All change at Spurs again and Igor Tudor has a relegation battle on his hands | Jonathan Wilson

Tottenham Hotspur have pressed the reset button once more, sacking Thomas Frank and handing the reins to Croatian firefighter Igor Tudor with the club staring at a genuine relegation fight. With West Ham’s recent revival trimming the buffer above the drop zone to five points and a daunting north-London derby against Arsenal looming, the mood inside the club is anything but calm.

The numbers are stark: Spurs have taken two wins from their last 17 league fixtures and only five home victories since November 2024. A dozen senior players are injured, creativity has dried up without Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison, and expected-goals charts have plunged to historic lows. Frank, once the affable face of progressive Brentford football, appeared to shrink under the spotlight, losing both the supporters and, crucially, faith in his own methods.

Chairman Daniel Levy’s departure in September left the hierarchy in limbo. Chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and technical director Johan Lange now steer strategy, and the decision to part with Frank is their first major act. January arrivals Conor Gallagher and teenage left-back Souza offered brief respite, but results did not improve, forcing the search for an interim solution.

Enter Igor Tudor. The 46-year-old’s reputation in Italy is that of a crisis specialist: he salvaged Udinese on the final day in 2018 and has previously collaborated with ex-Spurs sporting director Fabio Paratici at Juventus. Tudor’s familiarity with Randal Kolo Muani, a summer signing yet to ignite, could prove pivotal in easing the scoring burden on Dominic Solanke.

Yet the scale of the task is unprecedented in recent Spurs history. Even last season’s struggles were cushioned by a late-February win at Ipswich that effectively secured survival at 33 points. This campaign, the bar may rise to the traditional 40-point mark if Nottingham Forest’s early form under Vítor Pereira is a reliable gauge. A shock derby victory on Sunday would still leave Tottenham on only 32 points and mired in uncertainty.

Off the pitch, instability is entrenched. Tudor becomes the eighth managerial change in five years and the third interim appointment in six seasons, following two spells for Ryan Mason and one for Cristian Stellini. The revolving door points to a club still searching for an identity, let alone a long-term plan.

The summer managerial carousel will be crowded—Manchester United, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Liverpool and Barcelona could all be hiring, while Xabi Alonso, Roberto De Zerbi and a post-World Cup pool including Mauricio Pochettino wait in the wings—but before Spurs can dream of rebuilds, they must secure their Premier League status. Five points separate them from third-bottom West Ham, and with fixtures running out, every match is now a cup final.

Tudor has navigated relegation dogfights before, but never with a squad so depleted and devoid of streetwise survival know-how. The Croatian’s first mission is simple yet daunting: restore belief, patch together an XI from the treatment table, and find four wins from somewhere. Fail, and the unthinkable—Tottenham in the Championship—moves from whisper to genuine possibility.

Tottenham, serial remodelers without a blueprint, are gambling again. This time the stakes are survival, and the clock is ticking louder than ever.