The writing was on the wall from the start of this season for Tottenham Hotspur. As manager Thomas Frank foreshadowed in his initial press conference: “Only one thing is certain: we will lose some matches.” Months later, that prediction rings painfully true.
Those words resonate today with the announcement that Tottenham has ended the disastrous 44-day tenure of manager Igor Tudor in North London. Tudor departs with the team 17th in the Premier League, just one point above the relegation zone. In seven matches at the helm, he secured only one point in the league, a single victory – against a struggling Atletico Madrid – and conceded 19 goals. Perhaps the most damning statistic: when Tudor was appointed, Tottenham had 29 points; now, they have 30.
The situation had reached a point where an announcement regarding a new manager, or even resignations within the club’s leadership, seemed imminent. Instead, Tottenham announced a summer tour to New Zealand. A comment beneath the Facebook post read: “Auckland in July, Lincoln City in August.” Lincoln City currently leads League One, the third tier of English football and their fans often chant, “Tottenham away, ole ole.” As Gérard Genette once observed, “The comic is the tragic seen from the back” – a sentiment increasingly applicable to Tottenham.
The grotesque details of this season are numerous, and began long before Tudor’s arrival. From Thomas Frank drinking from a glass emblazoned with the Arsenal logo during a match at Bournemouth, to shockingly low expected goals (xG) figures of 0.05 against Chelsea and 0.06 against Arsenal, to losing five goals to Eze after he had reportedly snubbed a move to Tottenham, the issues have been piling up. Spence and Van de Ven ignoring Frank’s handshake against Chelsea, Vicario’s early blunder against Fulham, only two home wins all season, John Heitinga being appointed as Frank’s assistant only to be dismissed alongside him two weeks later, senseless red cards to Simons and Romero against Liverpool, Fabio Paratici’s move to Fiorentina, the signing of Conor Gallagher, and Tudor’s own visibly defeated demeanor in his first interview – the list goes on. The nightmare of Kinský’s performance in goal only adds to the chaos.
Perhaps the most surreal moment, illustrating the club’s disconnect from reality – even without Daniel Levy at the helm – came three weeks ago at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. While navigating the crisis with Tudor, the club’s Chief Revenue Officer, Ryan Norris, hosted a talk explaining “how Tottenham is evolving beyond football to grow a global cultural brand” and touted a 40% increase in club revenue over the past three years thanks to events held within the stadium. This underscored a detachment from the core of what defines football: what happens on the pitch. The backlash from fans on LinkedIn forced the cancellation of the event, highlighting the gulf between the club’s leadership and its supporters.
Returning to on-field matters, the turning point of this season was undoubtedly the managerial change. Thomas Frank simply didn’t function out, unable to replicate his success at Brentford, both tactically and in communication. His dismissal was inevitable, perhaps even overdue. The choice of his replacement was the first major signal the Tottenham leadership needed to send to the team and the fans. Selecting Tudor as a caretaker manager until the end of the season appeared a misstep from the outset.
The impression was that Tudor was chosen solely for his proven ability to step into a struggling team mid-season, as he had demonstrated with Juventus last year. But beyond that specialty, everything else raised eyebrows. An inexperienced Premier League manager, taking charge of a team in such a precarious league position, with his tactical principles clashing with the squad’s characteristics. His preferred 3-4-3 formation proved difficult to implement. Tudor constantly changed the team, even during matches, without ever conveying a sense of direction. The squad absorbed this confusion, which was also evident in his disjointed interviews and press conferences.
The last match against Nottingham Forest, a crucial relegation battle, epitomized the situation. Tottenham found themselves trailing at halftime due to a header from Igor Jesus, but had played a decent first half. While, Tudor decided to make changes at the interval, substituting Spence and Van de Ven with Udogie and Bergvall. These were strange changes, bringing in two players who had only recently returned from injury and were not fully fit, completely altering the team’s tactical setup. What message was he trying to send to a team that was playing reasonably well? In the second half, Tottenham lost all cohesion and collapsed, losing 3-0, effectively ending Tudor’s tenure. To add to the tragedy, Tudor received news of his father’s death after the match.
