while Aston Villa have looked awful tired any time they’ve faced semi-competent opposition in recent weeks.

It does seem like Villa will hold on, but the fact these three have allowed Manchester United to lock down a top-four finish at this point should shame them all.

We’ve also at this point lost track of how many English teams are qualifying for the Champions League here, but it’s got to be like seven or something if Forest win the Europa League and Liverpool win the Champions League while finishing sixth? We don’t know the precise details, but we do know it’s a funny number and therefore to be encouraged.

All seven of them – if seven indeed it be – will duly finish in the top eight of next season’s league phase before going out in the last 16, in accordance with the prophecy.

Brentford and Sunderland qualify for Champions League

If we’ve got all those lads finishing outside the top five, then by definition we’ve got to have some others finishing inside it.

Any of the teams currently within six points represent great options. So we trust that Everton, Fulham and Brighton won’t take it too personally when we say Brentford and Sunderland are the very best of those options.

Sunderland reaching the Champions League as a newly-promoted club on the back of bantering Newcastle off every derby day surely needs no explanation.

Brentford in the Champions League as Spurs get relegated is also an entirely obvious source of hilarity, and one that most obviously makes the media’s job of protecting Thomas Frank’s reputation at all costs that much harder.

We’re fully braced for them to collectively excuse Frank from meaningful blame once Tottenham’s inevitable fate is confirmed. There will be mention of injuries, and board incompetence, and feckless players, and Ange’s record, and the plain and simple fact that Spurs are essentially unserious and ungovernable, and none of it will be entirely without basis.

But while none of it could ever really excuse the fact he took just 12 points from his last 17 Premier League games in charge without ever showing any apparent concern about that, the actual thing that makes it impossible for his adoring fans in the media to save him has nothing to do with Spurs and everything to do with Brentford getting better after losing him, their captain and about 40 goals last summer.

Liam Rosenior launches a podcast and starts selling a course and/or supplements

We don’t really actually want this one to happen, but it occurs to us that if we carry on with whimsy we might only end up with a 10 per cent hit rate (thanks, Spurs!) so we do need another absolute nailed-on banker to get the numbers up.

The podcast/course/supplements will be called something like ‘The Limitlessness of Limitlessness’ or ‘The Ceiling Myth’ or ‘Protecting Your Ball in the High-tempo World of B2B Sales’ or, in a rare moment of clarity and honesty, simply ‘Spoofer’.

Tottenham Hotspur have decided to sack Igor Tudor during the current international break, according to a report, while their interest in Austrian manager Adi Hutter has been confirmed.

Tottenham hit a devastating new low on Sunday as they were beaten 3-0 at home by fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest. Igor Jesus opened the scoring for the visitors late in the first half, before being joined on the scoresheet by Morgan Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi after the interval.

Gibbs-White’s goal was particularly hurtful for Spurs, given their failure to sign him last summer.

Tudor’s men were booed off at full-time, with the defeat leaving them just one point above the relegation zone, and two points behind Forest.

As per Football Insider, Tudor’s exit from Spurs has begun to ‘accelerate’ after their latest setback.

Club chiefs Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham see the international break as the ‘perfect opportunity’ to sack the Croatian and bring in a new firefighter.

READ: Who will be Spurs manager next season? ‘Dark horse’ joins Pochettino on list

Recent results against Liverpool and Atletico Madrid had given the Spurs hierarchy some hope that Tudor might be able to turn things around, but the loss against Forest was extremely damaging, and it now looks inevitable he will go.

Journalist Rudy Galetti revealed Spurs’ interest in Hutter last week, and their admiration has now been confirmed by The Telegraph.

The newspaper reports that Hutter has become a ‘serious contender’ for the Spurs job as he is ‘out of work and available’, meaning he could immediately replace Tudor.

Hutter was twice named the Bundesliga’s Coach of the Year during his spell at Eintracht Frankfurt between July 2018 and June 2021.

Before that, he won league titles with Red Bull Salzburg and Young Boys.

The 56-year-old was most recently in charge of Monaco, but he was sacked in October after a string of poor results.

Spurs have also been linked with managers such as Robbie Keane, Mauricio Pochettino and Roberto De Zerbi.

However, it will be extremely difficult to land a top new head coach given Spurs’ dire situation and how late it is in the season.

Pochettino is thought to be keen on a return to north London, but he will wait until the summer before making a final decision on his next move.

