The Kelvin scale is one method of measuring temperature. Absolute zero is -273 degrees centigrade and pre-match that was how low I scored our chances of winning. This is the point where all molecular motion ceases, and therefore comes close to my assessment of some of our players.
Like many of you, I hoped at least for some effort and application, and to be fair our first half was acceptable in that respect. The amount of pointing and shouting from the back three was noticeable from my position in the South Stand, implying that there was a plan and the players were committed to supporting each other to put it into action, again fair enough as the manager has only had a few days to work with this disorganised, undermotivated group.
Tudor prefers 5-3-2. For us, it meant playing a midfielder at centre back. Also, the midfield three allowed space for them to come down the wings and Saka drifted past our tackles with the ease of a slalom skier zipping past those poles. The lapse of concentration in not picking up Gyokeres did for us. They were not at their best and didn’t have to be. The whole club is streets ahead of us in the way they have allowed their manager to grow and backed him over several years to overcome bad transfer deals by spending big on high quality players. Exactly the opposite of the Tottenham Way, in other words. In the past on Tottenham On My Mind, I’ve written that they are streets head of us. I was wrong. It’s light years.
So welcome Igor Tudor. He has my very best wishes in handling the Herculean task ahead of keeping us in the Premier League. Handpicked by our hierarchy, which frankly is no recommendation given their record, he is apparently an expert in keeping teams up. I read he has never before lost his opening game after joining a club. Well, welcome to Tottenham.
The rest of season isn’t about yesterday’s performance. It’s about how we do against teams further down the league. Let’s call this Tudor’s pre-season: two weeks training, one practice match, then down to the real business. The best that can be said about yesterday is that he now has a fair idea of what he is up against.
We believe fondly in the positives of the new manager bounce, less so in the reality of the newcomer exposing the deep-rooted problems that characterise this Spurs side. We have been poor in the league for at least a year, arguably 18 months. Last season we finished 17th because we deserved to. The supposed remedy for this – new manager, new club hierarchy, new players – has proved to be toxic rather than healing, and nothing has been done to cure the virus that will bring us to our knees, complacency. What truly hurts is that all of this is so avoidable.
For many years, the club hierarchy has been distant, aloof, all their entries channelled into self-preservation at the expense of the team and the fans, literally in the case of matchgoing supporters. Being average becomes acceptable, opportunities to build on success are allowed to pass by and they choose to look away when confronted with the requirements of creating a successful team, which after all is their stated aim. A life in football and they have learned nothing. Whether it be through the official channels of supporter feedback, through blogs like this one and podcasts or through protests outside and inside the ground, the hierarchy have been warned by the fans. We have seen it coming, they wrapped themselves in self-delusion. Supporters boo because they are not otherwise being heard.
This board have chosen a different route, to appoint several senior officers to manage all aspects of the club. However, they too have succumbed to this complacency. I have no idea what Venkatesham is doing to develop the club. He, the board and Lange (presumably, we don’t know) decided we didn’t need a short-term fix in January, when short-term, we were playing badly and decimated by injuries. They declined to spend money (Gallagher’s fee was offset by the sale of Johnson), when we know the club has funds. They chose not to make these available.
Lange and Frank are close. In fact, what we needed was a director of football (or whatever his job title is) at arm’s length, committed to the club but able to stand back with a degree of objectivity. So Frank stayed longer than he should have. Last week Heitinga left the club. He started work on or around January 15th. That means, on January 15th the plan remained that Frank should be supported to stay in post. 27 days later, he was sacked. This shows once more the disorganization and lack of planning at the highest level. It is disgraceful.
A long-held theory of mine is that the club hierarchy would behave differently if they mixed in the same circles as supporters. If they had to endure the stick Spurs fans are getting currently from all quarters, then they would perceive the situation very differently. Senior staff in business and commerce purposely isolate themselves as a form of self-protection. They think they know what’s going on, whereas in reality they fall victim to complacent group think. Apply that to your work if you are part of an organisation of any size. From my experience, being open and accountable is a strain but it’s essential to effective management. This is why the hierarchy’s distance from fans is a significant factor in our decline.
