Igor Tudor left Tottenham Hotspur by mutual consent on Sunday, March 29, after just 44 days and seven matches in charge — officially making him the club’s shortest-tenured non-interim manager in the Premier League era.
The club’s statement was brief and considerate. “We can confirm that it has been mutually agreed for head coach Igor Tudor to leave the club with immediate effect,” Spurs said, adding that they wished to “express our sympathy to Igor following the recent bereavement he has suffered.”
Tudor’s father, Mario, had passed away shortly after the humiliating 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest on March 22, and the club handled his exit with visible sensitivity around that tragedy.
The numbers from his spell speak for themselves regardless. One win in seven games, that solitary victory coming in a meaningless second leg against Atlético Madrid that did nothing to prevent Champions League elimination. In the Premier League, he picked up one point in five matches.
Spurs now sit 17th, a single point above the relegation zone and with seven games remaining — a genuine existential crisis for a club that lifted the Europa League just twelve months ago.
Roberto De Zerbi remains the clear favourite for the permanent job, with Fabrizio Romano confirming he is “a strong candidate for the Tottenham job in the summer, not now,” because the former Brighton and Marseille manager prefers to wait and prepare fully for whoever he takes on.
The club is reportedly accelerating plans to appoint someone before the end of the season rather than wait, with the i paper suggesting they are prepared to go to De Zerbi now and offer him the role despite his earlier reluctance to join a mid-season relegation fight.
Mauricio Pochettino, who took this club to a Champions League final in 2019, is the second name consistently mentioned but remains committed to guiding the United States at the home World Cup, which runs through July.
Bruno Saltor, a member of the coaching staff, will take charge of training until a new appointment is made, with the club targeting a new manager well before the April 12 fixture at Sunderland.
The situation facing whoever walks through the door at Hotspur Way is not just about survival — it is about preventing one of English football’s most dramatic and dispiriting falls from grace from completing itself entirely.