Tottenham ARE getting relegated! Mismanaged Spurs showing that they're not too big to go down

It was the most hotly-anticipated north London derby since their Champions League showdown of 2022. Arsenal, off the back of two hugely disappointing draws at Brentford and Wolves, suddenly had reason to fear entering the den of rivals Tottenham. Spurs, in theory, were about to be buoyed by a 'new manager bounce' brought about by the appointment of Igor Tudor as head coach, who replaced the unpopular Thomas Frank.

Alas, that only worked in theory. There was brief respite in Tottenham's 4-1 defeat on Sunday after Randal Kolo Muani robbed Declan Rice of possession and levelled the scores heading into half-time, while the France forward had another equaliser cruelly ruled out for a shove on Gabriel Magalhaes, but these are two rivals at completely different ends of the footballing spectrum - one could become Premier League champions, and the other is heading to the Championship.

Until now, Spurs fans' fear of the drop had been dismissed as alarmism. The squad, despite its shortcomings, surely has enough to rank outside the bottom three after 38 games. Sunday's game was a message to the world that this is not a team that is too good to go down.

Tudor's U-turn

There was great confidence emanating from Tudor prior to Sunday's defeat. "It's always a good time to play against Arsenal at home," he said as a sort of battlecry. "Good if you are not in a good moment, of course. If you are not in a good moment, of course. So let's go. We respect them but we play at home. Let's see what will happen. We need to have courage, confidence. We have good players, they have good players. So let's see what will happen. Be humble but brave, intelligent. The right things to do to put in the pitch. We play at home, eh?"

All it took was 90 minutes of football to completely drain the Croatian of his confidence, leaning into sentiments first brought about by former manager, and Tudor's former Juventus team-mate, Antonio Conte.

"I'm very sad and very angry and everything, but in one way it is also good to understand where is our goal," he bemoaned. "What is the goal of this club? What is the goal of this team? What is this goal of this coach, these players, this staff? To become serious. Serious, not just a group of 20 players, and the medicine is you look in the mirror. Each of us look in the mirror and really try, really start to change the habits - working hard is the only way."

Tudor said Arsenal are currently the best team in the world, and that's true, but even a Wolves side who haven't yet cleared Derby County's record for least points accrued in a Premier League season fought back from two down to earn a 2-2 draw only four days before this fixture.

Three years of injuries

For the third season running, Spurs have had to deal with an injury crisis which has crippled at least half of the squad at the business end. If those who missed the derby were fit or not suspended and formed an XI, they would have beat the team that started: Antonin Kinsky; Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Kevin Danso, Destiny Udogie; Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Bergvall, James Maddison; Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Wilson Odobert.

The first port of call for previous years was to blame the intense style brought about by head coach Ange Postecoglou, whose high-octane philosophy had caused similar crises at other clubs. Though there is probably some truth to that, there has to be some other reason as to how this trend continued even under a less-demanding manager in Frank. How is it a club with the most advanced, state-of-the-art infrastructure and technology can have athletes at the peak of their physical prime dropping like flies over such an extended period?

Lack of quality

The main reason behind Tottenham's downfall is they have simply recruited awfully. They squandered a golden generation of superstar talent featuring Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli, failing to appropriately replace them. Now, even the supposed best players in the squad have been way off the boil for a season or two.

Club captain and World Cup-winner Romero is a complete liability; Micky van de Ven is a very ordinary defender save for his searing pace and transitional recoveries; Porro has been subpar at both ends of the pitch this year; Richarlison can pop up with some goals but offers little else and is seldom fit; goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has massively regressed since his debut season. Summer signings Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons, costing over £100 million in total, have combined for a grand sum of three Premier League goals.

Beyond the headline acts, there is a startling shortage of talent in the rest of the squad. The difference in technical levels between Tottenham and Arsenal was staggering, with the hosts paying the price for assembling a team of duel-winners rather than successfully recruiting players who know how to progress the ball.

As former manager Mauricio Pochettino claimed, there's no point in Spurs having a lavish house if they cannot fill it with furniture to match. It's a plea that fell on deaf ears and is now coming back to haunt the club.

Scary similarities

Jamie Carragher wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph on Friday that Tottenham going down would be the biggest relegation story in English football since Manchester United, six years removed from winning their first European Cup, were sent to the old Division Two in 1974. Spurs' last relegation came shortly after in 1977, five years on from claiming the inaugural UEFA Cup.

