Heitinga rejected ‘pointless’ Spurs offer after Frank sack as his agent slams ‘mystery’ Tudor appointment
The agent of former Tottenham Hotspur coach John Heitinga has hit out at the club for appointing Igor Tudor to replace Thomas Frank.
The former Everton centre-back has moved into coaching since retiring in 2016 and joined Spurs as Frank’s assistant in January.
Heitinha has held similar roles at West Ham and Liverpool, while he failed as manager of Ajax. He was sacked after around five months in charge of the Dutch giants last year.
The timing of Heitinga’s move to Spurs was puzzling as he joined when Frank was under immense pressure and they only worked together for around three weeks before the head coach was sacked.
Heitinga was mooted as a potential replacement for Frank until the end of this season as Spurs look to avoid relegation from the Premier League, but the north London club eventually opted to appoint Tudor.
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And the appointment of Tudor led to Heitinga’s exit from Spurs after around a month at the club, with his agent, Rob Jansen, revealing that he turned down an offer to remain at the club.
“He was allowed to stay. They even asked him to stay,” Jansen revealed on the KieftJansenEgmondGijp podcast.
“All other coaches, all Scandinavian, left. And after three weeks, they told him: ‘Please stay and see out your contract here.’ That’s quite an achievement for someone who worked there for three weeks.
“But he said: ‘Yes, but now Igor Tudor, a Croatian coach, is coming with a whole staff for three or four months’. That man is always hired for emergency jobs.
“That almost never works. Why they did that is a mystery to me. And then another coach will come in. So, you can leave twice. That new coach will also come in with 45 people. He said, ‘This is pointless, Rob. I have to leave now’.”
Jansen has also claimed that “there was a chance” of Heitinga replacing Frank, though the club had different ideas.
“But there was a chance he would take over; we had that in mind. Only: the club didn’t. After three weeks, they decided it was too soon. So, then you have an interim manager,” Jansen added.
“What does the management do, or in this case, the owners, the Lewis family? They opt for some kind of security.
“They hire someone with a track record, someone known as a crisis manager at struggling clubs for a few months. That saves their image. Unless they dare to continue with Heitinga and a new staff, but they won’t.”
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