Clearly, Spurs would need to remain in the Premier League to agree a deal with the likes of Pochettino or De Zerbi.

On Match of the Day, former Spurs midfielder Danny Murphy said: “I think it’s impossible for him [Tudor] to stay. I really do.

“I think it’s really difficult for the players to play in an environment that’s so deflated and toxic.

“The only way you can change that is either winning games which they’re not doing, or change a manager – what the fans want.

“If they keep him in charge – it’s five league games without a win. A new guy comes in, gets one win, all of sudden, it can turn quickly. I think it’s a risk worth taking and I think they’ll take it.

“The players don’t really look like they’re at it. They’ve had a couple of decent performances this week and maybe people thought that the corner had been turned, but confidence was low again after they conceded.

“He made two changes at half-time and that didn’t make them any better. If anything, they got worse as the second half went on.”

Tottenham attacking midfielder Xavi Simons is looking to make a return to Barcelona in the summer transfer window, according to reports.

The Netherlands international has been a standout player at times for Spurs this season despite their struggles in the Premier League.

Simons has four goals and five assists in all competitions this season but Tottenham have been struggling in the Premier League and are now mired in a relegation battle.

Their 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on Sunday leaves Tottenham two points adrift of Vitor Pereira’s side, who occupy 16th, and Spurs are one above 18th-placed West Ham.

Potential relegation would lead to a mass exodus of players from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium over the summer and there has already been speculation linking a number of their players with moves away.

And now reports in Spain are claiming that Simons, who signed in the summer for €60m from RB Leipzig, ‘wants’ to return to Barcelona, where he spent nine years in the academy before moving to Paris Saint-Germain.

READ: Premier League winners and losers: Pereira, pre-break Spurs, Everton, Liverpool, £748.4m Chelsea

The move to the Premier League has failed to live up to Simons’ expectations and now Tottenham’s terrible form has him choosing to ‘reconsider his future’.

The report add on a potential move from Tottenham to Barcelona: ‘The operation wouldn’t be easy, but it is feasible. The player’s entourage places the asking price at around €40million , a significant but manageable sum if the Catalan club decides to pursue his return. Barça values ​​his talent, his familiarity with the club, and his potential for growth, although the current financial situation requires careful consideration of every move.

The report continues: ‘The key lies in the player’s own desire. Xavi Simons wants to return and would be willing to facilitate the move, aware that his current situation isn’t allowing him to take the final step. Barça, for its part, is considering the move cautiously, knowing that the summer will be long and that there will be other priorities.’

MORE TOTTENHAM COVERAGE ON F365…

* Tottenham make decision to ‘sack’ Igor Tudor as Spurs ‘offer’ former boss a temporary role

* Good news at last for beleaguered Spurs, while Arsenal hit by worrying ‘transfer link’

* Tottenham told it’s ‘impossible for Tudor to stay’ as Romero makes ‘stupid’ admission

Ahead of Tottenham’s humiliating home defeat to Nottingham Forest, Arsenal legend Paul Merson praised Simons for his performance in their 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in midweek, which ultimately led to them getting knocked out of the Champions League.

Merson told Sportskeeda: “Tottenham were decent against Liverpool and played well in the second leg at home to Atletico. Spurs controlled that game well and were not cut open at the back like in the past.

“Xavi Simons worked hard and did well in the last game. Archie Gray was excellent too. Tottenham need these players to carry that form into this weekend because this is such a huge game coming up.”

There’s some much-needed good news for Spurs, whose doom-spiralling fans will be delighted to know their absolutely terrible team is about to go on something of a run.

This Monday morn also brings the real story from Wembley and a definitely real and worrying transfer update for quad-mourning Arsenal.

Mediawatch is as surprised as anyone to discover that things are thus worse for Arsenal than they are for Tottenham at this time, but you can’t argue with the facts.

Blimey O’Reilly

Nico O’Reilly’s quickfire double as Manchester City ended Arsenal’s quadruple dream was a gift to headline writers, and they didn’t disappoint as this collection of on-brand work shows.

CRIKEY O’REILLY – Daily Mirror

LIFE O’REILLY – The Sun

Man City made it look like Arsenal were playing with nine men at Wembley. Now their dismayed supporters will live in fear defeat will bleed into Premier League – Daily Mail

Getting away with it

You must forgive Mediawatch’s geeky obsession with headlines, but this one from the Mirror excited us a little bit.

