Under-fire interim Tottenham manager Igor Tudor appears to have been given a reprieve and has avoided the sack despite last night’s catastrophic defeat against Atletico Madrid.
The previous Juventus and Lazio boss was hired last month following the choice to part company with Thomas Frank, who himself lasted just eight months on the helm.
Tudor arrived with Spurs on the point of being sucked right into a relegation dogfight but, after overseeing three successive defeats, his confidence-starved side at the moment are only one point above the drop zone.
The Croatian’s tenure began with a crushing 4-1 home defeat to Arsenal within the north London derby and Tottenham’s plight worsened following a 2-1 reversal at Fulham.
With none semblance of a brand new manager bounce in evidence, Spurs fans were already sensing their club’s board had made a terrible mistake and people fears were underlined by last week’s astonishing capitulation at home to Crystal Palace.
Any hope that a break from domestic motion and a return to the Champions League would trigger a change of fortunes proved unfounded and a looked more likely to represent the ultimate straw.
Despite mounting calls for him to be relieved of his duties, Tudor looks set to fight one other day with Sky Sports News reporting he’ll take the club’s pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of this weekend’s daunting trip to Anfield.
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A depleted Spurs team will already be without the suspended Micky van de Ven, while there are doubts over the fitness of Cristian Romero and Joao Paulinha after each were forced off late on in Madrid following a worrying clash of heads.
Tudor must also determine who to play in goal after his decision at hand rookie Antonin Kinsky a Champions League debut spectacularly backfired within the space of 17 astonishing minutes.
After two calamitous errors gifted goals to Marcos Llorente and Julian Alvarez, Tudor was forced to bite the bullet and substitute the young shot stopper.
‘He’s [Igor Tudor] making decisions that he possibly thinks goes to 1, keep him in a job, or two, keep Tottenham within the Premier League and performances are going to show around,’ said former Spurs No.1 Paul Robinson.
‘It was a really selfish decision [to substitute Antonin Kinsky in the 17th minute] as a manager.
‘Actually, while you rewind the clock, I feel he brought Kinsky in tonight because [Guglielmo] Vicario has been poor.
Should Spurs sack Igor Tudor?
Yes – what are they waiting for?
No – he’ll keep them up
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‘Vicario has made errors which have led to goals and he has cost Tottenham points within the league, of late.
‘I feel he brought Kinsky in tonight pondering that if he does well I even have got an excuse to maintain him in now until the top of the season.
‘He reverted on that call very, very early on in the sport. I even have never seen that in my playing profession, in my broadcasting profession, I even have never seen a manager substitute a goalkeeper so obviously due to the mistakes that he made.
‘It’s quite blatantly for self preservation by the manager since it was a choice that he thought was best for him and his team on the time, without consideration for the young goalkeeper.’
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