For Tudor, it was a nightmare as much as it was for Tottenham fans. In his first interview, he looked like an innocent man condemned to prison. After the first defeat, he blamed the team. After the second, he noted progress that only he seemed to spot. In the Champions League, his decision to substitute Kinský after just 17 minutes against Atletico Madrid drew heavy criticism, and he didn’t even offer the goalkeeper a word of consolation as he left the field. He also publicly criticized the referees for disallowed goals. The only moment of joy, not for him, came when he greeted a member of his staff during a match against Liverpool, mistaking him for another coach due to his bald head.
The job was undeniably difficult from the start, raising the question: why do managers accept such situations? Even before Tudor’s arrival, Tottenham appeared a team lacking soul, emotionally fragile, with most of its key players in decline. Remarkably, the team has been playing with low intensity. Currently, Romero and Van de Ven are among the team’s top three scorers – a symptom that Tottenham is only dangerous from set pieces. A clear lack of a technical and emotional leader on the pitch is also apparent, following the injuries to Kulusevski and Maddison last May.
It’s striking to consider that this is essentially the same squad that played under Ange Postecoglou and won the Europa League ten months ago. Not because things were dramatically different in the league (Tottenham finished 17th), but because that team possessed an intensity and courage that is now sorely lacking.
The players are both suffering from and contributing to this situation. Cristian Romero is a prime example: several goals conceded stem from his individual errors, highlighting a lack of concentration (along with his well-documented disciplinary issues, having accumulated 11 Premier League suspensions). Romero, the team captain, can often be seen gesturing critically at his teammates after conceding goals. The partnership between him and Van de Ven has rapidly deteriorated.
Tottenham’s midfield appears nonexistent. Xavi Simons and Kudus have been disappointing acquisitions. The Dutchman, in particular, lacks the physicality and brilliance needed to succeed at a high level in the Premier League. In attack, Richarlison is inconsistent, Kolo Muani has scored only one league goal, and Solanke has been sidelined by injuries, preventing a proper assessment of his contribution. The only two players who have shown some energy in recent matches are Mathys Tel with his one-on-one dribbling on the left and Archie Gray with his dynamism, but they are still only 2005 and 2006 births.
How much does the club’s management influence this season? Tottenham changed ownership in the summer, with Daniel Levy departing after 25 years, but the problems persist. Football executive Johan Lange has made poor acquisitions and failed to strengthen the squad in January despite the poor results. Only Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid – who became the highest-paid player – and 19-year-old right-back Souza from Santos arrived. These signings have had little impact. Meanwhile, West Ham, which seemed doomed in December, has improved its squad. When it seemed time to part ways with Frank, Lange appointed John Heitinga as his first assistant, only to dismiss both two weeks later. Adding to the chaos, Fabio Paratici left for Fiorentina in January after the end of his suspension.
The arrival of Roberto De Zerbi is not yet official, but if the figures circulating – a multi-year contract worth £12 million per year and a release clause in case of relegation – are confirmed, it would be a risky move that could further alienate the fans. Many criticize De Zerbi for his statements while managing Marseille in defense of Mason Greenwood, who faced a rape accusation (later withdrawn) between October 2022 and February 2023.
Tottenham now has seven matches to save its season, but this finale could be even worse than a simple relegation. In the penultimate matchday, Tottenham will face historic rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, potentially allowing Chelsea to send them down to the Championship while Arsenal celebrates the Premier League title. It’s a scenario that seems imagined by artificial intelligence, however unlikely: it shouldn’t happen, but if it does…
It’s not just the suffering of the fans, the scenes we will witness, that are interesting, but also the situation of Tottenham as a “top club” only on paper. A rich club that aspired to join the Super League, now potentially playing in the Championship. In recent football history, the incompetence of high-level executives is not new, but no club has compromised on-field dynamics as much as Tottenham. Jonathan Liew discussed this in The Guardian, citing recent mismanagement at Barcelona, Chelsea, and Manchester United: “For years, some of the world’s biggest clubs have fought a furious war between wealth and madness, and somehow wealth has always prevailed. Perhaps it’s time for madness to triumph, at least once.”
Tottenham, then, as a sacrificial victim to expose the distortions of capitalism in sport. If there is divine justice in this realm, it could only strike Tottenham, the club that feels great only because of its wealth. As Rory Smith wrote in The Correspondent: “Tottenham is, perhaps more than any other club, trapped between what it wants to be, what it thinks it has to be, and what it is, between ambition and reality.”
Tottenham’s next match is against Burnley on April 5th. The club will undoubtedly be under immense pressure to secure a positive result and begin to climb away from the relegation zone. The future of the club hangs in the balance.
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