Wright fires accusation at Spurs stars after Igor Tudor ‘incident’ | Football | Sport

Arsenal legend Ian Wright has accused Tottenham players of already ‘checking out’ on new manager Igor Tudor following their performance in the north London derby at the weekend. The 47-year-old Croatian has overseen just a single match, yet his team suffered a comprehensive 4-1 defeat to fierce rivals Arsenal on their own turf.

Spurs currently sit 16th in the Premier League and are merely four points above the relegation zone following the departure of former Brentford manager Thomas Frank. The Dane was subsequently replaced by ex-Lazio and Juventus boss Tudor, who has been appointed interim manager until the end of the season.

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Wright is unconvinced that Spurs’ players are fully behind Tudor, highlighting an incident involving Micky van de Ven during the north London derby that caught his attention. Speaking on The Overlap’s Stick To Football podcast, Wright said: « Against Arsenal I saw Igor Tudor try to speak to Van de Ven, he blanked him, totally blanked him. That says to me they have checked out already. »

Yet fellow pundits Gary Neville and Roy Keane disagreed, with the former United duo suggesting it was ‘harsh’ while Keane claimed Spurs’ players behaved similarly under Frank. Wright refused to back down and said: « This guy is new, he wants him to come up and Van de Ven just looks at him and stays there. You think to yourself, that doesn’t look good. That does not look good. »

Tudor would reject any suggestion of conflict between himself and Van de Ven at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, insisting he was addressing the whole squad. He said: « If you watch carefully, I don’t speak to him (in that moment). Afterwards, I said to him to come closer, and he comes closer.

« We didn’t talk about it because nothing happened. He’s a fantastic professional and a fantastic guy, he would not do something like (ignoring me). » Portugal manager Roberto Martinez was also on the podcast and made it clear that Tudor must do everything possible to ensure Spurs avoid relegation to the Championship.

Martinez said: « When I was at Wigan you almost prepared for that last third of the season because that is your opportunity. The last third for us was that we are going to get out of trouble.

« The problem is when you are going into the last third hoping you are not going to get dragged down into a relegation battle because your club wasn’t ready for that. This is where it becomes very, very dangerous. What happens now is that you should forget about these general terms that « we shouldn’t get dragged down », what does this mean to a player (looking to hear) « do I need to run more, less. »

« It is basic language (you use to a player) about everything you can control, « you have to do 12km, six sprints into the box and run to the near post ». Everything has to be so measurable. It is about winning the next game. »

The former Everton and Wigan manager cautioned Spurs against banking on injured stars returning to save their season, urging a shift in mentality. He added: « I think Spurs will get one or two players back from injury, you win a game and then you have got too much (of a gap).

« The problem is there are no easy games in the Premier League. As a player at Spurs you might think there are easy games we can win, no – there are no easy games. It is about reducing that to, it is the next game and you have an opportunity to get points rather than if you don’t win and you are out.

« The moment that the club see it as « wow, if we don’t win… » – the mindset is so negative and it drags you down. We have seen teams that are « too good to go down » go down because they weren’t prepared for that final third of the season. »

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