And we fans are on the receiving end of constant ridicule. I wonder if they can imagine what young Spurs fans have had to put up with in the playground this morning. But they don’t care about that. They don’t care about that part of the Tottenham family.
We are in real trouble. Two wins at home all season, 9 games without any win. The players look demoralised and physically tired. Most of the injured players won’t be back until at least next month, and even then it will take time to become match fit. In the meantime, we’ve let the youngsters with lower league experience out on loan, so are left with a bench full of 17 years old to fight a relegation battle, then to support a period of playing three games in seven or eight days when we’re back in the CL. Our rivals Forest and Wham are not playing well, but they are already set up to be organised and fight (Forest have a new man but his tactics won’t be significantly different from Dyche), whereas we have no pattern to fall back on.
Tudor seems up for it. I just hope the players believe there’s something worth battling for, that the badge genuinely means something to them, or would they rather spend time on the phone to their agents, searching for an escape route. Romero could be a bellwether here. He’s a fighter, a leader, if he’s in the right frame of mind.
If the negative tone of this and recent pieces grates, well, I’m writing from the heart and being honest. We are in a terrible mess and I’m pessimistic about our chances. But there’s potential for change here – if they are up for it. Good luck Mr Tudor, good luck.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
Hello – agree with everything except the idea of Romero as a beacon of hope!
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To read the comments about the Arsenal game you would never know Tudor trained with 13 players before the game. The implication is he made wrong choices, the reality is he didn’t have many choices to make. Why pretend playing with half a squad is the same as playing with a whole squad ?
I see the problem is now “the club hierarchy” rather than Daniel Levy.
I do wish people would stop talking about “the Tottenham Way”. As far as I can see that consists of winning two league titles in our entire history.
There’s a fundamental conflict in thinking in praising Arsenal’s willingness to stick with the same manager while seeming to see each time Spurs sack yet another manager as somehow solving a problem. George Orwell wrote about “doublethink” in his novel 1984, ie believing two contradictory things at the same time.
I do notice a repeating pattern when people talk about signings. They are always men with no names, never actual players. Obviously the moment you talk about an actual player someone will point out he’s not that good, doesn’t fit the system, his club won’t sell him (particularly mid season) or he has no interest in coming to Spurs. Whereas as long as you just imply there are loads of quality players we could get then obviously its all the club’s fault for not signing them.
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That’s right, ignore Bill Nick, Blanchflower, Greaves, Hoddle et al, blank out our 18 trophies, our magnificent heritage, our worldwide reputation as club renowned for silky, attacking football, playing to win, with a swagger. Reduce it to two league championships, never utter a word of anything else, the club that dare not speak its name. No idea whatsoever what kind of fan dimishes us in that manner.
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As far as I know two league titles is what we’ve won. Do you know about any others ? A small club has to take what it can get in terms of trophies. But we aren’t a small club. We could and should have won more. If wanting my club to fulfil its potential rather than pretending the record is better than it is is wrong in your eyes its not something I’m going to apologise for.
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Two months I kept warning anyone who’d listen that we are heading for a relegation battle. I no longer that to be the case. We are down. Sunday’s pitiful performance showed just how poor this side is, also alongside the complete lack of confidence of everyone the disgraceful cluelessness of how to attack is truly shocking! There is absolutely no way we can score the goals needed to survive let alone stop our opponents from scoring. So so sad.
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Totally agree with all of your comments and it is a very sad state of affairs to be in. I could go on and repeat all of what you have said which is pointless so I will say my two pennies worth and leave it like that.
I am a sixty year old man who fell in love with this club when I turned 8 years of age. I had two elder brothers one is a gooner and the other was (sadly passed away now) a Chelsea supporter. They both tried (and failed) to get me to support “their” team but my heart was set on Spurs as it still is today.
I have one son and two grandsons and they all support Tottenham (the rest of my family are Arsenal fans). Enough of my personal history.
Like most Spurs fans I have seen some terrible teams over the years BUT I have also had magical moments as well, FA Cup wins, UEFA & Europa League wins, League/Milk/Carabao “what ever name” cups as well and nearly that magical night in Madrid, I was there with my lad when we fell just short of ecstasy (in a football sense of course).
