Igor the Interim

[parj]

No we didn’t play it until Poch 3rd season. The first time was against Watford away before we played Chelsea at home who had been playing it successfully for most of the season.

I thought it was that season which is when Dier started playing as a DM. That allowed him to drop back or step up when needed.

 

[Bullet]

They (football.london) said at lunchtime that goalkeeping coach Fabian Otte will stay at Spurs, so are we having two?

Nope....three!!

Everything you need to know about Igor Tudor's new-look coaching staff at Tottenham​

Leaving Spurs with Thomas Frank are the Dane's assistant coaches Justin Cochrane and John Heitinga along with head of performance Chris Haslam, as well as first team coach analyst Joe Newton. Heitinga was only appointed last month as Frank's new assistant to take over from Matt Wells, who left for his first managerial role at MLS side Colorado Rapids.

Ivan Javorcic​

Ivan Javorcic, Tudor's assistant manager, is another 47-year-old Croatian and he and Tudor know each other well. Javorcic, who was also born in Split, was his assistant manager at both Juventus and Lazio and played his part in both clubs having an immediate surge in form just when they needed it the most.

Tudor and Javorcic stabilized Lazio after Maurizio Sarri quit in March 2024 and they led the team to an unbeaten run in the league for his first two months after they joined. Then in March last year the duo arrived at Juventus and took them up the table to fourth place and Champions League qualification.

In both jobs, the duo recorded exactly the same set of results in the remainder of the season with nine games, five wins, three draws and one defeat. Tottenham would likely be delighted with a similar outcome.

Before linking up with Tudor, Javorcic was a manager himself at lower levels in Italian football, taking on newly-relegated Serie B side Venezia in 2022, and had worked within the youth set-up at Brescia before enjoying a caretaker stint for that club's senior team. In his playing days, Brescia was where he made his name as a defensive midfielder, playing in Serie A but mainly in Serie B and C.

Now he will look to bring his coaching attributes to the Premier League and a third stint by Tudor's side.

Riccardo Ragnacci​

Tottenham's new physical coach Riccardo Ragnacci does not look like someone you or the players would want to cross. The 49-year-old Italian has been getting players into top physical shape for decades across the game in his home country.

He has worked at two different clubs with Tudor, at both Juventus after joining him last summer from Empoli and previously during the head coach's successful stint at Hellas Verona. Ragnacci was at Verona for half a decade before moving to Lecce in 2023 ahead of those spells at Empoli and Juventus.

Now he will bring his fitness conditioning to Spurs to ensure the players are able to handle Tudor's all-action high-pressing style, while having to be mindful of the club's dreadful injury record.

Tomislav Rogic​

Tomislav Rogic makes it a hat-trick of Croatians on the coaching team as the 50-year-old comes in as a goalkeeping coach at Tottenham.

Rogic is another who has followed Tudor in recent jobs, having worked with him at both Lazio and Juventus, but he's a very experienced coach in his own right with his career having taken him around the world to clubs like Club Brugge, Zenit, Shakhtar and even coaching India's national team goalkeepers.


Now the former Zadar goalkeeper will be working with Guglielmo Vicario, Antonin Kinsky and Brandon Austin. He will not however be doing it alone.

Fabian Otte​

That's because goalkeeping coach Fabian Otte will remain with Spurs despite Rogic's arrival. The ex-Liverpool and USA goalkeeping coach arrived last summer to add some winning experience to Frank's staff and the decision has been made for him to continue to work with Rogic for the remainder of the season.

The 35-year-old has plenty of Premier League experience, having worked with Tottenham, Liverpool's title-winning side last season and Burnley as well as spending three years at Borussia Monchengladbach.


It remains to be seen which of the two men will be the more senior as while Rogic is 15 years older both have plenty of high level experience.

Andreas Georgson​

Tottenham fans will be happy to see Andreas Georgson sticking around because he has been one of the few bright spots of the campaign so far with his set piece coaching.

That is definitely one area, perhaps the only area, in which Spurs have improved this season and the 43-year-old Swede can often be seen on the touchline with his cap on, shouting instructions to the team at both attacking and defensive set pieces.


With experience at Manchester United, Arsenal, Brentford and Southampton, Georgson will continue to provide vital help to Tudor as both a set piece coach but also able to handle general coaching as he's a bit of an all-rounder.

Cameron Campbell​

Another piece of the coaching puzzle is individual development coach Cameron Campbell, who will be sticking around after joining last summer. You can often see the 34-year-old Scot working on players' skills but he is also able to take more general sessions when required.

