Tottenham Hotspur’s sporting director Johan Lange sat down with a group of reporters on Friday, including The Athletic, to reflect on a turbulent few weeks.
Spurs have not won a Premier League game in 2026 and are five points above the relegation zone. They have only two victories in their last 17 top-flight fixtures and this alarming form led to the dismissal of head coach Thomas Frank. He was sacked eight months into a three-year contract and has been replaced by former Juventus, Marseille and Lazio head coach Igor Tudor on an interim basis.
At the beginning of February, Fabio Paratici joined Italian side Fiorentina just over three months after being appointed as co-sporting director alongside Lange. Spurs signed Conor Gallagher and Souza in the winter transfer window but have suffered a series of injuries, which means their squad is in a perilous state.
Lange addressed all of those topics, and The Athletic has analysed the key talking points…
On sacking Thomas Frank
“As the leaders, we of course constantly evaluate performances, we evaluate results. And after the Newcastle game, we made the decision. Ultimately, of course, it was a board decision. But we made the decision and that was why we decided it was the right time to change (…)
“Of course, we wanted to give Thomas every opportunity to succeed, but ultimately, it’s our responsibility to make the decisions. And we came to that point where we saw the performances, the results, and then you come to that decision (…)
“I think you saw over a period of time, with the performances and the results, why we came to that conclusion.”
Lange and Frank worked together for the first time around 20 years ago at Danish second-division side B.93. They crossed paths again at Lyngby before they had individual success in English football with Aston Villa and Brentford, respectively. Unfortunately, their reunion at Spurs turned sour. They had a close bond but it was Lange and chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham who informed Frank he was losing his job.
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Lange and Venkatesham offered Frank a lot of support. They surrounded him with experienced assistant coaches and gave him time to turn results around after fans became concerned following disappointing defeats by Chelsea and Arsenal in November.
Frank insisted performances were encouraging until the very end. He saw a four-match unbeaten run, which included scraping a draw against Burnley, as a positive. The club’s fans did not agree, and Lange and the rest of the board clearly felt that those results masked disappointing performances. Spurs made a habit of starting games slowly and looking better in the second half but were never convincing.
Back-to-back defeats by Manchester United and Newcastle United were the final straw for Lange, Venkatesham and the board.
On the appointment of Igor Tudor
“When you make the decision (to sack a manager during the season), it’s very important to go into a shorter process than you do if you are changing a head coach over the summer. We interviewed a few candidates, and Igor impressed us very much. Obviously, we also got some references for Igor.
“He comes in with very big experience at the highest level in football. He has shown the capabilities of coming into clubs around this time — February, March — and making an immediate impact. That was of course a very big reason. There is a big difference, if you are a coach, for example, who has only ever started a new job on July 1. You have six or seven weeks to prepare and to get to know the club.
“If you come in here on the Monday and you are playing at the weekend, you need to build relationships with the players and assess the style of the club immediately. He has shown that with great success, not only once but a few times. That is one of the reasons we believe he is the best candidate for (the club’s situation) now. But of course also with his reputation and what he’s done in his career, if things go well, he could be here for a long time.”
Tudor ticks a lot of boxes for Spurs. He has no experience of the Premier League but was an assistant coach to Andrea Pirlo at Juventus in the 2020-21 season and had a seven-month spell in charge of the Italian side last year. He is accustomed to working for a club with big expectations.
During his time working with Pirlo, Juventus’ squad included Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini — as well as current Spurs players Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur and Radu Dragusin. The Athletic reported last week that Frank experienced difficulty maintaining discipline in Spurs’ squad, but Tudor has experience managing big egos.
(Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images)
Tudor likes to play a 3-4-2-1 system and, crucially, in previous mid-season roles at Udinese, Juventus and Lazio, it has not taken long for the squad to adapt to his ideas. Spurs considered their former striker Robbie Keane as a replacement for Frank on an interim basis and that option would have appealed to supporters. But in Tudor, they have hired someone with a track record of making an immediate impact.
Lange refused to confirm whether Spurs spoke to Paratici, who previously worked with Tudor at Juventus, during the hiring process.
