If the Premier League did points for comedic value, slapstick Spurs would have catapulted up the table against Bournemouth. The manager seen sipping his Espresso from a tiny cup with the Arsenal badge on it. The captain, Cristian Romero, accusing the board of “lies” on Instagram while the players bickered with their supporters in the ground.
Ange Postecoglou may have got it wrong when he suggested that at Tottenham Hotspur, whenever there looks to be light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out to be an oncoming train. By that logic, their demise would have been hard to foresee until it was too late.
The reality is they have been careering in plain sight towards scenes like these over years. The symbolic bulldozing of White Hart Lane coincided with the dismantling of almost everything else that made Tottenham one of the most promising and exciting clubs in the country.
The rot set in through complacency and an understandable giddiness at their unexpected success; nobody expected Mauricio Pochettino to guide them into two title races in 2016 and 2017. What mattered was what they did next and they chose to do nothing.
The wage structure
They missed out on the kind of additions that would have won them the title – Sadio Mane a prime example – because they would not pay them what they wanted. Between 2017-2019, there was an 18-month period when they did not sign a single player. They reached the Champions League final that year but in the league, won one away game in the second half of the season.
The refusal to compete with the rest of the Big Six on wages is the single biggest policy that has held them back, given the significant outlay on transfer fees. Unless it changes, it will remain impossible to compete for the top tier of talent.
What type of manager do they want?
Should Thomas Frank depart, they are likewise fishing in a different pool to Manchester United and Chelsea. Frank has had a lot of bad luck, both in terms of injuries and not always picking up the points his side have probably deserved. It is still the case that attracting Oliver Glasner, Andoni Iraola or any other in-demand head coach is going be a challenge.
It ultimately comes down to what Spurs are trying to be. After sacking Antonio Conte, there were pointed remarks about the new manager needing to embody a romantic fantasy of Tottenham DNA. They went for Postecoglou, then veered in the opposite direction stylistically with Frank.
Selling Brennan Johnson, a player out of favour, will make sense if Frank is still the manager in a year’s time. Less so if he is not.
Arsenal-cup-gate was a silly, unintentional mishap. It only carried so much weight because Frank’s relationship with the fans had already been wounded by five defeats in 10 league games and the fact they have twice this season recorded their lowest xG in a game on record. At Brentford, their own supporters spent the game singing about how boring they were.
Affordable tickets
Internally, it is acknowledged how low the mood among fans seems to have become. It manifests in both the atmosphere at home games and plenty of empty seats at Champions League matches – though the latter is partly down to the cost of the tickets.
Tottenham’s are some of the most expensive season-tickets in the country – many seats costing over £1200 – which is not easy to rectify once it is baked into long-term planning. Cheaper European tickets – many are currently £50-60 – would at least be a goodwill gesture that might help to stem the toxicity.
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Focus on the academy
The other obvious PR win is a renewed commitment to bringing through academy talent. Luca Williams-Barnett, Dane Scarlett and Callum Olusesi are the closest to breaking through. There have been a string of young players who have not made the cut – Troy Parrott, Marcus Edwards – but who have gone on to be successful elsewhere.
The table is so congested that somehow, Spurs are still only five points off sixth place, with West Ham and Burnley ahead. That hints at a season that is not unsalvageable – if it avoids descending into farce.
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