Tottenham

CONTROVERSIAL rapper Kanye West asked to perform at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium — but was turned down due to the club’s historical connection to London’s Jewish community.

Yesterday Pepsi pulled their sponsorship of Wireless Festival in protest at the American performing there for three nights in July.

It came after The Sun on Sunday revealed that Sir Keir Starmer said it was “deeply concerning” that West had been booked despite previously making antisemitic remarks, as well as glorifying the Nazi leader in his song Heil Hitler.

A source said: “Kanye’s team had wanted him to play a run of shows at Tottenham before they considered Wireless.

“As part of his big music comeback, they thought he warranted a headline run of shows and chose the Tottenham stadium as their venue of choice.

“But when they approached Tottenham with their proposal, the club rejected it.

“There was no way they would allow Kanye to perform at the club given its history with the Jewish community.

“They then made the proposal to Wireless, which was accepted.”

The Sun revealed last month that 48-year-old West would headline all three nights of the festival in Finsbury Park, North London.

The performances are his first UK gigs since his 2015 Glastonbury headline slot.

But there are growing calls to ban him from entering the UK at all amid rising incidents of antisemitism.

West has previously apologised for his remarks and blamed them on his bipolar disorder.

Around 40% of clubs in England’s top four divisions of men’s football have changed their manager this season, and one in four of those teams have made more than one change.

With those stats still so high, I am sure people outside the game must be wondering about the process of appointing a manager.

In my day, I never once put on a presentation in front of a chairman or board of directors as part of any interview process.

Usually it was your management record, and your relative success with the respective budgets you’d been given, that would seal the deal.

Today, that has all changed. Many managers and coaches, I’m told, pay to have these presentations professionally prepared for them.

Before you get to that stage, however, club owners and chairmen will rely on their sporting director and chief executive to compile a list of names.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns about the lack of opportunities now for British managers, with so many foreign owners in our game, there are lots of foreign sporting directors too, so it is not surprising they appoint managers and coaches they know.

Also, the agents who have assisted the owners when they purchased the club, will often have a big say on who the sporting director is too.

Players will also flow into some clubs in a similar fashion, I’m sure, and I’m afraid all of this impinges on managers and coaches from this country, who are not part of that network.

Academy coaches from the top clubs are finding a way through the system, as I am sure their contacts with clubs’ young players is part of their appeal.

It is definitely a route into management that is worth following but I am sure any ex-professionals who have followed it will have quickly been exposed to the key difference between managing at academy level and being in charge of a club’s first team.

Unlike academy football, which is about development, first-team football is about winning.

Every week you will be judged on your result and, no matter what philosophy you employ, the fanbase and the people above you will react accordingly.

Igor Tudor has left Tottenham Hotspur as interim head coach after just 44 days and seven matches in charge.

Spurs said they have “mutually agreed” to part ways with the Croat with “immediate effect”.

The decision comes a week after a damaging 3-0 home defeat by fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest on 22 March – a result that left Spurs 17th in the table and only one point above the relegation places with seven games remaining.

Tottenham have suffered five defeats in seven matches in all competitions since Tudor succeeded the sacked Thomas Frank on 14 February, on a deal until the end of the season.

Antonin Kinsky is set to return at Tottenham‘s goalkeeper once first-choice Guglielmo Vicario has hernia surgery following the Premier League game against Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

Spurs interim boss Igor Tudor controversially replaced Kinsky with Vicario in the 17th minute of their Champions League last-16 tie at Atletico Madrid on 10 March – which they lost 5-2 – after he conceded three goals.

The 23-year-old was consoled by several team-mates, including Vicario, as he made his way off the field.

Vicario has been dealing with the hernia problem for several matches but remains in contention to start in the crucial game at home against Forest.

The other option for Tudor is third-choice goalkeeper Brandon Austin, 27, who came through the club’s youth system and has made three senior appearances.

Tottenham said Italy international Vicario will undergo “a minor procedure” next week and hope to have him fit again by April.

The club said the operation had been “timed” for the international break in order to “have as minimal impact as possible”.

“Guglielmo will commence his rehabilitation with our medical staff immediately, and it is hoped that he could return to action within the next month,” added a statement from Spurs.

Kinsky and Austin have both been on the Tottenham bench for their past two games – a 1-1 draw at Liverpool in the Premier League and a 3-2 win over Atletico in the second leg of their Champions League tie.

Spurs may choose to look further afield – but their current options, within the search parameters as they were a month ago, appear limited.

In addition to a track record of having an immediate impact, Spurs sought someone with top level managerial experience who plays attacking football.

When Spurs initially began their search to replace Frank, himself dismissed after less then eight months in charge, former Marseille boss Roberto de Zerbi, former Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic and ex-Red Bull Leipzig boss Marco Rose were among the other potential short-term options.

Ex-Brighton boss De Zerbi left his role as manager of Marseille by mutual consent after just under two years in charge, three days before Spurs confirmed their appointment of Tudor.

Terzic has been out of work since asking Dortmund “to terminate his contract with immediate effect” in June 2024, after leading the club to the Champions League final.

Rose was sacked by RB Leipzig in March 2025, having won 72 of his 127 matches in charge and lifted the German Cup in 2023.

Within the Premier League, Oliver Glasner, Andoni Iraola and Marco Silva are among the names who will be available this summer – but would any be prepared to leave their respective clubs earlier to help Spurs’ cause?

FA Cup-winning manager Glasner has confirmed he will leave Crystal Palace this summer, but his immediate future was understood to be in doubt in February amid a poor run of results.

Bournemouth are reportedly set to, external open contract talks with Iraola in an effort to ward off interest from Crystal Palace, Tottenham and Manchester United.

Meanwhile, Fulham chief Tony Khan has said he is confident, external Silva will stay at the club “for a long time”.