Newcastle United learn disallowed goal verdict as Sunderland ‘got away with one’

Now you and we are very familiar with the long-standing tactic of using the humble, innocent-looking ‘as’ to make two entirely unconnected and very flimsy pieces of information appear to represent one compelling whole (there’s a lovely example coming up later on in here, for instance, look forward to that), but this is slightly different and thus – to us, at least – fascinating.

This is using two pieces of information that are related, but reach entirely opposite conclusions to form one completely misleading whole.

What you have here is a headline that equates the ‘disallowed goal verdict’ of Darren Cann, who knows what he’s talking about, with a mysterious ‘some’ who apparently believed Sunderland ‘got away with one’.

Newcastle United defender Malick Thiaw was rightly denied a goal in the Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland, according to a former Premier League official. Ex-assistant referee Darren Cann has stated that Jacob Murphy’s interference from an offside position cost the Magpies their goal, despite some believing Sunderland ‘got away with one’.

And thus you have a headline that heavily implies Newcastle have been robbed when the only expert testimony says the exact opposite.

And as for the ‘some’ who said Sunderland ‘got away with one’? Turns out that’s actually just Alan Smith on commentary for Sky. To be honest, good call not to undermine the intro with that information. On balance, we’d agree it probably is better to have people assume it’s just some randoms off twitter.

Super Spurs

At last, some good news for long-suffering Spurs fans as their wretched team continues to banter them into submission. Fret no longer! You’re going to stay up! Hooray! According to a Supercomputer! Ah.

Now Mediawatch enjoys mocking the predictions of Supercomputers as much as anyone else, but this one does seem to be malfunctioning particularly badly.

Ticking absolutely every single box, The Sun bring us this vital and very real update.

Boffins and brainiacs over at Aceodds have crunched the numbers using their BETSiE supercomputer.

And they reckon that Tottenham are going to stay up by the skin of their teeth.

The thing is, they don’t. They actually have Spurs p*ssing it by four whole entire points. Because the supercomputer, in its great supercomputery wisdom, believes that a Spurs team that has managed five points and no wins in 13 Premier League games this year is about to go and win three (and draw two) of its remaining seven to end up with 41 points and finish four clear of relegated West Ham.

Now… it could happen, but we would struggle to consider that the most plausible of all possible scenarios from this point. And even The Sun, who have never yet met a supercomputer they didn’t trust implicitly, are having doubts.

But given that they have not won in the Premier League since December 28, fans may baulk at the idea of suddenly winning three of their last seven.

Indeed they might. We don’t want to cast doubt on the prognostications of a supercomputer that’s operated by both boffins AND brainiacs, but have they considered switching BETSiE off and on again?

Oasis of calm

Never let it be said The Sun can’t find the real angle from any football match, though. And It wasn’t Crikey/Blimey/Life O’Reilly at Wembley on Sunday. Or Kepa. Or even Arteta. No, it was this.

Gallagher brothers in rare joint outing as they reunite at Wembley with Liam spotted going wild as Man City beat Arsenal

Yes, a rare joint outing for the Gallagher brothers, there. As long as you forget the quite notable and very public world tour they went on together last year.

Still, great to see them ‘reunite’ at Wembley for the first time since appearing in front of *checks notes* 160,000 people there across two nights in *checks notes again* September after *checks fictional notes a third time due to frankly ill-judged commitment to tired bit* playing in front of over 400,000 people there in July and August.

We’re being naughty, though. The Sun have explained their reasoning.

It’s believed this is their first joint public appearance since their original split in 2009, aside from appearing at gigs or rehearsals together

It is their first joint public appearance since 2009, as long as you ignore all the other ones.

Playing favourites

Expert headline construction work here from the oft-overlooked Daily Star. They may be very much the smallest of the three surviving red-tops, but they can still deliver a sh*thouse headline with the best of them.

Arsenal news: Man Utd eye Gunners star as Mikel Arteta favourite admits transfer link

The ‘Gunners star’ Man United have their eye on is third-choice left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly, who hasn’t played a minute of Premier League football since January. How do we know United are after him? The Star tell us it was reported by their Reach stablemates across the desk at the Mirror.

A quick look at their near-identical story just says United are ‘reportedly’ considering an approach without even mentioning where those reports come from. Missed a trick here, really; they should have completed the circle-jerk and said it was the Daily Star.

