With zero league matches won during Igor Tudor's thirty-seven days in charge, relegation-threatened Tottenham Hotspur face the decision of whether to put an end to one of the most shambolic and short-lived managerial spells in Premier League history.
He arrived at the club billed as an experienced firefighter, but defeats to Arsenal, Fulham, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest have only fanned the flames that have left Spurs coming to terms with the very real prospect of relegation.
Tudor's time in north London has certainly been eventful.
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Feb. 13, 2026: Tudor replaces Frank as Spurs boss
Three days after Tottenham sent Thomas Frank packing, Tudor was appointed as his replacement, agreeing a deal to coach the club until the end of the campaign.
According to the Spurs hierarchy, the Croatian's record in stepping at short notice to deliver an upturn in results, as he did at Juventus and Marseille, made him the right man to get Spurs out of their malaise.
"Igor brings clarity, intensity and experience of stepping into challenging moments and producing impact," sporting director Johan Lange said. "Our objective is straightforward -- to stabilise performances, maximise the quality within the squad and compete strongly in the Premier League and Champions League."
Tudor arrived with the club 16th in the Premier League table and having won two of their previous 17 matches in the competition. The timing of his arrival gave him a week to work with his new squad ahead of the north London derby.
What Tudor said: "It is an honour to join this club at an important moment. I understand the responsibility I have been handed and my focus is clear. To bring greater consistency to our performances and compete with conviction in every match."
Later, in his first news conference as Spurs boss, Tudor was asked if he's enjoyed his first week at the club and replied: "No, I didn't enjoy it. Because I'm here not to enjoy. I'm here to work."
Feb. 22, 2026: Tottenham 1-4 Arsenal
Tudor's first task could hardly have been any tougher as Mikel Arteta's table-topping Arsenal side headed across north London seeking to boost their title aspirations and deepen their archrivals' relegation fears. Spurs were level at the break thanks to a player Tudor had worked with at Juventus, the on-loan Randal Kolo Muani, but the visitors were by far the better team in the first half.
A sobering second 45 made clear the scale of the task at hand as Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres terrorised the injury-ridden Spurs team.
What Tudor said: "Arsenal are now probably the best team in the world at this moment. If we were thinking today that it's a derby and we can give something more, more mentality and more motivation, the reality is that there are things you can't change in 3-4 training sessions. It's impossible.
"So this was not a perfect team to play in the first game, but we need something good and today shows me the level.
"There is a big gap between the two teams, too much Arsenal for us. But it is nice to understand where we are -- a game to show the reality.
"It's nice for one point of view to understand that we must change habits, change state of mind. It's the only way to work."
March 1, 2026: Fulham 2-1 Tottenham
While the Arsenal defeat had perhaps been expected, the away loss to Fulham that followed began to set alarm bells ringing within the Spurs fanbase.
Tottenham were shambolic in defence with Harry Wilson giving the hosts a controversial early lead before Alex Iwobi's sweet strike had them 2-0 up at the break. Richarlison's second-half goal restored hope for Spurs, but in reality they were second-best for much of the afternoon and Marco Silva bemoaned the fact his side hadn't won by a bigger margin.
What Tudor said: "The problems are much bigger. It's a complicated situation. A lot of problems, I cannot tell you nothing new. Nothing new. We need to find the voices inside each of us.
"I said to the players, 'it's always what you're going to do, what you want to do with yourself,' you know? More personality, more wish to do before reacting, a lot of things.
"We lack when we attack, we are lacking the quality to score the goal, we are lacking in the middle to run and we are lacking behind to stay there to suffer and not concede the goal. So, an amazing situation."
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March 5, 2026: Tottenham 1-3Crystal Palace
It all seemed set up for Spurs to record a galvanising victory when Dominic Solanke gave them the lead in a game that had been considered winnable before kick-off. But a calamitous nine-minute spell in which captain Micky van de Ven was sent off and Crystal Palace conceded three goals was enough for much of the fanbase to start calling for Tudor to be replaced after just three games in charge.
Spurs supporters were seen leaving the ground in their droves before the half-time whistle, and those that stayed filled the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with boos -- a common theme this season.
Tudor's post-game comments in which he said he "saw something" in the performance that made him "believe more after this game than I believed before" did little to change the mood music.
What Tudor said: "I don't think in that direction [that he might be sacked]. I have my job to do and that's all.
"Of course I understand the fans. It's a normal thing that happens in football. They are disappointed. They wanted more. We are aware of that. We also wanted to give more. Unfortunately this is the moment that we pay everything. One red card change everything.
