When Tottenham Hotspur hired Igor Tudor as the interim manager to replace the deposed Thomas Frank, the main silver lining many Spurs fans pointed to was the potential working relationship between the new manager and Randal Kolo Muani, whom Tudor coached quite successfully in Turin last season.
Kolo Muani spent the 2024/25 Serie A season at Juventus on loan from PSG and recovered the form he showed in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfur that made him a nearly 100 million euro signing for the Ligue 1 giants.
That season with the Old Lady, RKM scored 8 goals in 16 appearances as one of the only silver linings for the Bianconeri attack last season. And so that season was a big part of Fabio Paratici bringing Kolo Muani in as an emergency striker option on deadline day to work with RIcharlison and Dominic Solanke, even though Juve were desperate to keep him.
Kolo Muani had glimpses of brilliance, including a hat trick in the Champions League against his real employers PSG, but as Tottenham began losing more and more, Kolo Muani's effort and intensity dropped to the point where it looked like his loan may be cancelled in the winter.
Randal Kolo Muani showed more effort vs. Arsenal
It wasn't, and now Spurs are looking to revive Kolo Muani's form with Tudor. And in his first game under Tudor in North London, Kolo Muani scored the lone goal in another 4-1 Spurs drubbing at the hands of ultra rivals Arsenal.
But it wasn't just that goal. Kolo Muani, more importantly, played a stupendous all-around game in terms of his effort and defensive intensity, even getting called for six fouls. Normally, being called for fouls is a bad thing, but in the context of the North London Derby, seeing your striker muck it up and attack the opposition like that with everything on the line is a huge positive.
Far from the quiet complacency of Thomas Frank's tenure at Spurs, Igor Tudor is already bringing in a nasty edge, a sense of desperation, and an authority figure to the side that is then transposed to players, especially Kolo Muani, who has worked with Tudor before.
Tudor has already had a positive impact on Randal Kolo Muani at Tottenham Hotspur, and a decent showing against Arsenal is the promising start the French veteran No. 9 needs to show that he has quality left in him and has not given up on this team. Tudor and Kolo Muani are not here to be hired guns, and despite another awful loss to Arsenal, that much became apparent on Sunday.