The history of the Tottenham: Spurs manager crash-outs ranked as Tudor joins Mourinho, Conte… | OneFootball

Igor Tudor has already joined the ever-expanding list of managers to lose their cool whilst managing Tottenham but who has had the best crash out?

A 4-1 humiliation at the hands of your fiercest rivals is not an ideal way to start your tenure, but few are blaming Tudor, who has inherited a mess entirely of someone else’s making.

But he did want to point out that fact as he asked ‘where is the goal of this club?’ in his post-match, a question that has baffled many others who have sat in his seat.

Here are the best recent Tottenham manager outbursts, ranked.

4. Igor Tudor

The newest entry on this list comes at No.4 but it feels a little bit like we have been treated to just a starter ahead of the main course.

It took just 90 minutes of Premier League football for Igor Tudor, a man famed for rescuing spiralling clubs, to question the very moral fibre of Tottenham Hotspur.

A 4-1 home defeat to Arsenal – that’s the same Arsenal that drew 2-2 with rock-bottom side Wolves in their last game – was yet another limp and lifeless performance from a Spurs squad who seem to be the only ones left on the planet not to realise they are seriously in a relegation scrap.

Tudor, who was seen giving instructions to Micky Van de Ven only for the defender to ignore them, suggested the club needed to change in his post-match presser:

“Where is our goal? Where is the goal of this club? Where is the goal of this team? Where is the goal of this coach and of these players? And all the staff?” he said.

“To become serious, serious, not just the group of 20 players. You know? And the medicine is you look in the mirror, each of us look in the mirror, and really try and really start to change the habits.”

3. Ange Postecoglou

After Antonio Conte had made the club feel like the aftermath of a nuclear attack, Spurs needed someone warm and friendly to liven things up and found that in Ange Postecoglou.

The straight-talking Australian arrived at Spurs having won the league with Celtic and eight wins in his first 10 matches meant everyone was a big fan of Ange. Then things took a turn.

Other managers worked out ‘Ange-ball’ and quickly figured out how to counter it and the good vibes soon dissipated.

For Postecoglou, that meant an increasingly snappy attitude in press conferences. He sought out one particular journalist to tell him “I’m not a clown” and “you really disappointed me that you used such terminology to describe a person that for 26 years, without any favours from anyone, has worked his way to a position where he is leading out a club in a European final.”

He went from defending referees to stating VAR is ‘killing the game’ and increasingly bit back at journalists’ questions.

Big Ange’s best moment came in the mixed zone in front of the Sky Sports camera when a reporter brought up a previous claim by him that he usually wins a trophy in his second season.

“Am I gonna answer the question or are you going to keep asking it? I’ll correct myself, I don’t usually win things – I always win things in my second year.”

Fair play to Ange, he did.

2. Jose Mourinho

Mourinho’s time at Spurs was more a death by a thousand cuts but his press conferences increasingly shone a spotlight on the Spurs hierarchy.

His best, though, actually came a few years after he left the club and when he was in charge of Roma as the Portuguese boss claimed Spurs were the only club he felt nothing towards and said Daniel Levy was the man to blame for that.

“I hope the Tottenham fans don’t get me wrong but the only club in my career where I don’t have still a deep feeling for is Tottenham,” Mourinho said.

“Probably because the stadium was empty, COVID time. Probably because Mr Levy [Spurs chairman Daniel Levy] didn’t let me win a final and win a trophy.

“But it’s the only one, so after that — Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid, Manchester United — all the clubs I feel a connection.

“I go in the streets so many times in Italy and I find Inter fans. I go in London – not just the Chelsea fans but also the Man United fans. Real Madrid all over the world. It’s about the feeling that give you everything.

“People think, ‘You cannot love every club.’ Yes, I love every club. I love every club because I felt the other way around – they also loved me. So with Roma, one day it will be hard but we will be connected forever like I am with all my previous clubs — apart [from] Mr Levy’s club.”

1. Antonio Conte

When it comes to Tottenham manager crash outs, Antonio Conte set a bar so high that it might never be beaten.

It’s 2023, after firing serial-winner Mourinho, Spurs have hired serial-winner Conte but two years into his tenure and the club remains trophyless.

The scene of Conte’s rant was the press room at St Mary’s, Spurs had just thrown away a lead to draw 3-3 at Southampton and it was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel’s back.

Conte conducted his TV interviews normally but when he got into the written media room, he unleashed a tirade at the very nature of Spurs.

“Tottenham’s story is this – 20 years there is this owner and they never won something. Why?” Conte said.

“The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here? I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment.

“Until now I try to hide the situation but not now because, I repeat, I don’t want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans.

“Not only the club, the manager and the staff. The players have to be involved in this situation because it is time to change this situation if Tottenham want to change,” he said.

“If they want to continue in this way, they can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change. Believe me.

“Maybe previously in the other games something can change. But here we’re used to it for a long time. The club has the responsibility for the transfer market, every coach that stayed here has the responsibility. And the players? The players? Where are the players?

“In my experience, I can tell you that if you want to be competitive, if you want to fight, you have to improve this aspect. And this aspect, I can tell you, in this moment is really, really low. And I see only 11 players that play for themselves.”

Three years on and Conte’s words seem as true as ever.

The Italian left in March, off to win Serie A with Napoli, while Spurs are now staring at the abyss.