Campbell was specifically brought in by Frank and sporting director Johan Lange to fill a role they felt was missing within the club's coaching set-up.


"We have added Cameron Campbell, that is an individual coach, big on how we develop the players,” said Frank last summer. "And that was a big wish from both Johan and I, and it is something we talked about, that we thought was crucial. I think not many clubs have actually nailed that. We tried in the past, so hopefully we can take it to the next level."

The Scot has clearly done enough to convince the Spurs hierarchy and Tudor to continue his work at Hotspur Way.

Stuart Lewis​

Highly-rated within Spurs, Stuart Lewis will continue in his role as first team academy transition coach and the 38-year-old will no doubt be hoping for Tudor to actually give some more of young players minutes in the months ahead than Frank did during his seven-month tenure.


"I think it's important for us to have specialists. We are very fortunate as a club that we are able to attract some of the best specialist coaches in the world. And we made a couple of internal promotions," Lange said last summer. "Stuart Lewis will come into a new role as transition coach between the first team and the academy.

"We want players of all ages to have that development mindset. But of course to strengthen even more the bond between the first team and the academy is something that we have worked hard on for a number of years and with this new hire of Stuart coming into this new role we believe that it will be even even stronger in the years to come because we have some very, very exciting young players that will come through, push in the upcoming years and they need maybe a little bit of special attention as well to bridge that big gap that it is to go from academy football to the Premier League."

Dean Brill​

Along with Lewis, Dean Brill had stepped up from head of academy goalkeeper coaching last summer to a role of assistant goalkeeper coach with Otte and could often be seen up in the press box taking his place among the analysts to get a better view from above of what was going on in the box.

 

[Muttley]

Hopefully he doesn't invert the FBs something that I felt was a big issue with Ange's system. Neither FB was actually particularly good when inside having fewer passing options neither being particularly suited in that space. Keeping the FBs wide and pressing should suit better.

Said on that vid that he likes his wingbacks to play high and wide. He wants them hugging the touch line.

 

[Muttley]

I thought it was that season which is when Dier started playing as a DM. That allowed him to drop back or step up when needed.

For me it was the 16/17 season. There was the famous match where Poch matched up Conte's title winning Chelsea and we beat them 2-0. I think Dele got both and it was that amazing cross from Kane. Might be wrong on that one though. I remember it as this team mostly.

Hugo
Dier, Toby, Jan
Walker, Big Vic, Wanyama, Davies
Eriksen, Dele
Kane

From what I remember Dier became the RCB and Sonny became the super-sub. I think Rose missed a fair few because of injury. Unless I'm mistaken we finished the season with Trips at RB as Walker was in the departure lounge.

Then the following season, Poch never got back to it as Toby and Big Vic sustained their respective injuries. Sanchez slotted in alongside Jan and we had also bought Aurier that summer. Winksy had also done his ankle and Dembele was fragile. We just had to deploy Dier in midfield rather than use him in defence.

That 3-4-2-1 was mightily effective, but I think we may have finished games back in the 4-2-3-1. We scored a lot of goals at the end of the 16/17 season. Fun times.

 

[tommysvr]

TBF the season isn't over yet so you can't actually write that one off.

Frank’s gone though

 

[Bishop]

Frank’s gone though

Yes, but you can't really hold against him the fact he didn't win a trophy at the end of the season like Ange when he's been removed before that competition is over.

Were we likely to win it? Hell no but that's not the point.

 

[robp135]

I thought it was that season which is when Dier started playing as a DM. That allowed him to drop back or step up when needed.

Nope. Dier player almost exclusively DM in the 15/16 season. In 16/17 Alderwireld got injured and Dier was playing CB in a 4 next to Vertonghen. When Alderwireld returned they went to the 3.

 

[robp135]

You'd hope the CEO has a clue wouldn't you? Not a great look scrabbling around and appointing someone recommended by our ex sporting director.

You really beleive this guy that’s paid probably £500k a year, had got an Economics degree from Oxford and worked in Football and Sports for 2 decades, didn’t have any thought that they may need to replace Thomas Frank until 10pm last Tuesday and was scrambling around phoning up a recently departed employees to figure who could take over, then negotiated a contract with Tudor and his agent within 48 hours…..

Or when form began to dip in November while Paratici was still at the club, they discussed several potential candidates for both replacing Frank as a full time manager on a long contract and an interim, should there be a need to make a switch and held preliminary talks to understand their desire to take the job and potential salary demands. Tudor was one of those candidates that had already been reviewed and was still available.