Anyway, think we can safely file every element of that under bullsh*t. But wait, what’s this about a ‘Mikel Arteta favourite’ admitting a transfer link?

That would be David Raya, the Mikel Arteta favourite who quite significantly was not selected by Mikel Arteta for the Carabao Cup final. And the transfer link? That Bayern Munich tried to sign him. Before he signed for Arsenal.

So… also bullsh*t. But splice those two bulls*its together, if that’s even a thing you can do with bullsh*ts, and you’ve got a headline that suggests one of the biggest football clubs in the country is about to sign a ‘favourite’ from another of the biggest football clubs in the country, and also that the news has come from the player himself.

Glorious.

Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Danny Murphy believes it’s “impossible” for Igor Tudor to remain at the club following Sunday’s defeat to Nottingham Forest, while skipper Cristian Romero lamented the “stupid” errors that keep leading to goals after the 3-0 loss.

Spurs dropped to 17th in the table, and remain just a point above West Ham in the final relegation spot, after goals from Igor Jesus, Morgan Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi zapped any energy from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the Umpteenth time this season.

Interim boss Tudor has now failed to win any of his five Premier League games in charge, losing four of them, and is expected to be sacked as Tottenham look to arrest what looks like an inevitable slide towards the Championship.

And speaking on Match of the Day, pundit Murphy saw no way back for the Croatian, admitting: “I think it’s impossible for him to stay. I really do.

“I think it’s really difficult for the players to play in an environment that’s so deflated and toxic.

READ: Tudor sack inevitable after shameful Romero proves Spurs are not ‘sleeping less’ at all

“The only way you can change that is either winning games which they’re not doing, or change a manager – what the fans want.

“If they keep him in charge – it’s five league games without a win. A new guy comes in, gets one win, all of sudden, it can turn quickly. I think it’s a risk worth taking and I think they’ll take it.

“The players don’t really look like they’re at it. They’ve had a couple of decent performances this week and maybe people thought that the corner had been turned, but confidence was low again after they conceded.

“He made two changes at half-time and that didn’t make them any better. If anything, they got worse as the second half went on.”

Meanwhile, skipper Romero has admitted his team-mates need to stop conceding “stupid” goals in a stark assessment following a 15th Premier League defeat of the season.

Speaking after the contest, Romero, who has made his fair share of errors in a disastrous campaign for the club, was asked by Sky Sports about how to account for the display.

READ NEXT: Premier League winners and losers: Pereira, pre-break Spurs, Everton, Liverpool, £748.4m Chelsea

READ NEXT: Who will be Spurs manager next season? ‘Dark horse’ joins Pochettino on list

He responded: “Nothing. This season is tough, especially in this moment, another loss at home. The first thing for the fans is thank you for today because they stayed with us.

“The most important thing for us is the last seven finals.

“Now, everyone goes to their national teams, and when we’re back here [we] understand the situation is tough, but the most important thing is to play games like finals.

“It’s like this, it’s very tough and it’s [been] a bad season. Honestly, me, the first responsibility. Football is sometimes like this.

“The most important thing is staying together.”

Vitor Pereira, Fabian Hurzeler and Everton are turning things around, but all feels lost for Spurs, Eddie Howe, Chelsea and Arne Slot.

Marco Silva is at least close to completing his life’s work at Fulham.

But there is a hot take about Burnley: they might go down.

Premier League winners

Brian Brobbey

Imagine reminding Thierry Henry of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka, and scoring 90th-minute Tyne-Wear derby winners because you simply cannot stop changing the results of games through sheer bloody-minded, cramp-tempting persistence.

Vitor Pereira

Already the second-best manager at Nottingham Forest this season in terms of points won – and the best based on vibes alone – with his direct predecessor ranking first to underline just how ludicrous this City Ground season has been.

Forest have scored 19.3% of their total Premier League goals this season against Spurs. They are the second-lowest scorers in the top flight but only Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea have won more games by three goals or more. None of anything overseen by Evangelos Marinakis this campaign has made the slightest jot of sense.

But Pereira is establishing quite the knack for mid-season firefighting. What initially worked for the Portuguese at Wolves is starting to take shape at Forest too: the focus on unity, mentality, discipline and self-belief.

It sounds as simple as it does vague, but watching Forest dig in and eventually thrive in beating a lost, broken Spurs side after starting the day below them in the table only emphasised what Pereira is doing in highlighting the “sacrifice” needed from his players.