I now watch like the rest of us with sadness to see what our club has become, soulless and toxic. We have the best fans that a club could wish for. I cried when I saw the tifo yesterday and the noise our fans made to encourage the team but alas it was all to no avail, we were swept aside like flies in the second half.
Like most of us I fail to see how we can get ourselves out of this situation. I can only hope (pray) that if we do manage to somehow avoid the dreaded “R” word, that the powers that be who ultimately own and control this magnificent institution somehow wake up from whatever malaise\trance that they are in and begin the long journey back up the ladder.
It will take years I am afraid but I remember when my world fell apart when we dropped all those years ago and then we came back.
Each week I will sit down and watch (health reasons and living in Southampton) although I was born and bred in North London, Hornsey Road (the Tottenham side) so I cannot get to many matches any more and pray that the soulless mercenaries that currently wear our lilywhite jerseys somehow have the pride to stop this once great football club from sliding into the abyss.
COYS forever and “Audere est facere“
John C
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Agree with you almost all the way, the only difference being I’m 64. It seems to me to be a straight fight between us, Forest, wet spam and Leeds to join Burnley & Wolves in the dive down to the championship. When that happens, the owners are never going to get any offers in the region of 4 billion, and I can’t think of any Arab owners buying a championship club, it hurts to say this, but I can see us in the 1st division in a couple of years time, all our ‘top’ players will get the hell out this summer….when we last visited the lower reaches, there was optimism, even at the last game against Leicester, that our return would take no longer than the next season, and Keith Birkenshaw led us back, also winning 3 major trophies before falling foul of the upper management (and how familiar does that sound now).
That saying, for the season that we were down, I went to every home and away game, (I was still single at the time, so had money to spend on what I wanted, not what the future mississussess wanted, and had a hell of a great time, mainly I suppose because we were actually winning most matches, and some of the grounds back in those days were a joke, plus it was just a case of taking the football specials (trains) that were the crappiest oldest rolling stock British rail could coax back into life, and pay at the gate! no pre buying tickets, just rock up and get in! these were the days before the commercialism had grabbed hold, and, in my opinion, were the best ever days to be a fan, even with the hooliganism and violence that was at it’s zenith, and I feel so sorry for the younger fans who will never experience those halcyon days….great days out with many friends that relied on each other, and stuck together no matter what.
What I’m saying is, even when we go down, it will still be the overpriced commercial rubbish that we are expected to put up with. There won’t be any thing like the old days ever again, which I miss so much.
TTID.
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I, like you, fear the worst. The commercial consequences as outlined in a business of sport podcast make me genuinely fear for liquidation.
Football is about distraction and joy. If you get little joy, it is all distraction. We rest on the cusp of World War 3 and maybe that saves us from relegation but only at the cost of mass human extinction.
Sean Hurl
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The gulf in quality between the two teams was chilling even if we really didn’t think we could get a result. But what scared me the most was the lack of any cohesion between defence, midfield and attack. The defence just wanted to get the ball as far away as possible and humped it skywards without any thought of passing it forward. This screams zero confidence and belief in whatever was agreed beforehand. I liked the words of Tudor beforehand but it appears some of the players can’t handle hearing some home truths. It all comes down to Romero. His behaviour has contributed to our precarious position but we can’t do without him – how uniquely Tottenham! I thought Forest were excellent against Liverpool and didn’t deserve the result that might save us in the final reckoning. They appeared motivated, connected, and able to enjoy the contest against a very good team. Compare our respective efforts over the weekend and only one team was battling with any purpose. Fulham next…and another test of our nerves. We’ll find out soon enough who wants to fight for his club and the fans. And let’s not drone on about transfers. We failed in the market and it’s in the past. Move on, for Gawd’s sake.
Eaststander.
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For me, our answer to restricted numbers and positions having to be filled by other elements, is the Academy players.
We have a World renowned school for our youngsters and one or two of them in a Matchday team would bring enthusiasm and the unknown.
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As with signings when people talk about acedamy players its men with no names, not actual players. The reality is the last academy player to make a real impact at Spurs was Harry Kane. Why is a whole discussion in its own right. But pretending the current crop are somehow a solution to our problems is totally unrealistic.
