'Wrong person at wrong time' – but if not Tudor then who?

By [Staff Writer]

Tottenham Hotspur’s boardroom faces an unenviable equation: stick with Igor Tudor and risk relegation, or swing the axe and gamble on another quick-fix manager with only nine Premier League fixtures left. The Croatian’s 25-day tenure has produced four straight defeats, 14 goals conceded and a humiliating 5-2 Champions League loss at Atlético Madrid that left Spurs one point above the drop zone and the club’s 1977 top-flight demotion creeping ominously into view.

Tudor, 47, was parachuted in on 14 February precisely because of a résumé that promised rapid improvement: short, sharp spikes of form at Hajduk Split, Galatasaray, Udinese, Marseille, Lazio and, most notably, Juventus, where a late-season surge secured Champions League football and earned him the permanent job. That track record convinced Spurs chiefs a “new-manager bounce” would arrest the slide triggered by Thomas Frank’s sacking after barely eight months. Instead, the squad appears to have flat-lined.

“Wrong person at the wrong time,” former Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson told BBC Radio 5 Live. “The minimum requirement is maximum effort – and it wasn’t there in Madrid.”

The optics are no kinder off the pitch. Midfielder Yves Bissouma labelled the club’s plight “a big emergency”, while ex-Spurs boss Tim Sherwood accused Tudor of “adding fuel to the fire” rather than dousing it. The nadir in the Spanish capital saw 22-year-old goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky withdrawn after 17 bruising minutes, consoled by team-mates yet bypassed by his manager – an episode critics cite as evidence of a fractured dressing-room dynamic.

Owner ENIC is understood to have delegated the stay-or-go decision to football executives, conscious that the next appointment could decide whether Spurs spend 2026-27 in the Championship or cling to their top-flight status. So who, realistically, is left?

Internal options

Ryan Mason, twice interim head coach in 2021 and 2023, knows the building but left last summer for West Bromwich Albion, where he was dismissed in January. Tim Sherwood has publicly offered himself for a short-term rescue act, though the 55-year-old has not managed in the Premier League since 2014. Harry Redknapp, 79, ruled himself out, telling BBC Radio 5 Live his immediate focus is “enjoying Cheltenham”.

External candidates

Mauricio Pochettino, still under contract with the United States men’s national team until after the summer’s World Cup, was floated before Tudor’s hire but is unavailable mid-campaign. Robbie Keane’s name circulated in February yet generated no formal approach.

Among the unemployed, three managers fit the original brief of top-level experience and front-foot football: Roberto De Zerbi, Edin Terzić and Marco Rose. De Zerbi left Marseille by mutual consent three days before Spurs appointed Tudor; Terzić walked away from Borussia Dortmund after a Champions League final run; Rose was sacked by RB Leipzig in March after lifting the 2023 German Cup.

Summer market

Oliver Glasner will exit Crystal Palace at season’s end, though Palace’s February slump muddied immediate availability. Andoni Iraola is in contract talks with Bournemouth to ward off suitors, while Fulham remain confident Marco Silva will stay “for a long time”. All three would demand compensation to jump ship with relegation on the line – a price Spurs may pay if survival is valued above balance-sheet prudence.

Next up

First, a daunting trip to Liverpool on Sunday, where Spurs have shipped 17 goals in their last four visits, followed by a home date with fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest and the second leg against Atlético. Tudor will front the media on Friday, but the questions are no longer about formations or fitness; they are about whether he will even reach April in the dug-out – and, if not, who on earth Tottenham trust to keep them in the division.

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