Tudor sack inevitable after shameful Romero proves Spurs are not ‘sleeping less’ at all | OneFootball

In the last 335 days, three meetings between Spurs and Nottingham Forest have been overseen by six different managers in a trilogy which has slowly descended into hilarious farce.

Ange Postecoglou v Nuno Espirito Santo was part one, a game pitting Europa League semi-finalists against a team which sat third in the Premier League.

In the sequel, Sean Dyche faced Thomas Frank with both sides excelling in European competition but struggling domestically.

Part three ought to have never been commissioned, but there was Igor Tudor and Vitor Pereira, jumping absurdly high sharks as entirely interchangeable ringmasters ostensibly guiding these circuses.

And how eternally damning for Spurs to have lost all three of those matches, two at home, two by 3-0 this season, and with their desperation levels gradually increasing each time.

With neither of these teams in any way capable of engineering a result they set out to achieve before a game – and the reward in this specific match ultimately justifying the risk both sets of players take every time they play association football – there was little threat of either Spurs or Forest playing for a draw.

That made for a wonderfully chaotic dynamic underpinned by misplaced passes, snatched chances and Igor Jesus going closest for both teams after 45 minutes.

The Brazilian’s header from a Kevin Danso long throw flicked up onto his own bar in the early stages, before some excellent improvisation forced a save from Guglielmo Vicario.

That gave Forest their second corner in comparison to the eight launched in to little effect by Spurs. And it brought the breakthrough as Jesus made sense of the mess of bodies in the area to give the visitors the lead.

It was a little harsh on Spurs, who had arguably been the better side and almost equalised instantly through a fine Mathys Tel effort which Mats Selz tipped onto the bar brilliantly. But it was more cruel on the supporters who welcomed the team bus in their thousands along the High Road, leaving Tudor “emotional” and pointing to “good motivation” for his players.

But this Survival Sunday double header of games was essentially over by half time. Spurs have not won from behind at the break in their last 28 opportunities, while Forest have dropped just eight points from winning positions all season.

One of the three teams with a better record – along with Burnley and Wolves – were beating West Ham 1-0 at Villa Park and doing both sides in north London a favour.

Aston Villa would see out that victory with relative comfort despite a hopeless roll of the half-time dice from Nuno Espirito Santo. Adama Traore and Callum Wilson replaced Freddie Potts and Taty Castellanos for the second half but the most 2019-coded double substitution imaginable could not salvage a result in big 2026.

The Hold My Beer response from Tudor was to watch that close first half Spurs just about edged despite going behind, before bringing on Destiny Udogie and Lucas Bergvall for Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence and shifting things around to the extent that no-one seemed to know what they were doing any longer.

“We are sleeping less on the pitch,” said the Spurs manager this week. “That’s the main thing. We react before, so for me this is crucial. Now we react earlier. We are not always, ‘what happened?’ And then we react after. Now we react before things happen.”

The five Spurs players pointing aghast at the space taken up by a completely unmarked Morgan Gibbs-White – who else but? –  just in front of the penalty spot on the hour suggested otherwise.

Among that number was Pedro Porro, rounded easily by Callum Hudson-Odoi before the Forest forward’s cutback, and the ambling captain Cristian Romero, so frequently found at the scene of the latest defensive crime while dressed in a hot dog suit and insisting that we’re all trying to find the guy who did this.

Romero, in almost precisely the same spot, offered the exact same reaction when Taiwo Awoniyi swept in Neco Williams’ tantalising cross 25 minutes later to complete what felt like a pivotal swing in this infernal relegation race.

Forest are only three points clear of the drop now, but the momentum built with this victory could be invaluable, as much for the damage inflicted upon Spurs as the boost to their own confidence.

As for Tudor, the new manager bounce was not only agonisingly delayed but painfully brief – and most of it coming in a meaningless Champions League second leg. Both scorers from what was supposed to be a transformative win were dropped for this, a crushing defeat which dragged Spurs hurtling back to the Earth’s core.