Unhappy manager Igor Tudor has told Tottenham players to avoid becoming “victims” and ignore outside noise as he looks to rally his self-doubting side ahead of Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
Tottenham prepare to replace Tudor in case of loss to Liverpool
The pressure on interim head coach Tudor was further increased after Spurs lost 5-2 to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday, following a disastrous start in which reserve goalkeeper Antonin Kinski made two disastrous errors.
Kinski was replaced after just 17 minutes, but Tudor saw Tottenham lose again, making it four straight defeats to the start of his term. This is the first time in the club’s history that this has happened, and the six consecutive losses they suffered this year are also a record.
“It’s not an easy situation, it’s not an easy moment, and from the other side, it’s a big challenge to change things. Like everything in life, you can choose how you look at the situation. So you can stop and cry, or you can fight,” Tudor insisted.
“You can be a victim and I think you can say I can make a difference. That’s the message I want to start and that’s what I’ve told the players: Everybody has a voice, everybody has an opinion, life is always about how you look at it. The bottle is always half empty or half full.
“There is nothing here that is full, there is a lot of emptiness, but difficult moments do not last forever. They will pass and I believe that the players who take this as a challenge, as an opportunity, will have the courage to change the situation. After this period, they will become better people and better players.”
“So whenever times are tough, it’s always the problem, it’s always our problem. In the last period it was about what the club is, nobody can do anything about the problem, and it was like victimism, like we were the victims.
Title-winning manager makes important demands on Tottenham after talks to replace Igor Tudor
There’s one thing he wants before he commits.
“This morning I said the exact opposite to the players. We are a team, we are a staff. It’s all about us. Everything, everything else is terrible. I’m sorry to use that word, but it’s on us.”
“I do this job every day. It’s a psychology job. It’s also important to encourage your teammates. Some of them certainly can’t manage them. Once you get somewhere, you can help them.”
“My goal is to find out if I can help 18 out of 20 players. 15? I don’t know how many? Sometimes you can’t do anything, but most of the time you can make small changes.
“You can help a little bit, but what I always tell the players is don’t be a victim.
“Don’t think it doesn’t concern me. You know that can matter more than all these things about Tottenham and the club, like club magic, bad black magic and other awful things. So this is about what I want to send a message to.”
Captain Cristian Romero and Joao Parinha will miss the trip to Anfield, while Micky van de Ven is suspended and Yves Bissouma is also absent, adding to the defensive problems.
And manager David Ornstein revealed on Friday that the club already has a replacement ready in case Tudor suffers another humiliation at Anfield, where Spurs have not won since 2011.
Tudor isn’t the only Spurs player facing a sack.
According to Tottenham official John Wenham, there could be major personnel changes at executive level this summer.
Indeed, manager Johan Lange is currently under pressure following the departure of manager Fabio Paratici, and former Arsenal manager Vinay Venkatesham may also leave, meaning their authority will be absorbed into a 360-degree role.
The role could go to former Crystal Palace manager Dougie Freedman. Freedman was praised for building a talented team on a limited budget at Selhurst Park, before moving to Saudi Arabia where he is now Al Diriyah’s sporting director.
“Johan Lange is under a lot of pressure.
“There’s already been a lot of talk online about him leaving in the summer, with Sami Mokbel writing that Tottenham are considering a move for Dougie Freedman, who has been highly praised for his work at Crystal Palace. He is currently with the Saudi League side.”
“They might say that if he was to come in as director of football, it would be him and Lange, but you could see right away that Lange was going to be kind of sidelined.
“Vinay Venkatesham is also under a lot of scrutiny and pressure, and the ownership board may look to bring in Dougie Friedman in the summer.
“Let’s move away from Vinay and Lange completely and try to get the fans back on side, because they desperately need to do something.” – Wenham tells Tottenham Hotspur News
Venkatesham was an unpopular appointment last April due to his links with the Gunners, but has done little to appease supporters since then, with the club admitting this week that they will have to operate on a buy-sell basis in the upcoming transfer window to avoid Financial Fair Play issues.
