NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 544
Submitted by Norman Giller

You couldn't make it up! It's as if we Tottenham followers have a walk-on part in a Mel Brooks film script, with Marty Feldman cast as Igor in Young Frankenstein. That was a horror comedy in black and white - when pop-eyed Feldman had a hump on his shoulders that kept moving. Well, we will all have the hump if the Spurs gamble on interim coach Igor Tudor goes wrong and our beloved club slithers to a nightmare relegation.

I've done my homework on Tudor ... and I wonder if Spurs have? The Croatian was a solid, uncompromising defender in his playing days, with his peak years at Juventus. He was equally comfortable as a midfield defender or playing in the back line in a mopping up role, and featured as Croatia's dependable anchorman in 55 international matches.

Igor then switched to management and it has to be recorded that his career has been more about taking part than winning. There is, to be frank (sorry Thomas), little to suggest that he is the man to lead Tottenham out of the maze of their own making.

Tottenham are taking a massive punt on Tudor, hardly one of the kings of football management. He has won one trophy in his 13 years as a club manager, the Croatian Cup with Hajduk Split back in 2013.

A 'have coaching certificate, will travel' boss, he has rarely stayed long at a procession of clubs: Hajduk Split, PAOK, Karabukspor, Galatasaray, Udinese, Hellas Verona, Marseille, Lazio and Juventus. Igor has had the sack more times than Father Christmas.

We must assume the shallow, shifting Spurs hierarchy could not find anybody else prepared to take the short-term role (poor old 'Arry Redknapp was ignored) before Mauricio Pochettino is restored as manager.

As I have forecast here several times, Mauricio will be 'coming home' once his World Cup assignment with the United States is completed. Mind you, I doubt he'll want to pick up his old reins if Tottenham are down in the Championship.

It's the duty of all we Spurs supporters to get behind Tudor, not in his way. He could not have a more challenging start than the Ars-cough-enal next weekend in a North London Derby that may be the last for a long time if the worst happens and Spurs go down.

After his debut against the Arsenal, Tudor will find every match a mountain climb. Just for starters, there's Fulham away, Crystal Palace at home, Liverpool away, Nottingham Forest at home and Sunderland away. Easy peasy! Every match to the finishing line will be a must-win, with the little matter of the Champions League as a distraction.

I said on day one of Thomas Frank's appointment that Ange deserved to get to at least Christmas to prove the lifting of the Euro trophy was no fluke. But they went with the Dane because of what he had achieved at Brentford. It did not work out for him at Tottenham, and all those Doubting Thomas critics have been wearing smug smiles, not realising that their constant carping is one of the main hurdles for any Tottenham manager to overcome.

Thomas is a likeable man, completely eaten up with football and the tactics of the game. People with a tenth of his knowledge were kicking him while he was down, never conceding that the horrendous injury list meant that he was never once able to field what he would have considered his strongest team. He was what Napoleon would have dubbed 'an unlucky general.'

Now - brutal but true - Thomas is a yesterday's man (as he counts his compensation), and we all look to a future that is suddenly as challenging as Starmer facing a by-election (I've told you to keep politics out of our football, Norm' - Ed).

Is Igor the right man for the job? All I can say is we must give him our full support, otherwise we could soon find ourselves in another Mel Brooks-style comedy drama: High Anxiety.

Here we go with the 25th week of our quiz that tests your knowledge of Tottenham players and the club's history ...

Which World Cup winner has collected 47 international caps, played for Juventus and Genoa and from which Serie A club did he join Spurs in 2021?

Please email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 25. Deadline: midnight this Saturday. I will do my best to respond to all who take part.

The rules are the same as in the previous 11 seasons. I ask a two-pronged question with three points at stake - two for identifying the player and one for the supplementary question. In the closing weeks of the competition I break the logjam of all-knowing Spurs-history experts with a real stinker of a tie-breaking poser that is based on opinion rather than fact. This is when I lose what few friends I have.

This season's main prize will be a framed certificate announcing the winner as SOQL champion 2026, plus three signed books to be revealed at a later date.

Last week I asked: Which Belgian-born midfielder joined Spurs from Fulham in 2006 and against which team did he score the fifth goal in a 5-1 League Cup semi-final victory in 2008?

Answer: Steed Malbranque/Arsenal

See you back here on Monday. Wonder what sort of mood we will be in after the North London Derby?

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