Tottenham: Igor Tudor issues response to 'Spursy' claims amid 'emergency situation'

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Evening Standard

·20 février 2026

Tottenham: Igor Tudor issues response to 'Spursy' claims amid 'emergency situation'

New interim boss has baptism of fire on Spurs debut against Arsenal

Igor Tudor is ready to do away with the term “Spursy” and expectations about a certain style of play as he declared an “emergency situation” at Tottenham.

The new Spurs head coach faced none other than their top-of-the-league North London rivals Arsenal in his first match in charge on Sunday.

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Tottenham languish in 16th place midway though a terrible domestic season which saw Thomas Frank sacked as head coach and Tudor drafted in as an interim before a permanent hire is made in the summer.

Spurs have a long history of being renowned for a certain expansive and expressive style of play but have also been tarnished with their much-repeated “Spursy” tag, which speaks to a supposed weak mentality and lack of resilience.

But Tudor revealed he had not heard of the term ‘Spursy’ as he spoke in his first press conference since joining, and insists an “emergency situation”, with the club just five points above the relegation zone and with a raft of injuries, means talk of a style of play is premature and far from the priority for the club right now.

“No, I’ve never heard of that,” Tudor said, before the term ‘Spursy’ was explained to him.

“It’s not about that — it’s not about names,” he said. “It’s not about the names or sayings, whatever you call it, it’s not about tradition. It’s about here and here [*pointing to his head and heart*].

“It’s not about legs. It’s about brain, it’s about heart. That is what it’s about.”

Tudor has said he is “100 per cent” confident Spurs will still be in the Premier League next season and explained why.

“The quality. What I saw this week is the quality of the players, we have enormous quality in the players even though some of them are not with us [through injury]. But they will come back. On Sunday we will have 13 good players. It’s about that.”

Tudor said: “Style of play comes from pre-season when you have 50 days in pre-season and you have 20 players. Of course when you have the style, very concrete.

“But now this is an emergency, an emergency situation when you need to find fast what suits the ten plus three players and it’s totally different.”

Arsenal, who visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, remain league leaders but have been rocked by draws against Brentford and Wolves where they gave up leads.

Asked whether he hopes Tottenham can feast on any title pressure Arsenal feel, Tudor said: “I hope so, yep.”