"I will tell you now maybe it will sound strange, but I believe more after this game than I believed before. I saw something.
"I need to choose the right guys because the boat is going in the direction that I want to go and needs to go and who is in the boat can stay. Otherwise they can bow down, or how do you say that, leave the boat.
"So, when the other players will come back and choosing the right [players], I'm sure we will have a good team and the victories will come back. It's not easy to accept the moment where we are now but it is how it is."
March 10: Atlético Madrid 5-2 Tottenham
The fourth match of Tudor's tenure had many saying they had seen things that they'd never seen before on a football pitch -- and not in a good way.
In one of the most bizarre moments of the season, Spurs conceded three goals in the opening 17 minutes of their Champions League round-of-16 first-leg tie at Atlético Madrid. The first came after goalkeeper Antonín Kinsky, starting in place of the dropped Guglielmo Vicario, slipped over to gift the hosts the chance to take the lead.
Then Van de Ven also slipped, allowing Antoine Griezmann to run through and finish into the bottom corner. Less than a minute later, Kinsky made a mess of an attempted pass out wide and presented the ball to Julián Álvarez who tapped home into an unguarded net while the goalkeeper covered his face while lying on the pitch.
Incredibly, with the game just 17 minutes old, Tudor then decided to replace Kinsky with Vicario and subsequently decided not to offer any form of consolation to the distraught Kinsky.
Widespread criticism poured in for Tudor's handling of the situation, including from former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel who said he thought the decision to replace Kinsky in that moment was "going to have ramifications for the rest of his career. He's absolutely killed his career."
Spurs did salvage some pride when winning the second leg at home, but the 3-2 result was insufficient to overturn the first leg deficit.
What Tudor said: "I've been coaching 15 years and I've never done that. It was necessary to preserve the guy, preserve the team. It was an incredible situation.
"Before the game, it was the right choice to do. It was the right decision for me. After this happened, of course it's easy to say it wasn't the right decision. He's a good goalkeeper. Unfortunately it happened with these mistakes, in a big game. We are fragile, we are weak."
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March 15: Liverpool 1-1 Tottenham
After four straight defeats, expectations were low as Spurs headed to Anfield but Richarlison's nous in Premier League relegation battles came to the fore as he earned his team a crucial point.
The north London club looked set for a seventh successive defeat after Dominic Szoboszlai's first-half free kick, but Spurs were vastly improved from their midweek outing and Richarlison's injury-time equaliser felt a just reward for their display.
It was Tudor's first point since taking over and appeared to offer a blueprint for the team's Premier League survival.
What Tudor said: "It's a long way to our goal, which is to stay in the Premier League, still a lot of games to play, but today was important to show what they showed today, independently of the result.
"When you are honest, you need to be honest, give everything, then the football will give you back. That was my words before the game, so this happened today."
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March 18: Tottenham 3-2 Atlético Madrid
Spurs carried their momentum from the draw at Anfield into the round-of-16 second leg and came away with an admirable 3-2 win. They exited the competition 7-5 on aggregate, but the result felt like it could be a turning point.
Xavi Simons put in arguably his best performance for the club since joining from RB Leipzig last summer and bagged a brace. It was the first win of the Tudor era and a much-needed morale boost for the team and fanbase heading into a crucial 'six-pointer' against Nottingham Forest...
What Tudor said: "It's nice, the sensation and feelings are mixed, of course. We are out, but it was a sensation of one very good team on the pitch, one very good performance of the players, the energy was very nice.
"From the first moment, the fans recognised that the team will try to do everything they can do, so from the first moment until the last moment, they were with us, it was beautiful."
March 22: Tottenham 0-3 Nottingham Forest
Any hopes of a renaissance were emphatically put to bed in Tudor's third home league game in charge -- a defeat that marked the third time Spurs had conceded at least three goals when losing in front of their own fans.
This time, though, the home side failed to make a telling impact themselves, leaving this result as the most galling so far of Tudor's league outings in north London.
What Tudor said: The Spurs manager did not speak to the media after being informed of a "personal family matter" after the match. Assistant coach Bruno Saltor spoke to reporters in his place, saying: "You can see the players, they care and they [are] 100% trying their best, but at the moment it's not enough and we need to minimise any mistakes because we know we are going to concede a goal.
"The first 44 minutes, I thought were good, really good... Second half, probably we were not able to deal with the weight of the game."
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Information from PA contributed to this story
