Slaven Bilic reveals the interesting move he took after seeing Tottenham being criticised for their appointment of Igor Tudor.
Many pundits have questioned Spurs’ decision to turn to a manager with no Premier League experience, given that the club find themselves in a relegation battle.
Tottenham legend Teddy Sheringham has said that he is flabbergasted by Tudor’s appointment, suggesting that the Croat may be in for a rude shock in English football.
One experienced Premier League coach, who knows Tudor well, has now leapt to his compatriot’s defence.
Slavin Bilic claims there has been too much negativity about Tottenham’s appointment of Igor Tudor
Bilic has revealed that he initially turned down an opportunity to speak about Tudor to Sky Sports, but confessed that he decided to give his opinion after seeing the negativity about the move.
The 57-year-old admitted that he had been surprised by the reaction in the British media to the former Juve boss’s arrival.
Bilic wrote in his column for The Telegraph: ‘I was driving last Friday when the news broke that Tottenham Hotspur were going to appoint Igor Tudor as their head coach until the end of the season.
“We are close, we are both Croatian, we are both from Split, we go back many years, and so I called him – and he was already at the airport. I then got a message from Sky Sports asking if I could do a Zoom call ‘because you know him and people don’t know him in England’, I was like ‘no, I don’t want to get involved’, although, as I say, we are really, really good friends.
“But then! Wow. On Saturday, I read so much negativity. I got so annoyed I called the guy at Sky Sports and said ‘can I do it?’ because, for me, it was ‘wow, what a reaction’. It has been absolute, total negativity about his appointment, which has shocked me. It has been too much. Far too much.”
Bilic claims Tudor’s CV proves he can handle Spurs challenge
The former West Ham boss pointed out that Tudor has already proven in his career that he can turn around difficult clubs.
Bilic is confident that the new Spurs interim head coach can do the same in North London over the coming months.
He added: “Why do I think he can do it? Why do I think he is right for Spurs? Look at his last three jobs: Marseille, Lazio, Juventus. Big clubs, but all very difficult clubs.
“And, it is something we have joked about, he often picks difficult clubs – PAOK in Greece, Galatasaray in Turkey, Udinese in Italy, who he saved twice, and I know what the owner there, Gino Pozzo, can be like as I worked for him at Watford.”