 

[robp135]

For me it was the 16/17 season. There was the famous match where Poch matched up Conte's title winning Chelsea and we beat them 2-0. I think Dele got both and it was that amazing cross from Kane. Might be wrong on that one though. I remember it as this team mostly.

Hugo
Dier, Toby, Jan
Walker, Big Vic, Wanyama, Davies
Eriksen, Dele
Kane

From what I remember Dier became the RCB and Sonny became the super-sub. I think Rose missed a fair few because of injury. Unless I'm mistaken we finished the season with Trips at RB as Walker was in the departure lounge.

Then the following season, Poch never got back to it as Toby and Big Vic sustained their respective injuries. Sanchez slotted in alongside Jan and we had also bought Aurier that summer. Winksy had also done his ankle and Dembele was fragile. We just had to deploy Dier in midfield rather than use him in defence.

That 3-4-2-1 was mightily effective, but I think we may have finished games back in the 4-2-3-1. We scored a lot of goals at the end of the 16/17 season. Fun times.

Correct. Although see to remember they did play Sanchez in the 3.

Didn’t Alderwireld get bombed out of the squad for not signing a new deal as well?

 

[braineclipse]

Yes, but you can't really hold against him the fact he didn't win a trophy at the end of the season like Ange when he's been removed before that competition is over.

Were we likely to win it? Hell no but that's not the point.

Ange did enough to stay in the job until the end of the season (under management that at least had the reputation of being fairly trigger happy with regards to sacking managers).

Frank didn't do enough to stay in the job until the end of the season. Under new management, management that let him stay well beyond what I think most PL clubs would have. To the point where they essentially had no other option other than sacking him.

 

[Mcfee]

Ange did enough to stay in the job until the end of the season (under management that at least had the reputation of being fairly trigger happy with regards to sacking managers).

Frank didn't do enough to stay in the job until the end of the season. Under new management, management that let him stay well beyond what I think most PL clubs would have. To the point where they essentially had no other option other than sacking him.

That’s more to do with external factors than either Ange or Frank. Last season the relegation spots were more or less nailed on from way back, giving us a free run at the Europa. We don’t have that option this year.

 

[Raziel]

You really beleive this guy that’s paid probably £500k a year, had got an Economics degree from Oxford and worked in Football and Sports for 2 decades, didn’t have any thought that they may need to replace Thomas Frank until 10pm last Tuesday and was scrambling around phoning up a recently departed employees to figure who could take over, then negotiated a contract with Tudor and his agent within 48 hours…..

Or when form began to dip in November while Paratici was still at the club, they discussed several potential candidates for both replacing Frank as a full time manager on a long contract and an interim, should there be a need to make a switch and held preliminary talks to understand their desire to take the job and potential salary demands. Tudor was one of those candidates that had already been reviewed and was still available.

- Rumour, data and logic suggest Tudor was a Paratici nomination
- You can have all the qualifications in the world, but if your fudging company owner had to override you (after disagreeing with you two months earlier) on Frank, it shows some flaws in judgement.
- The fact that we got to where we got to, shows three things, 1/Intention was there to keep Frank to end of season regardless, 2/Insane levels of hubris that we couldn't go down, 4/A willingness to accept a massive hit to club revenue (positions and lack of european football next year)
- This decision was made two months late, which again indicates the owners had more clue than the football people.

None of those things paint Vinai and Lange in a decent light, and I personally have worked with CEO's of much larger companies that are fudging clueless, got their jobs because their buddies went to said elite school and Daddy's connections, so quoting degrees and who they worked for never quite means what you think it does,

In any decently run organization those guys would be facing a very difficult time now, with very little likelihood of long-term future at club.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

I think the best we ever played under Pochettino was the 3-4-3.

Lloris
Alderwireld Dier Vertonghen
Walker Wanyama Dembele Davies
Eriksen Dele
Kane

Dier could slip in to the midfield so the formation was quite fluid form what I remember. Gray I think would be great in that role.

Think you've got Diers 'slipping' round the wrong way

 

[braineclipse]

That’s more to do with external factors than either Ange or Frank. Last season the relegation spots were more or less nailed on from way back, giving us a free run at the Europa. We don’t have that option this year.

There are many different factors outside of the manager this and last season. Some that could be used to critique the managers, some that could be used to defend them. We should have course debate who had it worse, I'm not sure that's worth doing, both managers are in the past and neither did enough to stay.

On the whole Frank didn't do enough to get more time and I really struggle to see how he could have gotten more time than he got.