Under-fire Igor Tudor has told Tottenham players not to be “victims” and ignore outside noise in a bid to rally his lackluster side for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
Tottenham plan to change if Tudor lose to Liverpool
Pressure mounted on interim manager Tudor after Spurs were beaten 5-2 by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday following an opening game in which backup goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky made two disastrous mistakes.
Kinsky was subbed off after just 17 minutes but Tudor watched Tottenham lose again to make it four consecutive defeats to start his tenure, the first in the club’s history and six consecutive defeats this year is also a record.
“It is not an easy situation, not an easy moment and from the other side is a great challenge to change things. Like all things in life, you can choose how you see the situation. Therefore, you can sit and cry or you can fight,” emphasized Tudor.
“You can be a victim or you can say there is something I can change. This is the message I want to start and tell the players. Everyone speaks everyone has their own opinions and life always looks at the way you see it. The bottle is always empty or full.
“Here there is nothing full, there is a lot of emptiness, but difficult times do not last forever, they will pass and I believe that the players who will take this as a challenge as an opportunity will stand up and have the courage to change things, after this time they will be better people and better players.
“So, in difficult times it’s always about that, it’s always about us. In the past, a lot of things about what the club is, the problems, nobody can do anything and this is like victimization, like we’re victims.
The title-winning manager made a huge demand at Tottenham after talks to replace Igor Tudor
You want one thing before committing.
“I said this morning to the players who are totally against us, we are a team and we are workers, it’s all about us, everything else is b****** and I’m sorry to use this word, but it’s on us.
“I do this job every day. It’s a psychology job. It’s also important to give courage to my colleagues. Some of them can’t manage, for sure. There is a place where you can help them.
“My goal is to find out if I can help make 18 players out of 20, 15? I don’t know how many? Sometimes you can’t do anything, but most of the time you can make small changes.
“A little help you know you can do, but it’s also something I always like to say to the players, don’t be a victim.
“Don’t think it’s not about me. You know that would be a problem on top of all these things about Tottenham and the club, you know, like magic at the club, like bad magic and all this 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 woes with Micky van de Ven suspended and Yves Bissouma also ruled out.
And David Ornstein revealed on Friday that the club will already be looking to fill vacancies if Tudor is embarrassed at Anfield, where Spurs have not won since 2011.
Tudor is not the only Spurs facing the sack
According to Tottenham insider John Wenham, there could be big changes at boardroom level this summer.
Indeed, Johan Lange is now under pressure following the departure of Fabio Paratici, and former Arsenal boss Vinai Venkatesham could also be leaving, with their forces moving into a single all-seeing role.
That role could be handed to former Crystal Palace director Dougie Freedman, who won praise for his work building a talented team on a shoestring budget at Selhurst Park before moving to Saudi Arabia, where he is currently Al-Diriyah’s sporting director.
“Johan Lange is under a lot of pressure.
“There is a lot of talk on the internet that maybe he will go in the summer, Sami Mokbel made a piece saying that Tottenham are looking at Dougie Freedman to come in, he is highly respected for his work at Crystal Palace, he now has a team in the Saudi League.
“If it is said that he can enter as a football director, even though they say that he and Lange are together, I quickly saw Lange being ostracized.
“Vinai Venkatesham has also come in for consideration and a lot of pressure, and the ownership board might think that, in the summer, we should bring in Dougie Freedman.
“Let’s get a clean break from Vinai and Lange and try to get the fans back on the side because they need to do something.” – Wenham, speaking to Tottenham Hotspur News
Venkatesham was not a popular candidate back in April last year due to his links with the Gunners, and has done little to reassure fans since, admitting this week that the club will have to work through sales to buy in future transfer windows to avoid Financial Fair Play difficulties.
