Tottenham’s coach Igor Tudor [AP Photo]
Tottenham chose to part ways with Igor Tudor yesterday [Macau time], 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 Sunday afternoon 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.”
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 Feb. 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 on March 22, ahead of the international break. 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.
Tudor lost five of his seven games at Tottenham, including four straight at the start.
After the Forest 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 Sunday 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 backup 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’ favorites 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 Sunday’s announcement.
The 79-year-old Redknapp is only a year older than Roy Hodgson, the recently appointed interim head coach of second-tier Bristol City.
Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust said it had been “a season of bad calls.”
Its post on X read: “With thanks to Igor and his team for their efforts, and wishing him and his family time to come to terms with their loss.
“In a season of bad calls, let’s hope we now see a wise choice for the remainder of the campaign.
“Someone who understands the club and is up to the task in front of them: retaining our Premier League status. Someone we can all be proud of and who can bring some much needed success and enjoyment to our long suffering fanbase.” STEVE DOUGLAS, Sports Writer, MDT/AP
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