On the manager position, longer-term
“(Style of play) is definitely something high up on the list. We are very ambitious to create a team that can play dominant football and that can control matches with the ball for a few reasons.
“If you look across almost every league in the world, that is how the top teams normally are successful: being able to dominate possession, create chances, be aggressive without the ball.
“Then we are also a club with a rich history of having some of the best offensive players in the world and having a very particular style of play that resonates with the history, resonates with the fans and I think that combined with having a possession-dominant, aggressive style of play, those two things go hand in hand. Of course that is something that is important for us here at the club.
(Have the club discussed permanent options? Mauricio Pochettino?) “Igor has been here for five days. Our focus right now is to get high up in the table in the league, focusing on the Champions League as well. I am not going to comment on any names that have been linked to the job.”
Mauricio Pochettino has been linked with a return to Spurs in the summer (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
Lange kept his cards close to his chest, but it was important to acknowledge that hiring a manager who can implement an attractive style of football is crucial for the fans. They became disillusioned during Frank’s reign because Spurs struggled to create chances from open play and only won two of their 13 home games in the league.
Lange, Venkatesham and the rest of the board should identify the club’s preferred style of play. They should then hire a head coach who they believe can fit into that mould. For too long, Spurs have jumped between managers with different ideas, Frank and Ange Postecoglou are the prime example of that, which means there is no consistency across their recruitment. They end up with a squad consisting of players who suit different tactical systems.
Last summer, they were interested in Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and Fulham head coach Marco Silva before they appointed Frank. The only thing those three had in common was that they were in charge of ‘smaller’ Premier League sides. It would be encouraging to see Spurs demonstrate a clear vision of who they target to replace Frank instead of assembling a list of talented managers with wildly different ideas.
On whether the club hierarchy deems the current situation unacceptable
“We have just changed the coach. We are very clear that we think we have a team that has the potential to do more, so the focus right now is to get higher up the table and then be super competitive in the Champions League. I am sure you have been to many great nights at the stadium in Europe over the last two seasons and it is our hope that we can create more magic moments in that tournament, but we also know that we need to get higher in the (Premier League) table.
“When you work in sports across football or individual sports, it is about focus on the performance. When you are among players or coaches, the focus is on the next training session, it is on the next game. That is the reality of working in sports. It is not talking about (but) of course we know where we want to go as a club and we can come back to that, but the focus right now is in the moment.
“When you work for a big club like Tottenham, then pressure, or what you want to call it, is part of it. I’m sitting here today because I want to take responsibility for the club, everything that comes into football. Part of being here is expectations. That is part of why it’s fantastic to be here, because if you are working for a big club, there are big expectations, but also big opportunities and big possibilities.
“If you work for a very small club, if you work for a club with fewer fans, then maybe there’s less pressure or expectation. I think we are a big club and we work with high expectations and that is what I, personally, really, really love working here because of the expectations.”
Lange has come under a lot of scrutiny in the last few weeks, so he deserves credit for speaking publicly. Lange and Tudor — who held his first press conference a couple of hours later — both skilfully skipped around the word relegation.
Lange’s desire for more “magic moments” in the Champions League is admirable, but perhaps that should be a longer-term ambition, even with next month’s round-of-16 tie against either Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Juventus or Atletico Madrid.
He is right to acknowledge that the focus has to be on climbing the Premier League table.
On transfers and Postecoglou saying Spurs don’t spend like a big club
“Now we are playing a different (Champions League) format, it means every point counts. You go into matchday eight — correct me if I’m wrong — but almost every team in the Champions League or Europa League had something to play for, whether that was better seeding or top eight. You are playing through December. Not in the beginning of January but the last part of January. You are playing two very competitive matches with the fact that not only us but a lot of teams have what they would say are too many injuries.
“It meant that in January, very few players who could make a difference for us now or in the future were available and then it’s back to the point even though the squad is too short we still have players we are unable to register for the last 16. So to bring in players that cannot help us now or we don’t believe have potential for the future, that unfortunately for me doesn’t make sense. And if you analyse all the transfers in January, I think everyone can see there were very few players available.
