Igor Tudor says his job at Tottenham was the biggest relief job of his career.
The Spurs head coach has a reputation for producing instant turnarounds at the clubs he has managed, arriving in the Premier League having helped Juventus and Lazio secure European football and Udinese avoid relegation.
But after last weekend’s 4-1 defeat at home to Arsenal in his first game as a manager, Tudor admitted the scale of his current challenge was the biggest of his career.
Spurs sit just four points above the relegation zone and have not won a league game in 2026.
“If we recognize that there are difficulties there, probably yes (that is the biggest one),” he told a press conference ahead of Sunday’s game against Fulham.
“It’s even more of an incentive for us to do it,” he added.
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Highlights of the Premier League match between Tottenham and Arsenal.
Tudor also said that results are everything for Tottenham now, regardless of their playing style, and that is the seriousness of their situation.
“I don’t have a lot of time to think about performance or style,” he says.
“We have to prepare like that for every game. How do we get points? Either way.
“Unfortunately, it’s very clear to me. I’m not the type of coach who doesn’t want to fix style or performance, but it’s impossible to think about things like that at the moment.”
He later said, “Sportingly speaking, style is secondary because it’s a matter of life and death.”
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The Premier League Show assesses whether Tottenham Hotspur are too good to be relegated this season.
And he suggested Spurs should view themselves like the underdogs when it comes to the mentality required.
“In Italy we use the phrase ‘having a small team mentality’,” he explained.
“That’s always the key, to have the same desire and motivation as when you play against bigger teams.”
‘Hard work’ will be key in Champions League, ‘not ideal’
Tudor said he “shouldn’t talk too much” about the defeat to Arsenal and admitted Spurs’ qualification for the Champions League was “not an ideal situation” given their relegation battle in the Premier League.
“It’s a beautiful competition to play in. Everyone wants to play. The problem is that we don’t have enough teams. If you have to play with 10, 12, 13 players every three days…and when every game in the league is a final, it takes not only physical energy but also mental energy.”
But he insisted the players had no doubts about the situation they were in and how they had to fight their way out of it.
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“Training changes your mentality. If you do the right things and have enough training sessions to communicate that to the team, you will see it from the fans in the stadium on Sunday.”
“Do your best. There are no other possibilities.”
Tudor confirmed Pedro Polo and Kevin Danso have returned to training from injury and will be in contention for a place in Sunday’s game against Fulham, while Micky van de Ven, who has a problem with one of his pinky fingers, should also be fit to play.
He also said he remains hopeful that Dejan Kulusevski can return to the field by the end of the season.
Tudor dismisses suggestion Van Deven ignored him during derby
Igor Tudor instructs Mickey van de Ven and Jed Spence
After Spurs’ loss to Arsenal, fan footage was released showing centre-back Micky van de Ven ignoring Tudor’s encouragement to do push-ups, leaving the head coach frustrated.
However, Tudor insisted that this was not the case.
“It wasn’t an instruction to Mickey, it was an instruction to the team to step up,” he explained. “It wasn’t about Mickey. It was about the team coming up from this. We want to go up because we want to have this style of high pressing, but that’s probably too much for them at this moment. So there’s a little bit of frustration about that. Nothing special happened.”
Asked if Van de Ven had disrespected him, Tudor said: “If you watch closely, you’ll see that I haven’t spoken to him at all. Then I say come closer to him and he comes closer. The moment I said this, the whole defense stood up.”
“We didn’t even talk about it because there was nothing to talk about. He’s a great guy and a very good professional. He would never do something like that.”
O’Hara: “I can’t stand a relegation battle”
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Jamie O’Hara tells Sky Sports FC what Spurs went wrong in the North London derby and why he fears for his former team’s chances in the battle to remain in the Premier League.
Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara has slammed the Spurs team’s attitude and mentality, believing they “don’t have the strength to fight for relegation”.
He told the Sky Sports News fan club: “I expected some pushback from the manager. Arsenal had some tenacious performances against Wolves and Brentford, so I expected the team to go into this game with a high attitude, a bit of passion, a fight, relentless pressing and not letting easy crosses into the box.”
“(It was) the exact opposite. We were miles away from where I thought we would be. I know there are injuries, but the attitude of the players is my biggest concern. Defend, run, compete, don’t concede. That’s basic 101 for me, and then you can talk about creativity, whether we’re good enough, whether we have the players and formations, but the basic defense, the basic mentality of a football club.”
