The German has not managed since 2024.
Jurgen Klinsmann would be happy to take on the challenge of rescuing former club Tottenham, with Igor Tudor coming under increasing pressure following a miserable start to his tenure.
Tudor took over from Thomas Frank on an interim basis last month, but has overseen a run of four straight defeats, the latest coming on Tuesday as Spurs were thrashed 5-2 by Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Tottenham have never been relegated from the Premier League. They were last relegated from the top flight back in 1977, when they finished bottom of the old First Division. They secured an immediate return to the first tier in the subsequent campaign.
But they are just a point above the relegation zone going into Sunday’s clash with Liverpool at Anfield and will drop into the bottom three if they lose that game and West Ham and Nottingham Forest claim victories over Manchester City and Fulham respectively.
No final decision has been made about Tudor’s future despite the dreadful run of results, though former Burnley, Everton and Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche is reported to be under consideration as a potential replacement.
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Klinsmann open to Tottenham job
There is a school of thought that Tottenham would benefit from bringing in a club legend to galvanise a squad dismally short on confidence.
In that sense, Klinsmann would fit the bill, having scored 29 goals in 50 appearances for Spurs in 1994-95 before leaving for Bayern Munich. He returned on loan from Sampdoria in 1997-98, scoring nine goals to help rescue Spurs from relegation as they finished that campaign four points above the drop zone.
And Klinsmann, who has not managed since leaving his post as South Korea boss in 2024, would seemingly relish the chance to save Tottenham again.
“Who wouldn’t want the job, it is Tottenham,” Klinsmann told ESPN FC.
“Whoever you choose, you need a person who can connect to everyone emotionally, that knows the club, that feels the club, that feels the people.
“Because, to get out of this mess, they need to develop a fighting spirit, a really nasty, ugly, fighting spirit and that goes only over the emotions.
“So you don’t need to have to bring in the mastermind of tactical stuff or whatever, you need to have somebody who gets everybody onboard and go and get these games done in a positive way and get everybody behind the fact that they are in danger of going down to the Championship.”
Referencing an incident between Chelsea’s Pedro Neto and an incident with a ball boy in their Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, Klinsmann added: “So no matter who you put in charge now, it goes only over the emotions, the willingness to suffer and fight and maybe take the ball away from some ballboys on the sidelines.”
Kinsky substitution “a huge punishment”
Klinsmann was also asked about the nightmare endured by Tottenham goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky against Atletico.
Kinsky started the game in place of the under-fire Guglielmo Vicario, but was substituted for the Italian after just 17 minutes, having made two dreadful errors as Atletico surged into a 3-0 lead.
Tudor did not look at Kinsky as he left the field and went down the tunnel, leading to heavy criticism of the Croatian for how he handled the situation.
“I think if you ask him [Tudor] today and he reflects about the decision making before the game to play him and then during the game, obviously to sub him out after 17 minutes, he would re-think their whole situation,” Klinsmann said.
“Obviously, it is a killer for the kid, it is the worst thing a goalkeeper can go through, I feel for the kid because my own son is a goalkeeper and I hope he never gets a moment like that.
“He will obviously make mistakes and he will make similar mistakes like Kinsky did there but obviously to then get pulled off after 17 minutes in a game in front of a sold-out crowd in Madrid, because you have these two blackouts is simply brutal.
“So I think we all felt for the boy and obviously you are on the ground, you get back up and you get going but this is a massive shocker for a young player like him.”
Criticising Tudor’s reaction to the errors, Klinsmann added: “He threw him in the cold water and in that moment, the water was too cold.
“He made those two huge mistakes and then the other story to discuss certainly is how do you react to it, just drag it out until half-time.
“Maybe then you can talk to him and then you explain to him that you will sub him off and bring back Vicario in that moment.
“He decided to do it after 17 minutes and that is a huge punishment for a young kid like him.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: 101greatgoals.com