The way Pereira has whitewashed this season’s rank failure at Wolves already is glorious; if Forest do survive, it might be an idea not to give him any influence on their transfers (not that anyone else at the club can be trusted with that responsibility), or perhaps just to shake hands and part ways in the summer with a job well done and no intention of extending the union further.

But after picking up five points in three games it does look like Pereira has restored some togetherness and engineered the relegation battle’s momentum in Forest’s favour.

Everton

“It was more like Goodison than we’ve probably had in any other game,” said David Moyes despite the lack of half-time boos and notable absence of a diminutive Australian rendering the corner flag unconscious.

But it was a fair point: that felt like Everton at their mid-2000s best, down to the raw but beloved centre-forward being rewarded for his industriousness, the defensive structures and goalkeeping brilliance which preserved a clean sheet, the statement victory over an opponent with far better resources and the unlikely European charge.

It all being stitched together by Moyes only strengthens the sense that this is the most synergetic relationship between a manager and a club in Premier League history.

Jordan Pickford

All the Everton stuff, then Sunderland came from behind to beat Newcastle at St James’ Park with a 90th-minute winner. And he gets to spend the next week or so with Jason Steele. Get the rave on.

Ross Barkley

As the only team in the top seven to win in the Premier League this weekend, Aston Villa regained their footing in an increasingly farcical Champions League chase.

A damaging week for English clubs in many largely superficial ways could hardly have been more serene for Unai Emery and his players: consecutive 2-0 wins over Lille and West Ham have steadied Villa after a run of one win in seven Premier League games culminating in three successive defeats.

The emergence of Barkley as a starting option has been key, even if slightly forced by an escalating midfield injury crisis.

Barkley’s first 12 appearances of the Premier League season all came from the bench but he marked his first start in the competition since January 2025 with a goal against Manchester United, then was quietly excellent against the Hammers.

There are few more reliable squad players in the Premier League. Just think of the ridiculous lengths one has to go to to win Emery over when not a regular starter.

Fabian Hurzeler

It has been some turnaround from a manager whose position was veering towards untenable at the height of the James Milner drama when Brighton had won just once in 13 Premier League games.

Four wins in their last five – the exception being a narrow defeat to Arsenal in which Brighton were probably the better side – has suddenly dragged them into European contention.

The Arsenal loss, by the way, was the only game Milner has not featured in out of those five. Their record when he starts is an excellent P6 W4 D1 L1 F9 A5; the unnecessary substitute cameos were always the crux of the problem.

And that run-in looks inviting: Burnley, Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle, Wolves and Leeds sets up a final-day clash with Manchester United perfectly. Brighton really should push on from here.

With Danny Welbeck in this form, especially so. As Milner said after the Liverpool win, a player not good enough for England is ‘ageing like a fine ribena’ at club level.

Fulham

There will need to be clarity at Fulham soon, with both their manager and top goalscorer on contracts which expire in the summer. But Marco Silva and Harry Wilson are, for the time being at least, helping inspire this particular unlikely run for continental qualification.

Silva might accomplish his life goal in the process: winning and losing an equal number of games in a Premier League season.

In four full top-flight campaigns the Portuguese has never quite managed it. There were 15 victories and 14 defeats with Everton in 2018/19, before three seasons at Fulham delivered win/loss columns of 15-16, 13-17 and 15-14 respectively.

This feels like Silva’s greatest chance to achieve perfect coin-flipping harmony.

Manchester United

Can no longer mathematically finish 15th, which wouldn’t ordinarily be cause for celebration at This Is Manchester United Football Club We’re Talking About but Ruben Amorim exists and it is never not necessary to reiterate the ridiculous depths to which he lowered the bar in terms of accepting mediocrity.

They also now get 23 entire days off until they play again; that break is even longer for Harry Maguire at club level. It bodes well, considering the only times Manchester United have dropped points under Michael Carrick in the Premier League this season have been when they have had the shortest turnaround in between games: February 10’s draw v West Ham after playing Spurs on February 7; March 4’s defeat to Newcastle after playing Crystal Palace on March 1; and March 20’s draw v Bournemouth after playing Aston Villa on March 15.

Bournemouth

There cannot be many instances in Premier League history of a team going 11 games without winning and as many without losing in the same season, never mind with the second sequence following immediately on from the first.

