The agent of John Heitinga, Thomas Frank’s former assistant manager at Tottenham Hotspur, has criticised the north London club’s haphazard thinking after Igor Tudor was given the top job until the end of the season. Spurs are in disarray, and fears of relegation only continued to grow with the dismal 4-1 defeat to local rivals Arsenal on Sunday.
Tottenham decided to part ways with Frank after a defeat to Newcastle United earlier this month, with the north Londoners enduring a woeful run of form since the start of the year. Tudor, who has a reputation for being hired to deal with emergencies, was then handed the reins until the end of the season but got off to a terrible start with a 4-1 loss to Arsenal on Sunday.
Spurs are dealing with a huge injury crisis and also have Cristian Romero unavailable for another two Premier League games due to suspension. Fears over a potential drop into the Championship have been festering, with the club without a league win in nine matches.
Previously, Heitinga had been brought in to aid Frank as an assistant during the poor run, though many punters thought he could be given the manager’s job if his boss were sacked. Instead, his time at Tottenham came to a swift end as Tudor and his backroom staff arrived.
Now, Jansen has revealed Tottenham were keen for Heitinga to remain in his post under the new management, but they decided to leave.
Appearing on the KieftJansenEgmondGijp podcast, he said: “He was allowed to stay. They even asked him to stay. All other coaches, all Scandinavian, left. And after three weeks, they told him: ‘Please stay and see out your contract here.’ That’s quite an achievement for someone who worked there for three weeks.
“But he said: ‘Yes, but now Igor Tudor, a Croatian coach, is coming with a whole staff for three or four months’. That man is always hired for emergency jobs.
“That rarely works. Why they did that is a mystery to me. And then another coach will come in. So, you can leave twice. That new coach will also come in with 45 people. He said, ‘This is pointless, Rob. I have to leave now.”
Jansen added: “But there was a chance he would take over; we had that in mind. Only the club didn’t. After three weeks, they decided it was too soon. So, then you have an interim manager.
“What does the management do, or in this case, the owners, the Lewis family? They opt for some kind of security. They hire someone with a track record, someone known as a crisis manager at struggling clubs, for a few months. That saves their image. Unless they dare to continue with Heitinga and a new staff, but they won’t.”
Tottenham will certainly hope their decision to appoint Tudor as their interim boss pays dividends, with their Premier League status at stake during the final months of the season. They have recorded three domestic defeats in a row after losses to Manchester United, Newcastle, and most recently, Arsenal, and points are needed sooner rather than later to steer clear of the bottom three.
Their next two fixtures look particularly vital. First up, they visit a Fulham side who most recently saw off Sunderland 3-1 and are six places ahead of them, before Crystal Palace visit Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs then take on Liverpool at Anfield and Nottingham Forest at home before the March international break.
Tottenham also has Champions League commitments to think about. They will face Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray, or Juventus in the last 16, having enjoyed a successful league phase campaign as they finished fourth to avoid a knockout stage play-off. However, whether those games will come as a welcome distraction remains to be seen, with domestic survival surely the most important objective for the rest of the campaign.
