Tottenham sack head coach Igor Tudor

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Igor Tudor

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Tottenham parted company with coach Igor Tudor by mutual consent on Sunday after just seven games in charge as they battle to stay in the Premier League.

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Tudor lost five of those matches in a 44-day reign to leave Spurs out of the Champions League and hovering just one point above the relegation zone in the Premier League.

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The 47-year-old did not appear in front of the media after last weekend’s damaging 3-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest after learning of his father’s death just after the game ended.

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“We can confirm that it has been mutually agreed for head coach Igor Tudor to leave the club with immediate effect,” Tottenham said in a statement.

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“We also acknowledge the bereavement that Igor has recently suffered and send our support to him and his family at this difficult time.

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“An update on a new head coach will be provided in due course.”

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Tottenham are not in action again for another two weeks when they travel to Sunderland.

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Former Brighton and Marseille coach Roberto de Zerbi has been linked with the job, while reports have suggested the club could turn to Sean Dyche’s Premier League experience to dig them out of trouble for the final seven games of the season.

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Tudor was appointed in February following the dismissal of Thomas Frank.

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Hired with a reputation of making an immediate impact during a nomadic coaching career, the Croatian was powerless to stop Tottenham’s slide towards the relegation trapdoor for the first time since 1977.

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The London club, ravaged by injuries this season, have not won a league match since late December and are out of every cup competition.

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Even Tudor’s sole victory was fruitless as a 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid failed to overturn a 5-2 first leg deficit in the Champions League last 16.

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His decision to start and then substitute back-up goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky after just 17 minutes of the first leg in Madrid summed up a chaotic short-lived reign.

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– Premier League slide –

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In the Premier League, he managed just one point from five games, which came against the odds in a 1-1 draw at Liverpool.

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A 4-1 home defeat against north London rivals Arsenal got the former Juventus boss off to a bad start and worse was to come in further losses to Fulham, Crystal Palace and Forest.

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Spurs won the Europa League last year under Ange Postecoglou to end a 17-year trophy drought but the Australian was sacked following a 17th-place finish in the Premier League.

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Frank arrived at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with an impressive track record at Brentford and the club started the season with just one defeat in their first seven league games.

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But they lost their way and club bosses axed the Dane under fan pressure following a run of just two wins in 17 league games.

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With the fates of Burnley and Wolves almost certainly sealed, Spurs are battling for survival along with West Ham, currently in the relegation zone, Forest and Leeds.

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Relegation to the second-tier Championship would be a seismic event in English football.

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Spurs, who play in a gleaming new stadium that holds more than 60,000 fans, are one of the so-called “Big Six” in the Premier League and were ninth in Deloitte’s latest Money League study for the richest clubs in world football.

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Just a few years ago they were Champions League regulars under former manager Mauricio Pochettino, reaching the final in 2019, but their decline has been precipitous.

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