Djed Spence sends clear message to Igor Tudor in Tottenham defeat to Atletico Madrid

Tottenham defender Djed Spence was noticed giving Igor Tudor a transparent message as Spurs had been humbled by Atlético Madrid on an astonishing night time within the Champions League.

Atlético Madrid blast 5 previous Tottenham as Tudor nightmare continues

Tudor’s Tottenham tenure has been a catastrophe from the beginning.

Three Premier League defeats, 9 targets conceded, one level above the drop zone. However nothing — nothing — in these wretched opening weeks fairly ready supporters for what unfolded on the Riyadh Air Metropolitano tonight.

Atlético smashed Spurs 5-2, and the scoreline barely tells half of the story.

Tudor made the extraordinary determination to drop Guglielmo Vicario — a goalkeeper who had barely missed a recreation all season — in favour of Antonin Kinsky, the Czech keeper who had not performed since a Carabao Cup defeat to Newcastle again in October.

The supervisor spoke beforehand about choosing what was finest for the workforce. Inside six minutes, that logic lay in ruins.

Kinsky slipped making an attempt a clearance, the ball broke to Julian Alvarez, who fed Marcos Llorente to stroke residence from the sting of the world. 1-0 within the sixth minute.

Micky van de Ven then misplaced his footing attempting to take care of a routine ball and offered Antoine Griezmann with a tap-in. 2-0.

After which — the second that basically beggared perception — Kinsky was handed an easy back-pass, swung his left boot at skinny air and watched Alvarez stroll the ball into an empty web.

Three targets in fifteen minutes. Three catastrophic particular person errors. The goalkeeper was in tears as he trudged down the tunnel, after Tudor made the very controversial determination to take him off.

Vicario rushed to get his gloves on, and a shell-shocked Tottenham dressing room tried to course of what had simply occurred.

It received worse earlier than it received higher. Robin Le Normand headed in a fourth from a nook within the twenty second minute, the defending shambolic as soon as once more, earlier than Pedro Porro not less than pulled one again for a vestige of pleasure simply after the half-hour.

Half-time arrived with Spurs 4 targets down, 5 yellow playing cards collected, and the tie nearly as good as over.

Alvarez added a fifth on the hour — his second of a personally devastating night time for Tudor’s facet — earlier than Dominic Solanke, launched on the break, netted a second comfort within the 67th to make it 5-2.

Tottenham completed the sport with extra yellow playing cards than photographs heading in the right direction, and have now misplaced six video games in a row for the primary time of their historical past.

However it was not the scoreline that had TNT Sports activities commentator Darren Fletcher reaching for his phrases, it was a second caught away from the printed cameras he noticed — and one which maybe paints an image of a membership fractured from inside.

Djed Spence sends clear message to Tottenham boss Igor Tudor

As Spence was taken off with slightly below 10 minutes to go, he was seen approaching Tudor on the touchline — not the opposite means round — and tapping the supervisor on the shoulder and providing a handshake.

Fletcher was instantly alert to what he was seeing, mentioning that it was “not one thing you see” — a participant initiating that trade quite than the supervisor.

The importance, Fletcher urged, lay in what had occurred earlier within the recreation when Tudor substituted Kinsky with out showing to acknowledge the stricken goalkeeper as he walked previous him, leaving the 22-year-old heading for the tunnel in disarray.

Whether or not Spence was making a deliberate level, displaying solidarity to Kinsky, or just appearing out of character, Fletcher was clear that it was a message that warranted consideration.

On an evening when Spurs had been humiliated on the pitch, the sideshows off it could inform the extra damaging story.

Tudor’s Tottenham are a membership in freefall, and the proof is in all places you look.

The Croatian’s time at Spurs, particularly after tonight, could also be coming to an finish, with earlier experiences suggesting they had been contemplating a change even earlier than their lacklustre defeat to Crystal Palace.