That doesn't mean there's been shocking stories of relegation since. Leeds United, though hamstrung by a spate of financial issues, went down in 2003-04. Newcastle followed five years later. In more recent times, Leicester City tumbled through the trap door in 2022-23, seven years on from their fairy tale of winning the Premier League and two seasons after nearly qualifying for the Champions League.

Leicester's story should be the most cautionary to Tottenham. They had finished fifth twice and then eighth in the three years prior to relegation. Their team featured players such as Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and current Spurs vice-captain Maddison, whose late-season outburst at a reporter over an article suggesting the Foxes seemed destined for a bottom-three finish has not aged well.

"Rubbish. Watch and analyse the game properly and stop writing headlines like that which you know makes fans pile on with negativity. Play like that and we’ll be absolutely fine. Created numerous brilliant chances and win comfortably on another day," Maddison wrote on social media in March 2023, two months before relegation was confirmed.

Remove Spurs' name, stadium and history pre-Kane sale from the equation and it's far from shocking that the team who finished 17th last season find themselves in a similar position this time around.

Rivals' resurgence

What hasn't helped Spurs over the last couple of months is the teams around them have found some form again. West Ham, who have been mired in the bottom three for all but three weeks of the season, were 13 points adrift of Tottenham prior to their meeting on January 17. Since winning that battle in north London, the Hammers have reduced that deficit to four points, losing only once in that time.

Nottingham Forest in 17th had actually lost only one league game out of six, including a draw against Arsenal, before they sacked Sean Dyche. Vitor Pereira's men were then unlucky to lose against Liverpool on Sunday after swarming them for much of their game at the City Ground.

Further up the table, Leeds have lost only two Premier League games since the end of November, while Crystal Palace, who were at risk of being dragged into this battle amid a civil war between head coach Oliver Glasner and the fans, are sitting relatively pretty in 13th on 35 points.

Where's the next win?

The form of the teams around them wouldn't matter as much if Tottenham simply got their house in order and pieced some wins together. The problem is they are yet to win a domestic game in 2026 and only two since November. Wrexham, Mansfield Town and Macclesfield have all beaten Premier League opposition more recently than Spurs.

Tottenham have 11 games to preserve their top-flight status. In their fixtures against the same opposition from last term, save for Leeds and Sunderland who were in the Championship, they won only one of those games. That was against Everton at home, with Tudor's men not facing the Toffees until the final day of the season. Postecoglou's side lost the other eight.

Who is to blame?

One single factor cannot be attributed to Spurs' demise. It is a responsibility that has to be shared in varying degrees across different levels.

Let's start with Daniel Levy, the long-term chairman of the club before he was surprisingly ousted in September 2025. His fatal flaw was his constant meddling in affairs, usually transfers, that didn't necessarily require his involvement, which corresponded with the playing squad's serious decline during the six years following the sacking of Pochettino. By sticking his oar in, Levy only tanked his reputation among supporters, becoming the lightning rod for criticism until his eventual departure.

Levy's main day-to-day responsibilities have been assumed by CEO Vinai Venkatesham, whose arrival last year was a complete surprise given his previous 14-year association with Arsenal. A recent article from the Daily Mail claimed there was shock behind the scenes at the Emirates Stadium at how much responsibility he immediately gained at Spurs given he was viewed as a 'corporate executive'.

The position of chairman has been filled on non-executive terms by Peter Charrington, the director of majority owners ENIC, run by the Lewis family. They, ultimately, must take on the bulk of blame for allowing the club to fall into this state on their watch. Even if they think of Tottenham as a business rather than a football club, their asset is on the verge of significantly shrinking in value.

In terms of recruitment (beyond Levy's interventions), Johan Lange has been handed the keys for five full transfer windows. Since officially joining the club as technical director, later promoted to sporting director, on November 1, 2023, Spurs have won only 30 of their 93 Premier League matches. They average 1.15 points per game, which translates to 43.7 over the course of a 38-game season.

Then you look at those who have assumed the role of head coach. Postecoglou tried to diminish responsibility of normalising losing week in, week out in two recent appearances on the Stick To Football podcast, but it is a trend that started under his watchful eye, despite winning the Europa League. Frank was brought in to change that culture, but only worsened it with his conservative attitude.

This current crop of players may not be at the required standard to challenge for Champions League qualification and should in theory level out to a mid-table team at worst, but given last season's 17th-placed finish and current standing of 16th, you have to ask if this is a squad we have seriously overrated until now.

Tottenham are hurtling towards relegation. The return of key players from injury and suspension will likely prove too late. We are witnessing a historical event unfolding in real time.