Igor Tudor: Tottenham coach says he did not confuse Alan Taylor with Arne Slott

Tottenham Interim coach Igor Tudor explained the viral moment in which he was thought to have accidentally hugged someone thinking he was Liverpool Director Arne Slott.

Last Sunday at Anfield, TV cameras captured images of the 47-year-old Croatian ahead of a 1-1 draw, which appeared to confuse Tottenham’s player liaison officer Alan Dixon with Slott.

The images gained attention on social media and were used to mock Tudor, but ahead of his home Premier League match against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, he said there was no confusion at his end.

Tudor said he works frequently with Dixon, who is also the son-in-law of former Tottenham boss Daniel Levy, and gave him another hug before their 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in midweek to play it safe.

Tudor said in a press conference, “I don’t know the man I spend ten hours with every day?! So I went out and did not know his identity? It was a bit ridiculous.”

“now [on Wednesday] We did it on purpose as a joke, because from now on I call him “Arnie.” It’s not Alan, it’s Arnie!”

Tudor said his family informed him of the incident, and also believed he had mistakenly confused Dixon with Sloat.

He added: “What happened is that my 20-year-old son said in Croatia everyone is laughing with you because you made this mistake. I said: What mistake?” I said to him: Do you know who the man is?

“So I said: ‘It’s Alan Dixon, I spend all the days with him’, so I walked out and he was standing in front of my bench. So what other coach could be there in front of him? It’s my training area.

“He was there, I came to him to make a joke. If you understand, I came from this side [Dixon’s right]I touched it and went to the other side.

“When he got to my age I wasn’t surprised, I was laughing. I can imagine it in Croatia because they probably don’t know who Alan Dixon is.”