Bournemouth have equalled both their club-record longest unbeaten Premier League run, and the best undefeated streak of any top-flight side this campaign.

The only teams who can match the Cherries are Manchester United and Arsenal: the side against whom they somewhat fortuitously extended this run; and the upcoming opponents Andoni Iraola said it would be “very difficult” to break the record against.

Arsenal were the last team to beat Bournemouth back on January 3. They were 15th and sliding then, nine points clear of relegation; only three teams have accrued more points since than the Cherries, who are four points off the pace of a probable European qualification place.

Caiomhin Kelleher

Only David Raya (12 in 2023/24) has ever kept more clean sheets for Brentford in a Premier League season.

Kelleher also exists as enduring proof that a) playing back-up keepers in the Carabao Cup final is fine, and b) playing Kepa in the Carabao Cup final is not.

Premier League losers

Spurs

Before this season, the last time Spurs won their final game before an international break was October 2023. It put them top of the Premier League. It came against Luton, who are now in League One’s mid-table. It was a different time.

Since then, Tottenham’s record in pre-international break Premier League games is: P10 W1 D1 L8 F9 A21. Which feels like uniquely relentless commitment to putting your supporters through the most misery possible, forcing them to stew over existential defeats for weeks and almost goading the board into making a sack decision they don’t have the stomach for.

This was an unimprovably horrendous latest instalment in that particular field of sh*t, with fans ruminating over a 3-0 home defeat to a relegation rival for three weeks until the next Spurs game comes around to depress them anew.

Eddie Howe

Still the perfect Newcastle manager, but nothing even vaguely resembling their best option as coach now.

Chelsea

A difficult afternoon for the BlueCo project, contained within an awful run which could cost Chelsea Champions League qualification and, ultimately, a promising young coach his job and career.

It is easy and often necessary to laugh at Liam Rosenior but his promotion from Strasbourg has looked like a terrible mistake for months and has already imprinted a great many unerasable smudges on his C.V.

But honestly, this is Chelsea’s mess rather than his.

The players used against Everton cost £748.4m. Every starting outfielder and three of the five substitutes were each signed for more individually than the Toffees’ most expensive player on the day: £28m Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, whose tireless running and tackling helped win a midfield battle the hosts should not have had a chance to compete in, never mind thrive off.

The actual answer probably isn’t to throw more money at the problem, but it will be the one given.

Liverpool

Arne Slot has not often summed things up well at Liverpool this season – his tendency to make things worse with his comments in the media was a theme even as they won the title last campaign – but the Dutchman nailed it after the Brighton defeat.

“At our club we’re also looking at the situation and the challenge we had during this season, and then we might be a bit more realistic, why the season has gone the way it has gone. But still it’s not good enough no matter how much excuses I can come up with, it’s still not good enough for the position you’re in right now.”

The injuries, the late goals, the summer sales – none of it justifies that level of expenditure to sit 5th, just three points clear of both Brentford and Everton, with seven games remaining.

The last Liverpool manager to lose as many as ten Premier League matches in a single Premier League season was sacked by October of the following campaign. It has all felt a bit too Brendan for some time.

West Ham

Not in the general vicinity of the races at Villa Park for only their third defeat in ten Premier League games.

Those losses have all come to otherwise inept Champions League chasers in Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa so at least the damage to West Ham’s season has been limited.

They still have Everton and Brentford of that vintage to face, but if Nuno is banking on maximising games against Wolves and Crystal Palace before the final day confrontation with Leeds it feels like a risk: West Ham are fifth out of seven in a mini table of results from games between the bottom seven.

Burnley

Might get relegated if they aren’t careful; don’t appear to have realised.

Leeds

Tottenham made the decision to sack Igor Tudor after Nottingham Forest scored their third goal as Spurs lost 3-0 on Sunday, according to reports.

Tudor’s side were hammered by their relegation rivals with Igor Jesus, Morgan Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi scoring the goals for the visitors on a day to forget for Tottenham fans.

Tudor’s time at the club has been a disaster, after replacing Thomas Frank earlier this year, with the Croatian losing five, drawing one and winning one of his seven matches in charge.

The defeat means that Tottenham dropped down to 17th position with Forest now two points ahead of them in the Premier League table and Tudor’s side remain one point ahead of 18th-placed West Ham.

And now an account on X made up of ‘five elite reporters’ and over 700k followers has revealed that Tottenham have made the decision to sack Tudor.