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Thank you, Alan
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I see your Less Than Zero and I raise you Joan’s Down to Zero. But maybe Bob Dylan is singing to our Viv in Love Minus Zero
It’s a zero sum game.
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We all know the Arse game was irrelevant. Foregone conclusion, before the season even started.
Tudor won’t change a thing. The quality’s not there. The injuries are catastrophic. The captain’s a disgrace. Neck on the block : we’ll stay up, just, because of our fixtures vs. those in a marginally worse position in the table. A secondary aspect might be the return of injured players if they can make a contribution before season’s end. We can score goals and that will tell. We’ll never know, but I think this would have been true whether Frank stayed or went.
We’ll limp over the line and then what? Relief and vindication that Tudor was the right man for the job. At least that’ll be the story. But what will have been learnt?
Does anyone have any faith left that this ownership is capable of the rebuild that’s necessary, just to be competitive? Whoever the next manager is, we need a clearout of players. We’ll need to fill those gaps and then augment what we have. But how will we attract players of established quality? I can’t see it. Even if the wage structure is broken to entice them. How will we sell yet another ‘project’ when, demonstrably, we don’t know what we’re doing. With no European football. When, never mind the top six, our level is midtable…at best. The point is this is going to time, if it’s even possible. Fans are not patient.
Obviously we’re in a current crisis. Match to match it’s going to be tight and stomach churning. But, personally, I’m even more concerned about the big picture. Where is the change going to come from? Who is going to implement it? How is it to be achieved? One thing’s for sure, it’s not the Lewis family’s board.
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Agree with most of what you are saying. Most fans like to pretend we can sign any player we want, the reality is top players want to go to top clubs and we aren’t that at the moment. The only thing I would say is “European football” is a meaningless term. Top players want to be in the champions league, not the Europa conference league. I would argue that since we obviously won’t be in the champions league and we don’t seem to have worked out why we are getting so many injuries we would be better off (assuming we survive the season) out of Europe altogether. Less football means less injuries (probably) and more training time. It offers a better chance of a rebuild. Of course if we follow the previous script we’ll just be sacking another manager after a short period and doing the same thing again.
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I don’t really think it matters that we are playing “lesser” clubs, we have lost to some crappy teams this season…….
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Thanks for your heartfelt perspective Alan, as ever. The ‘banter’ is somewhat insufferable. My solution is to stay off social media and the podcast-industrial complex.
I fear we are as good as down. The momentum is against us, and the players don’t have the ‘ticker’ to get down in the mud and scrap for every ball and yard. Lange has overseen a catastrophic squad build and seems adept only at doubling down on whatever his ‘strategy’ is.
Whether or not we are relegated, this squad will break up in the summer. Van de Ven and Romero, our two genuinely world class players, will surely leave (as they should) to maximise their careers. Madisson and Deki are unlikely to be the players they were after their injuries. There’s no stardust in the rest of the squad, and to be honest there’s no-one there I feel the same affection and affinity to as we all did with Son, Deli, Jan and even the brilliant-but-cold Kane.
Bilbao was an end-of-series finale, not a new beginning. I’m resigned to what comes next and hope only that it’s a chance to genuinely rebuild.
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Cheers, Alan, great read. I always look out for your posts (true this time 😉 )
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Cheers, Alan, great read. I always look out for your posts (true this time and with my name).
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Brilliant piece as usual.
The living in denial part of my my character is trying to convince me that considering the home games against Leeds, Forest, Everton, Brighton and Palace – three of whom we defeated at their place – as well as away games to Fulham, Wolves and Sunderland, there is more than enough opportunity to steer well clear of the drop. My more pragmatic side however, is reflecting on all the games we’ve played since the beginning of 2026 and can’t realistically see a way out. Contrary to many, I believe we have a number of quality players in the squad but lack a few more truly world class players. I believe the hierarchy are completely useless and the only one who seemed to have had any idea has decided to jump ship and join a team fighting against relegation in Serie A – which goes to show how bad the situation behind closed doors at Spurs must really be. Paratici’s parting shot of “I’m joining Fiorentina because the owners are truly serious,” speaks volumes! Despite many disappointments over the decades, I’ve never had the sense of utter dejection that I feel right now about our team! How we’ve managed to let things get so out of control is unbelievable. The feeling is just accentuated by all the crap we’re having to put up with from the Woolwich loving media at large. We’ve somehow got to try and believe that in these last 11 games, a revival will be possible but at the same time will we then be subjected to much of the same for a third year running?
