Spurs have been tipped by “one of the best coaches in Europe” to upgrade from Tudor
Tottenham Hotspur have not enjoyed a so-called ‘managerial bounce’ since the arrival of Igor Tudor. In fact, defeats against Arsenal and Fulham underlined the danger of relegation from the Premier League.
Beset by injuries and bereft of confidence, Spurs need to find some form somewhere, and fast. West Ham United are 18th in the table and trail their London rivals by just four points.
Tudor is on a temporary list until the end of the season, and even if he manages to stave off the threat of relegation, ENIC Group may move to secure a different appointment this summer.
The latest in Spurs’ managerial search
Such uncertainty makes Tottenham’s hopes of finding an attractive project manager later in 2026 tricky. After all, the top players cannot be guaranteed that Spurs will play Premier League football next season.
It is true that the consistency of the shortcomings of the Lilywhites tells us about the cracks that are deeper than the dugout, and that is why the sports director Johan Lange is limited in his work to ensure the perfect appointment to lead the new era.
According to Football Insider, Tottenham may have found their man in Niko Kovac, who is in charge of Borussia Dortmund but has the same interest as the Londoners.
Kovac, 54, is one of several targets understood to be on ENIC Group’s radar (Mauricio Pochettino and Roberto De Zerbi are among the other frontrunners).
Older reports from Germany confirm that early talks have been held with the Yellow Wall boss, whose future is uncertain after Dortmund were knocked out of the Champions League by Atalanta.
Why Niko Kovac would suit Spurs
Kovac is a goal-oriented manager who encourages a clear understanding of tactics in his players. Be it a 4-2-3-1 or an extended 4-3-3, the one-time Croatian captain wants tension and a strong pressing game. He is not a heavy coach.
However, having won the DFB-Pokal with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2017/18 and completed the domestic treble with Bayern Munich one year later, Kovac has a winning mentality and was even described as “one of the best coaches in Europe” by football writer Sebastien C.
Is it pragmatic? That depends on your perspective. Kovac hasn’t been as dominant in the same way as, say, Ange Postecoglou, but he also wouldn’t have adopted the overly cautious approach that alienated many Spurs fans from Thomas Frank and Nuno Espirito Santo.
In addition, Kovac always secures strong and consistent results, boasting the best points per game among a large share of his managed clubs in recent years. A brief stint with Wolfsburg before being snapped up by Dortmund is the only exception to that, and he has found his face again.
|
Niko Kovac’s managerial record |
||
|---|---|---|
|
The club |
Games |
Points per game |
|
Dortmund |
62 |
1.95 |
|
Wolfsburg |
66 |
1.30 |
|
Monaco |
74 |
1.95 |
|
Bayern |
65 |
2.26 |
|
Frankfurt |
91 |
1.54 |
His average tenure as a head coach, we should also note, comes in at about 1.54 years. Tudor’s, by contrast, is much smaller, averaging 0.69.
Tudor’s tactics and coaching methods have already created “head-scratching” responses from some pundits, and with Tottenham having been tamely converted in their two games so far, he has a lot of work to do to convince the under-N17 power that he will be a good fit in the long run.
All of this assumes Tottenham aren’t relegated to the Premier League, of course. But if that poor result can be reversed, Kovac could be the right coach to start a successful and sustainable new chapter that has been a long time in the making.
Tudor could finally ditch Simons by offloading Spurs’ “Henry-like” gem
Tottenham’s Premier League clash with Crystal Palace on Thursday is already level on six points.