The account wrote: ‘Exclusive. The decision was made after the third Forest goal in today’s Spurs game: Igor Tudor would be sacked tonight. The directors’ area was stunned and one official was heard saying “This can’t carry on. We can’t go down. It will be a disaster” Club statement imminent.’

READ: Tudor sack inevitable after shameful Romero proves Spurs are not ‘sleeping less’ at all

The same account also claimed that former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has been approached by the north London club to take over until the end of the season.

They added: ‘Exclusive. Harry Redknapp has reached out to @SpursOfficial and offered to become temporary manager until the end of the season.’

Former Tottenham midfielder Danny Murphy insists that it is “impossible” for Tudor to stay after losing to Forest with the atmosphere now “deflated and toxic”.

Murphy told Match of the Day: “I think it’s impossible for him to stay. I really do.

“I think it’s really difficult for the players to play in an environment that’s so deflated and toxic.

“The only way you can change that is either winning games which they’re not doing, or change a manager – what the fans want.

READ: Tottenham told to sack ‘worst appointment in history’ Igor Tudor as Carragher slams ‘weak’ defence

“If they keep him in charge – it’s five league games without a win. A new guy comes in, gets one win, all of sudden, it can turn quickly. I think it’s a risk worth taking and I think they’ll take it.

“The players don’t really look like they’re at it. They’ve had a couple of decent performances this week and maybe people thought that the corner had been turned, but confidence was low again after they conceded.

“He made two changes at half-time and that didn’t make them any better. If anything, they got worse as the second half went on.”

Bruno Saltor, who took Tudor’s press conference, insists the Croatian and his coaching staff will be given time by Tottenham to turn things around.

Saltor said: “Yeah, of course, we feel the support of everyone at the club and we’re just focusing on how we can help the players.

“What gives me belief? The last two games, against Liverpool and Atletico Madrid and the first half today. We should’ve been at least 1-0 up. Right now every small detail is going against us. It is about turning it around and that’s what gives us confidence.”

Jamie O’Hara has urged Tottenham Hotspur to sack interim head coach Igor Tudor immediately after their damaging 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, while Jamie Carragher has criticised the team’s ‘weak’ defence.

Tottenham salvaged some dignity in the Champions League on Wednesday, beating Atletico Madrid 3-2 at home despite being knocked out on aggregate. That sparked hope among sections of the Tottenham fanbase that Tudor might be able to steer them to safety in the Premier League.

However, Spurs hit a devastating new low on Sunday when they were brushed aside at home by fellow strugglers Forest.

Igor Jesus gave Forest the lead just before half time when he had a free header from a Neco Williams corner.

Morgan Gibbs-White, whom Spurs tried to sign last summer, doubled Forest’s advantage in the 62nd minute. He was incredibly left unmarked in the box, and Guglielmo Vicario should have done better to keep his effort out.

Substitute Taiwo Awoniyi had the final say as he held off Kevin Danso to volley home from a superb Williams cross, ending Spurs’ hopes of a late comeback.

READ: Who will be Spurs manager next season? ‘Dark horse’ joins Pochettino on list

Spurs were booed off by the home crowd, and their former midfielder O’Hara has reacted angrily to the defeat.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Igor Tudor is the worst appointment in Spurs’ history, I told you he’s a fraud. [Johan] Lange, Vinai [Venkatesham], Tudor should all be sacked immediately.’

Lange is Spurs’ sporting director, while Venkatesham is their chief executive.

On Sky Sports, Carragher said: “Third goal, it was a brilliant goal from Nottingham Forest’s point of view. But all three goals are crosses into the box, sums Tottenham up that.

“Not winning challenges, people free, Morgan Gibbs-White for the second goal…

“There’s no doubt, that delivery [from Williams] is absolutely fantastic. But, as I said, that does sum Tottenham up. Weak.”

The defeat leaves Spurs in 17th, two points behind 16th-placed Forest. West Ham United are one point behind Spurs after losing 2-0 away at Aston Villa.

Spurs have been credited with interest in the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Robbie Keane, Roberto De Zerbi and Marco Silva.

However, managers such as Pochettino and De Zerbi are unlikely to take over so late in the season. Plus, if Spurs get relegated, they will have little chance of attracting such a big name.

Tudor only became Spurs boss on February 13, but he has looked out of depth ever since.