“That is reality and then as you say looking towards the summer the message has been clear from the owners of the club, Vinai has been on record saying this as well. I have been saying this as well and very happy to repeat it: that the sole focus of this club is to create on-pitch success. It is to be competitive across different tournaments and, very importantly, one of the ingredients in doing that is if you have a squad capable of competing on multiple fronts and we are not there yet but that is the clear vision.”
Lange refused to directly address criticism from former head coach Postecoglou and he did not give an insight into Tottenham’s long-term recruitment strategy. Spurs signed Gallagher and Souza in January but they sold Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace. At a time when Frank needed help, he was left with a squad filled with holes.
(Izzy Poles – AMA/Getty Images)
Lange’s comments in the previous section about “big opportunities” at a big club are relevant here. It sounds nice, but all of the momentum from winning last season’s Europa League was thrown away. Spurs wasted an opportunity in the aftermath by failing to land any of their first-choice transfer targets, including Morgan Gibbs-White, Eberechi Eze and Antoine Semenyo (Lange also said he understood fans’ frustration with Frank’s apparent satisfaction with how close the club came to signing Semenyo, acknowledging that they wanted to see action and not words).
Lange also referenced comments Venkatesham made in the matchday programme before last month’s defeat by West Ham United about growing the wage bill to be competitive. It is encouraging that Lange and Venkatesham recognise an area where Spurs need to catch up to their rivals, but actions speak louder than words. They need to show they have learned from their mistakes this summer.
This was the first transfer window since former executive chairman Daniel Levy left in September. Paratici’s impending exit will have affected the dynamics, while Carlos Raphael Moersen has been appointed to the newly-created role of director of football operations.
It will be hoped that things will be more settled going forward.
Injuries
“What is very important to say is that on the one hand we have a short squad and on the other hand we also had players who could not be registered for European competitions because we have too many players. It is without a doubt, especially during the month of January, that we had too many injuries. Every time we played, we lost players. It’s something we are constantly reviewing with the greatest level of seriousness.
“I think if you are unpicking the injuries that we had in January, then a few of them were actually contact injuries, or I don’t know if it is the right word in English, but solo injuries. Odobert, the knee goes or Ben Davies or Lucas Bergvall or Kevin Danso — you have four of the injuries that are contact injuries/solo injuries. But of course it has been across the league that all the teams that are playing in European competition are suffering from injuries and that is something we are taking very very seriously to make sure that we, let’s say, optimise everything for less injuries and our new performance director (Dan Lewindon) started last week as well and that is just one step in that direction.”
Lange has avoided directly addressing the real issue, which is the number of soft-tissue muscle injuries that Spurs have suffered in the last couple of months. Destiny Udogie is ruled out for up to five weeks with a hamstring problem, Djed Spence missed two games with a calf issue, and Mohammed Kudus will not return until April due to a quad injury. Pedro Porro, Richarlison and Bentancur have missed a significant number of games too.
(George Wood/Getty Images)
Spurs are grappling with an injury crisis for the second season in a row. The expanded Champions League and the Europa League are undoubtedly factors, but Spurs need to identify areas for improvement.
Maybe it is the consequence of a dizzying amount of change in the medical department over the last two years. It is hoped that the appointment of Lewindon will provide stability and leadership to prevent their injury list from being so severe in the future.
On Cristian Romero’s future
“Romero is here; he is our captain. He is here on a long-term contract with the club and that is my comment. We have been clear as a club that we have dealt with (his comments on social media about the club hierarchy) internally and now it is about being together, all of us, and finish the season in the best possible way in the league and in Europe.”
Before Frank was sacked, Romero was the centre of attention for his awful disciplinary record and habit of firing shots at the club hierarchy on social media. He is currently serving a four-match ban after he was sent off in the defeat by Manchester United — his fourth suspension of the season.
Lange’s stance on the club captain was understandably diplomatic. He highlights that Romero has a contract until 2029 but he does not go out of his way to compliment the centre-back. Lange has not mentioned selling the Argentina international, but he does not emphatically state a desire to keep him either. It is still unclear exactly how Romero was punished for his latest outburst on social media after the transfer window closed.
Spurs need Romero back available for the run-in, but this may be a saga that rumbles on in the background over the next few months.