Tottenham sounding out up to eight names to replace Igor Tudor

Tottenham are sounding out up to eight names to replace Igor Tudor as manager, talkSPORT understands.

Tudor is under huge pressure as Spurs boss having lost all four games in charge since being handed the job until the end of the season.

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The north London club face Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

A defeat could see Tudor immediately sacked, rather than the club waiting until the March international break.

talkSPORT understands that Tudor has already been informed that Spurs are looking at other options.

He was made aware the morning after they suffered an embarrassing 5-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid, where Tudor’s handling of goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky was criticised.

One of the reasons for transparency is to try and bring forward the search for a permanent boss, the club are aware this is difficult but has not been ruled out.

CEO Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange are driving the process, but Nick Beucher, grandson-in-law to Joe Lewis and the main point of contact between the club and the Lewis family, is also heavily involved.

Eight options considered

Sources have told talkSPORT that up to eight names are being sounded out by the club.

A decision could move quickly should Tottenham lose to Liverpool on Sunday.

Sean Dyche has been mooted as a possible option. He would prefer a longer-term deal with a break clause, similar to the one Vitor Pereira has been given at Nottingham Forest.

However, any move would be complicated by his ongoing payment by Forest. He would lose the payoff from Forest should he take another job, having been sacked earlier this season, meaning he would be expensive.

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Spurs would likely have to compensate Dyche for this lost payoff and offer him a significant bonus should he keep them up.

Roberto De Zerbi, who was sacked by Marseille earlier this year, would rather wait until the summer, but is a leading long-term target.

Another is Mauricio Pochettino, who would be open to a return to the north London club.

However, the USA are reluctant for Poch to take a job share role before the World Cup – similar to what Michael O’Neill is doing at Northern Ireland and Blackburn.

Ryan Mason and Robbie Keane are also caretaker options for Tottenham, but Keane would like a longer-term deal like Dyche.

Liverpool preview

Quizzed on if he remained the right man for Tottenham, Tudor pushed back: “It’s not a topic that I’m thinking about.”

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The experienced coach has earned relative success in previous short-term roles, with his harsh appraisal able to act as a catalyst for a turnaround in fortunes, but his methods at Spurs have instead appeared to decrease morale.

“It’s not criticism, I give advice. It’s not about criticising players. We are together. It’s not that I say to you, ‘you are not good, you need to do this,’ it’s not about that,” Tudor added.

“It’s about you making them understand that this is advice for you to become a better player and when you become a better player, we become a better team.

“It’s about accepting this, which is something not easy because it’s easy to stay in your comfort zone. When you stay in your comfort zone, you don’t change, so it’s a lot of time about that.”

A feature of Tudor’s disastrous four-match tenure at Spurs has been his tendency to put square pegs in round holes, with midfielder Joao Palhinha and right-back Pedro Porro used out of position in the Croatian’s favoured 3-4-2-1 formation.

Palhinha played centre-back in Tudor’s debut 4-1 loss to Arsenal and Porro was used there for last week’s worrying home defeat to Crystal Palace.

Even though Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Palhinha are absent at Anfield, the 47-year-old looks likely to keep faith with a three-man defence.

Asked about Gray during a tense press conference on Friday, when Tudor urged Spurs not to be ‘victims’ and to choose whether to ‘cry or fight’ their way out of a club-record six-match losing streak, the caretaker boss hinted he would play in another new position.

Gray has played right-wing-back, left-back and central midfield during Tudor’s terrible reign, but could get the nod at centre-back along with Kevin Danso and Radu Dragusin for a daunting fixture at Liverpool.

“That’s the problem. He needs to every game change the position,” Tudor said about Gray.

“(Sunday) again. Four games here, four positions for Archie Gray. He’s an amazing player, but that (constant change) means that something’s wrong.

“Beautiful guy, beautiful player. I didn’t know him before so much, so from inside, he has my big respect.”

Gray has been required at full-back due to selection issues in that position, but Destiny Udogie is close to a return after a five-week lay-off.

“Destiny’s almost back,” Tudor said. “Yeah, for sure (against Nottingham Forest next Sunday).”