'The best of their candidates': Spurs urged to swallow pride and send SOS to Ange Postecoglou
Updated . First published
Tottenham chose to part ways with Igor Tudor, just seven matches and 44 days into his spell as interim coach of a team that has plunged into a relegation fight in the Premier League.
A club statement on Monday read: “We can confirm that it has been mutually agreed for head coach Igor Tudor to leave the club with immediate effect.”
Tottenham thanked Tudor for his work and said “An update on a new head coach will be provided in due course.”
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Tudor’s exit leaves Spurs without a head coach heading into the final seven games of the Premier League season, with the London club just one place and one point above the relegation zone.
The Croatian coach was hired on February 14 until the end of the season, but his final match in charge proved to be a 3-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest in the league.
That left Tottenham one point above the relegation zone with seven games left as one of England’s biggest clubs battles to preserve its nearly 50-year top-flight status.
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Igor Tudor, former manager of Tottenham Hotspur. Getty
After that game, it was announced that Tudor’s father had died and the coach didn’t undertake his post-match media duties.
Tottenham's statement on Monday said “We also acknowledge the bereavement that Igor has recently suffered and send our support to him and his family at this difficult time.”
Tudor oversaw Tottenham’s round-of-16 exit in the Champions League at the hands of Atletico Madrid.
That included a humiliating 5-2 loss in the first leg in Madrid, when Tudor substituted his controversially selected back-up goalkeeper, Antonin Kinsky, in the 17th minute.
Who comes next?
Former Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi, ex-Monaco coach Adi Hütter and former Burnley and Everton manager Sean Dyche are among the bookmakers’ favourites to take over, or they could turn to Ryan Mason, a boyhood Spurs fan and player who has twice been caretaker before.
Former Spurs manager Harry Redknapp had also expressed interest before the announcement.
However, speaking to TalkSport, former West Ham midfielder Kevin Nolan pondered whether rehiring Aussie manager Ange Postecoglou was the best option for Spurs.
"(Postecoglou) motivated them, he's the one who brought in the majority of them as well, so he's got the trust of them," Nolan said.
"He is the one who brought them in... that makes sense to me, it really does. The intensity, Ange knows it, he's been there, knows the club, knows everyone.
Ange Postecoglou applauds the fans. Getty
"If that is the best option, even if he has had the fallout and he has said a few unsavoury things... they've got to be big boys upstairs.
"They've got to make the right appointment no matter what. Ange is probably up there as the best of their candidates. You can't wait, because it will be a disaster for them if they end up in the Championship."
The 79-year-old Redknapp is only a year older than Roy Hodgson, the recently appointed interim head coach of second-tier Bristol City.
Harry Redknapp watches his horse The Jukebox Man. Getty
Tottenham started the season with a new manager in Thomas Frank, who replaced Postecoglou in the off-season.
Frank lasted eight months but couldn’t replicate his success at previous team Brentford.
Tudor was brought in for his first job in English football, with a reputation for having an instant impact at clubs, but couldn’t arrest Tottenham’s slide.
His first match was a 4-1 home loss to Arsenal, Tottenham’s fiercest rival and who Tudor described as “probably the best team in the world at this moment” — a comment that, while possibly true, hardly ingratiated him with Spurs fans.
Under Tudor, Spurs completed a six-match losing streak — the worst run of results in the club’s nearly 144-year history.
They haven’t won any of their last 13 games in the Premier League, dating back to the end of December.
Igor Tudor looks dejected during a Premier League match. Getty
Tottenham has been an ever-present in the Premier League since the competition was founded in 1992, and last played in the second tier in the 1977-78 season.
Tudor faced criticism for his professionalism and man-management for the way he treated Kinsky during the match against Atletico.
The Czech goalkeeper was selected for his first game since October and made two mistakes leading to goals in the opening 15 minutes, prompting Tudor to immediately substitute him.
Tudor didn’t acknowledge Kinsky as the young goalkeeper walked off the field and straight down the tunnel.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel felt sorry for Kinsky, saying of Tudor: “What he’s done there, for me, he’s absolutely killed his career. That’s going to take something to get over that.”
