Earlier today I posted a short piece about Dominic Solanke’s Goal of the Month award and how it’s always good to latch on and enjoy the small moments of pleasure we get these days in what’s been a horrific year for Tottenham Hotspur.
Remember that bit? You might want to hold onto that, because, if I can paraphrase Spaceballs, evil will always win because good is dumb. Igor Tudor held his pre-match press conference and confirmed that both Joao Palhinha and Cuti Romero, who collided sickeningly in the
waning moments of the Champions League loss to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, are not available to play against Liverpool on Sunday due to concussion protocol.
And that’s not all — there are now five players that could potentially miss the match including Micky van de Ven (suspended), Yves Bissouma (knock) and Conor Gallagher (fever).
“No, no, no, [Palhinha and Romero] are out. Micky is also out, Bissouma is out, for the muscles. Conor has some fever but probably will be in. So, we have again a lot of problems to make first 11. This is how it is in this club. this happen all the time. We start to build something, then happens something, or a red card, or last game, or three or four injuries.
“This is very rare that happens in my career. I never see these situations. Every game, missing two players. The next game and a red card. It’s very rare, very unusual, but we need to accept this. And try to change the things you can change. On these things you cannot do nothing.”
UGH. You ever feel that the universe is just playing a colossal joke on you personally? That’s what this season is. Like, yeah — the players are underperforming and the team is appallingly constructed and the Sporting Director and CEO probably need to be sacked and Spurs are in a real relegation fight, but also — we’ve had goals wrongfully disallowed that could’ve led to results, we’ve been insanely unlucky with xG vs. expected points, and half the team is out with long term injuries, including most of our actually good players. It just SUCKS.
The club did later confirm after the press conference that Palhinha and Romero are in concussion protocol and will be evaluated as to when they can return to the pitch. In better news, Tudor did confirm that Destiny Udogie is close to a return to fitness
Not that any of that is an excuse for Igor Tudor. In an expletive-laden speech, he spoke about the need to ignore all the bad stuff and just fight, literally for Spurs’ Premier League lives.
“Tough, for sure. Not just because of last game, but because of the period and the past. Not easy situation, not an easy moment and from other side a big challenge to change things. Like everything in life, you can choose how to see the situation. So, you can stay and cry or you can fight. You can be the victim or you can say I can change something. This is the message I want to start and what I told to the players.
“Everyone speaking, everyone has opinions and the life is always how you see it. The bottle is always half empty or half full. Here there is nothing full, there is a lot of empty things but difficult moments don’t last forever. It will pass and I believe the players who will take this as a challenge, as an opportunity will stand up with the courage to change things, after this period they will become better people and better players.
“So, in tough moments it’s always about that, it’s always about us. In the last period, a lot of things about what is the club, the problems, no one can do nothing and this like victim-ism, like we were victims. I said this morning to the players totally opposition things. We are the team and we are the staff. It’s all about us. All the bullsh**, all the other things are bullsh** and sorry to use this word, but it’s on us.
“You know, I do every day this work. Psychology work. It is important also to give the courage to the team-mates. Some of them they cannot manage, for sure. Somewhere you arrive and you can help them. My goal is to find if I can help to do 18 players out of 20, 15? I don’t know how much? Sometimes you cannot do anything, but most of the time you can do even small changes. Small help, you know, you can do it, but also it’s what I always like to say to the players, don’t be a victim. Don’t think it’s not about me. You know that can be the problem more than all these things about Tottenham and club, you know, like magic on the club, like bad black magic and this other bullsh**, you know. So this is about what I want to send a message.
“… Everyone is disappointed. This is for sure. The players care. If you don’t care, you don’t struggle. Then you are not in the lack of confidence if you don’t care. You care and then it happens that maybe some situations there is a lack of confidence in situations on the pitch that usually don’t happen. That can also be an explanation.”
That might not be enough to save his job. Despite the good words above (and they are good words), Tudor is 0-4 since joining as interim head coach and there’s a very real chance he’ll be 0-6 by the end of next week. For a club that needs at least nine points in order to secure staying up, that’s scary, even if you acknowledge that there’s a lot outside of his control.
The press conference was also an opportunity for Tudor to address his selection — and eventual replacement inside 20 minutes — of Antonin Kinsky, who had a horror-show start in the Champions League match against Atletico, conceding three goals inside 15 minutes and slipping to give the ball away on two of them. Tudor said the plan was to give Kinsky, who he called an good keeper, a chance to play a match and to also save Guglielmo Vicario for the match against Liverpool. But things went sideways fast.
“So I can explain that situation, what was the idea. The idea was to make [Kinsky] play, because first of all, he’s a good goalkeeper, and seeing the situation and the moment we are, for a long period, to give some freshness on the ball, even in a different competition. So it was the idea at the start, but not after what happened, you think it was the right thing to do.
“Before, it was the right thing to do. Then what happened happened, then of course it’s a little bit different.
“Of course he will play [again this season] for sure. He came back the day after and was very good in training. Positive. Nothing else. So this situation happened, very rare, probably the first and last time in my life and the life of a lot of people but this can happen. It is the same message I said before. You can go out from the situation as a victim. ‘Poor me what happened.’ Everybody sending a message of help and I am with you. This is nice also.
“Sometimes 2025 this social media life became like it is more important what you say than what you do. But as I said before, this is normal, this is a mistake that will happen. For sure in his career there will be other mistakes but he has a strength and quality and in front of him is a very good career.”
Tottenham kick off against Liverpool at Anfield, where they have not won since 2012, on Sunday at 12:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm GMT. Note that the USA is on DST, but England doesn’t change their clocks until March 29, so ET is currently only four hours behind London time.
