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Igor Tudor has not long been at Tottenham Hotspur, but Martin Keown believes he has already seen enough to know where Micky van de Ven’s head is at.
Tottenham Hotspur fans were delighted when Thomas Frank was finally shown the door, but many of the so-called football experts were less enthusiastic about his departure.
Despite a woeful spell in North London, there was widespread agreement among the media that the Dane needed more time to turn things around at the club.
However, Spurs ultimately made the decision to get rid of Frank and appoint Igor Tudor to take charge until the end of the season.
The Croatian is off to a rocky start and this has led to ex-Arsenal star Martin Keown to make an interesting observation about how Micky van de Ven has responded to the changes at Spurs.
Keown does not believe sacking Frank was the correct decision, nor was the follow-up call to appoint a manager with no experience in the Premier League.
He believes this has harmed Spurs, and van de Ven, in particular, does not appear happy with the changing environment at the club.
Speaking to Football London, Keown explained: “They brought somebody in, like a trouble-shooter from out of town, who doesn’t understand the Premier League in the same way.
“They became so impatient with Thomas Frank. I think Thomas Frank would have handled it until the end of the season. And if they wanted to make a change, they could make a change.
“Maybe van de Ven is a player who developed more under Thomas Frank than anyone else, who has now kind of downed tools a little bit because he’s lost his manager. I don’t know.”
“But, it’s not got better since he [Tudor] came in there. He looked, after an hour against Arsenal, that he was struggling to get a reaction from his team. So, I mean, Palace is an interesting one, because Palace now is not quite what they were since Glasner announced he was leaving,” Keown remarked.
“But I think they might go there and enjoy, you know, this local rivalry. It’s big. But, when you see the pressure on someone else, people enjoy it, don’t they? You’ve seen that with Arsenal.
“So, they’ve got to get something quickly because this swing is mushrooming and getting bigger every day, and the pressure is really building on Spurs. And I’m pretty well certain that – we talk about meetings, crisis meetings – there’s got to be one there today because they need to get some results from fast.
He added: “There’s the game against Forest, which kind of feels like a winner-takes-all. They’re only one win away, really, but where’s that win coming from?”
van de Ven is off to a poor start under Igor Tudor
Currently, van de Ven is having to do without his preferred centre-back partner because Cristian Romero is still injured, and this has likely had an impact on his performances.
However, the Dutchman does look like he is bothered by something, and perhaps he is not best pleased with the decision to part ways with Frank.
In our Spurs Web player ratings, van de Ven was rated five against Arsenal, and the trip to Fulham was even worse, as the defender received a four rating.
This is worrying to see, and Tottenham will need van de Ven back to his best in order to end their winless run on Thursday against Crystal Palace.
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