Spurs fans were baffled by the appointment, and their worst fears have been realised.

Tudor was ridiculed for his decision to start Antonin Kinsky in the first leg against Atleti, with the goalkeeper making two big mistakes and being substituted just 17 minutes later.

Not only did the appointment of Tudor effectively end Spurs’ chances of making the Champions League quarter-finals, it could also play a big part in costing them their top-flight status.

In the last 335 days, three meetings between Spurs and Nottingham Forest have been overseen by six different managers in a trilogy which has slowly descended into hilarious farce.

Ange Postecoglou v Nuno Espirito Santo was part one, a game pitting Europa League semi-finalists against a team which sat third in the Premier League.

In the sequel, Sean Dyche faced Thomas Frank with both sides excelling in European competition but struggling domestically.

Part three ought to have never been commissioned, but there was Igor Tudor and Vitor Pereira, jumping absurdly high sharks as entirely interchangeable ringmasters ostensibly guiding these circuses.

And how eternally damning for Spurs to have lost all three of those matches, two at home, two by 3-0 this season, and with their desperation levels gradually increasing each time.

With neither of these teams in any way capable of engineering a result they set out to achieve before a game – and the reward in this specific match ultimately justifying the risk both sets of players take every time they play association football – there was little threat of either Spurs or Forest playing for a draw.

That made for a wonderfully chaotic dynamic underpinned by misplaced passes, snatched chances and Igor Jesus going closest for both teams after 45 minutes.

The Brazilian’s header from a Kevin Danso long throw flicked up onto his own bar in the early stages, before some excellent improvisation forced a save from Guglielmo Vicario.

That gave Forest their second corner in comparison to the eight launched in to little effect by Spurs. And it brought the breakthrough as Jesus made sense of the mess of bodies in the area to give the visitors the lead.

It was a little harsh on Spurs, who had arguably been the better side and almost equalised instantly through a fine Mathys Tel effort which Mats Selz tipped onto the bar brilliantly. But it was more cruel on the supporters who welcomed the team bus in their thousands along the High Road, leaving Tudor “emotional” and pointing to “good motivation” for his players.

But this Survival Sunday double header of games was essentially over by half time. Spurs have not won from behind at the break in their last 28 opportunities, while Forest have dropped just eight points from winning positions all season.

One of the three teams with a better record – along with Burnley and Wolves – were beating West Ham 1-0 at Villa Park and doing both sides in north London a favour.

Aston Villa would see out that victory with relative comfort despite a hopeless roll of the half-time dice from Nuno Espirito Santo. Adama Traore and Callum Wilson replaced Freddie Potts and Taty Castellanos for the second half but the most 2019-coded double substitution imaginable could not salvage a result in big 2026.

The Hold My Beer response from Tudor was to watch that close first half Spurs just about edged despite going behind, before bringing on Destiny Udogie and Lucas Bergvall for Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence and shifting things around to the extent that no-one seemed to know what they were doing any longer.

“We are sleeping less on the pitch,” said the Spurs manager this week. “That’s the main thing. We react before, so for me this is crucial. Now we react earlier. We are not always, ‘what happened?’ And then we react after. Now we react before things happen.”

The five Spurs players pointing aghast at the space taken up by a completely unmarked Morgan Gibbs-White – who else but? – just in front of the penalty spot on the hour suggested otherwise.

Among that number was Pedro Porro, rounded easily by Callum Hudson-Odoi before the Forest forward’s cutback, and the ambling captain Cristian Romero, so frequently found at the scene of the latest defensive crime while dressed in a hot dog suit and insisting that we’re all trying to find the guy who did this.

Romero, in almost precisely the same spot, offered the exact same reaction when Taiwo Awoniyi swept in Neco Williams’ tantalising cross 25 minutes later to complete what felt like a pivotal swing in this infernal relegation race.

Forest are only three points clear of the drop now, but the momentum built with this victory could be invaluable, as much for the damage inflicted upon Spurs as the boost to their own confidence.

Pereira does seem to have landed upon a more effective blueprint for success at Forest, whose two draws and a win in their last three Premier League games matches Spurs’ tally for the entire calendar year.

As for Tudor, the new manager bounce was not only agonisingly delayed but painfully brief – and most of it coming in a meaningless Champions League second leg. Both scorers from what was supposed to be a transformative win were dropped for this, a crushing defeat which dragged Spurs hurtling back to the Earth’s core.