Tottenham interim head coach Igor Tudor has cleared up the viral moment where it was thought he mistakenly hugged someone thinking it was Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
Last Sunday at Anfield the 47-year-old Croatian was caught by TV cameras before their 1-1 draw seemingly mixing up Tottenham’s player liaison officer Allan Dixon with Slot.
The images gained traction on social media and were used to poke fun at Tudor but, before their Premier League home game against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, he said there was no confusion at his end.
Tudor said he frequently works with Dixon, who is also the brother-in-law of ex-Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, and gave him another hug before their 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in midweek to make light of it.
“I don’t recognise the guy who I spend 10 hours with every day?! So I come out and don’t know he is? It was a little bit ridiculous,” Tudor told a news conference.
“Now [on Wednesday] we did it on purpose to make a joke, because from now on I call him ‘Arne’. It’s not Allan, it’s Arne!”
Tudor said he was alerted to the incident by his family, who also thought he had accidentally confused Dixon with Slot.
He added: “What happened was my son, who is 20 years old, said in Croatia everyone is laughing with you because you did this mistake. I said, ‘what mistake?’ and I said to him, ‘you do know who the guy is?’.
“So I said, ‘it’s Allan Dixon, I’m spending all days together with him’, so I came out and he’s standing in front of my bench. So what other coach can be there in front of it? It’s my training zone.
“He was there, I came to him to make a joke. If you understand, I came from this side [Dixon’s right], I touched him and go to the other side.
“When he turned I was not surprised, I was laughing. I can imagine in Croatia because maybe they don’t know who Allan Dixon is.”