Igor Tudor endures awkward change with Sky Sports reporter Patrick Davidson following Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool – as under-fire boss insists he NEVER feared getting the sack
Igor Tudor insists he never feared getting sacked as Tottenham Hotspur boss during a tense interview with Sky Sports’ Patrick Davidson after his side’s gutsy draw at Anfield.
Richarlison scored a 90th-minute and deserved equaliser to cancel out Dominik Szoboszlai’s first-half free-kick as Tudor described the feeling as ‘like fresh air’ after ending Spurs’s six-match losing streak.
Asked how the valuable point feels, Tudor said: ‘Nice! (Like) some fresh air, good things for the confidence of the players, everyone around the club and especially the fans. Good team spirit, seeing the circumstances the team was in today, coming to Anfield with 12 (absent) players.
‘So this is something big. We stayed in the game, we believed, I felt that we could score the goal, the players also felt it, so, OK, it’s nice.
‘It’s a long way to our goal, which is to stay in the Premier League. There are still a lot of games to play, but today was important to show what they showed, regardless of the result. When you are honest, you need to be honest, give everything, then football will give you back.’
The Croatian boss, who was ridiculed midweek for a 5-2 loss at Atletico Madrid, added: ‘I have been coaching 15 years, I never was thinking one second about my future, one second even, I never think about my future or my past, I always think about training tomorrow, how to help.
Igor Tudor shared a tense exchange with Sky’s Patrick Davidson after Spurs’ 1-1 draw
The Croatian was given a glimmer of hope at Anfield with many expecting Sunday’s game to be his last in charge of Tottenham
‘I don’t read nothing, don’t watch nothing, the future is just imagination, future don’t exist, it’s a constant thing, of today, of tomorrow, training, so you are just losing energy thinking what will happen, don’t give you nothing, never, this job in football, in life, nothing, just focus on now.
‘Here, that’s the key, for the players even, you can get away from the fever in this way, what is thinking, what will happen, bring you in a state of mind, which is not, give you nothing, so stay now, be focused, what you can change, that’s what every coach is doing.’
The interview ended on a sour note as Davidson grilled Tudor about comments he made during Friday’s pre-match press conference, in which he bizarrely claimed the club may need a new manager to give the fans ‘hope’.
‘That is not a question for me,’ he said, denying he made the statement Davidson put to him.
‘I am the coach, you need to ask me about the players, how we play. It is a question that doesn’t have sense, but you always insist. I am obliged to come to these press conferences otherwise I would stay at home. Always the same questions.
‘Are we finished or not?’ he said, before leaving the interview.
