Under-fire Igor Tudor has told Tottenham players to not be “victims” and to ignore outside noise in a desperate bid to rally his low-on-confidence squad for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
Tottenham lining up replacements if Tudor loses at Liverpool
Pressure ramped up on interim head coach Tudor after Spurs slipped to a 5-2 loss at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday following a shambolic opening where back-up goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky made two disastrous errors.
Kinsky was substituted after only 17 minutes but Tudor watched Tottenham lose again to make it four defeats in a row to start his tenure, which is a first in the club’s history and the six consecutive losses they have suffered this year is also a record.
“Not easy situation, not an easy moment and from other side a big challenge to change things. Like everything in life, you can choose how to see the situation. So, you can stay and cry or you can fight,” Tudor insisted.
“You can be the victim or you can say I can change something. This is the message I want to start and what I told to the players. Everyone speaking, everyone has opinions and the life is always how you see it. The bottle is always half empty or half full.
“Here there is nothing full, there is a lot of empty things but difficult moments don’t last forever. It will pass and I believe the players who will take this as a challenge, as an opportunity will stand up with the courage to change things, after this period they will become better people and better players.
“So, in tough moments it’s always about that, it’s always about us. In the last period, a lot of things about what is the club, the problems, no one can do nothing and this like victim-ism, like we were victims.
Title-winning manager makes key demand to Tottenham after talks over replacing Igor Tudor
He wants one thing before committing.
“I said this morning to the players totally opposition things. We are the team and we are the staff. It’s all about us. All the b*******, all the other things are b******* and sorry to use this word, but it’s on us.
“I do every day this work. Psychology work. It is important also to give the courage to the team-mates. Some of them they cannot manage, for sure. Somewhere you arrive and you can help them.
“My goal is to find if I can help to do 18 players out of 20, 15? I don’t know how much? Sometimes you cannot do anything, but most of the time you can do even small changes.
“Small help, you know, you can do it, but also it’s what I always like to say to the players, don’t be a victim.
“Don’t think it’s not about me. You know that can be the problem more than all these things about Tottenham and club, you know, like magic on the club, like bad black magic and these other b*******, you know. So this is about what I want to send a message.”
Captain Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha will miss the trip to Anfield, adding to the defensive problems with Micky van de Ven suspended and Yves Bissouma also ruled out.
And David Ornstein revealed on Friday that the club are already lining up replacements should Tudor suffer another humiliation at Anfield, where Spurs have not won since 2011.
Tudor not the only one at Spurs facing the sack
According to Tottenham insider John Wenham, there could be mass changes at boardroom level this summer.
Indeed, Johan Lange is now under pressure following the departure of Fabio Paratici, while ex-Arsenal chief Vinai Venkatesham could also depart, with their powers absorbed into one all-seeing role.
That role could be handed to former Crystal Palace director Dougie Freedman, who earned praise for his work in building a talented squad under a restricted budget at Selhurst Park before moving to Saudi Arabia, where he is currently the sporting director of Al-Diriyah.
“Johan Lange is under huge amounts of pressure.
“A lot of talk online about maybe him going in the summer already, Sami Mokbel did a piece saying that Tottenham were looking at Dougie Freedman to come in, highly regarded for his work at Crystal Palace, he’s now with a team in the Saudi League.
“If he were to come in as the director of football, although they could say it would be him and Lange together, I could very quickly see Lange being sort of sidelined.
“Vinai Venkatesham has also come in for huge amounts of scrutiny and pressure, and the ownership board might think, in the summer, let’s bring in Dougie Freedman.
“Let’s have a clean break from Vinai and Lange and try and get fans back on side because they desperately need to do something.” – Wenham, talking to Tottenham Hotspur News
Venkatesham was not a popular appointment back in April of last year due to his connections with the Gunners, and has done little to calm supporters since, admitting this week the club will have to operate on a sell-to-buy basis in the coming transfer windows to avoid Financial Fair Play difficulties.