thanks again Alan and keep the posts coming. The provide an immense amount of comfort and perspective
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sorry but I don’t see us staying up, not enough big characters in this team to grab games and try control it. We are falling badly and I’m not liking it. I’m a realist and realistically we are the worse of the EPL right now, even Wolves turned up Vs Arsenal. Our squad decimated and board not help. Feels familiar but unlike last season there is not 3 teams worse than us. Forest and wham are playing better and will pick up points,while we stutter along and hope they don’t.
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Sorry guys this Tudor guy a joke, board made another big mistake hiring this manager, hope we all like championship footy next season. Why play Gray on left side? Sousa must be brutally bad. Another change in formation by looks of it, wasn’t Frank doing similar that annoyed a lot of fans? Fulham just loving to attack on that left side. The team have given up. We have no leaders, nobody to control games and no fight to stay up. Be lucky to get one win before season ends. Sorry to be pessimistic but we are a shambles. Might as well brought Harry Redkknapp back, at least he understands the EPL.
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i also think Tudor doesn’t have any style of play, just lump it forward hope the strikers can do something with it. His mantra seems to be running, get the team running a lot, but what’s the point running when they run the ball they not have a clue what to do with it. Even under Frank there was at least some style, even though it may change game to game. I understand we have injury to main players, but surely club knew no matter who came in was gonna struggle as no full squad so why bother change.
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As it stands Tudor’s record reads played three, lost three. How is this an improvement on Frank ? What I find really depressing is most Spurs fans still seem to think you solve a problem by firing someone. You only solve the problem by hiring someone better. Even then the problem has to be something he can control. You’d think with the number of managers we’ve fired people would have figured this out. One thing that thus season is bringing home to me is a comment Sam Allardyce made when he was managing Bolton many years ago. He said he spent longer assessing a player’s character than his ability. Its a pity we don’t do the same, mental weakness runs through our squad regardless of players skill levels. But historically Spurs fans have tended to believe skill is everything, even though it clearly isn’t.
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Yup. It was an “interesting” decision to appoint someone with no experience in the Premier League and no knowledge of the players. Apparently being a ‘specialist’ in staying up applies anywhere.
Hard to motivate a team when nobody knows you. Hard to set up against teams you’ve never played before. Hard to deliver the goods when your injury list (and red cards) restrict your choices.
I wonder if they’ll be any acknowledgement that the problems Frank faced persist…yet he’s not at Spurs. Not quite sure how he can be blamed for this run, but sure that he will be. We’ve gone from poor to utterly shambolic. Every time we hit what I think is a rock bottom performance the boys go one better. Palace went easy on us in the second half, but we looked completely done.
Liverpool will beat us later this month. Four on the bounce in the Premier League. Europe’s irrelevant now. Then the baying will start again. Applying more pressure on Tudor. But to dismiss him would be humiliating for the board.
Forest, Wolves, Leeds should all be winnable…on paper. No disrespect to those sides, but not beyond the realms of possibility. Usually. Obviously beating our relegation cousins is critical to staying up. I think Sunderland might also be one we could win. Our last game against Everton is likely to be a must-win though. On balance, I still feel we’ll limp over the line.
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Oops. CFC as our last game, could be a must-win.
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Its almost as if the players want us to be relegated, as if the senior players had a meeting and decided to get us relegated in revenge to us booing them especially Vicario v Fulham, or because the club fired Ange and lied to Romero about ambition if club etc…. seems odd that all of a sudden they getting red cards when need a performance or result and not show up until 2 or 3 goals down.. be in relegation zone by Forest game. Hope all those who wanted Frank fired are wondering if they like the new guy better. Should have let Frank see out the season, he would have gotten a result out of Palace game, played a 4-2-3-1, which suits us better than 3 at the back when we dont have 3 CBs to use. Either way, we screwed and I’m hoping it doesn’t take is years to get back up and don’t become a yo-yo club.
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