Tottenham’s crisis deepened as January passivity lingered

why Tottenham – Tottenham’s collapse toward the threat of relegation has been traced back to a chaotic stretch that began in January—when injuries piled up, their interim plans shifted, and the club’s decision to hold off on the transfer market helped the problems compound.

From sunny Udine to Harry Houdini. From the foothills of the Alps to the lower reaches of the Premier League. Tottenham’s season has moved like a magic trick that keeps failing on the crucial step.

In August. the club enjoyed the UEFA Super Cup and. briefly. a feeling of momentum returned in Italy when Thomas Frank used surprise wing-backs and Kevin Danso’s long throw to trouble Paris Saint-Germain. When Frank got back to London, his system looked like it had solved something. He tweaked his approach, hit three goals past Burnley, and then won at Manchester City.

But by the time the league reality arrived again, positivity thinned. Arsenal were crowned champions, and Spurs—who will finish at best 17th, the same as last season—were left with the uneasy sense that nothing had truly changed, only the calendar.

James Maddison put it bluntly after Tottenham’s defeat at Chelsea on Tuesday. “It is unacceptable and a little bit embarrassing that we’re in this position as Tottenham Hotspur. ” he said. adding that “it’s the reality unfortunately and it’s up to us to get out of it.” Maddison’s second appearance of the season came after he missed a year with a cruciate knee injury.

The mood among supporters has mirrored the team’s. Spurs supporters’ groups shelved plans for protests this season. Things got so bad that some agreed to back the team. but the Change For Tottenham group has still planned to protest after the final whistle against Everton. The intention is to make their feelings clear to the owners, even if Tottenham avoid relegation.

The Lewis family have also insisted they remain committed to Spurs regardless of the division the club plays in next season. rejecting the endless speculation that they are looking to sell. This has been a bruising first season without the “Levy shield.” They were out in force at West Ham in September. the first outing of the new regime. and have appeared less visible as weeks passed and the atmosphere soured.

Away from the pitch, Spurs have leaned on a familiar ritual: ambassadors. Gary Mabbutt. Osvaldo Ardiles. and Ledley King have been summoned to represent Tottenham at away games. and a minibus packed with legends was paraded when Spurs played at Aston Villa. A Lewis family presence is expected against Everton to see the bitter end of a dismal campaign.

There is one notable absence. Injured captain Cristian Romero is expected to be in Argentina watching his boyhood club, Belgrano, trying to win the title for the first time against River Plate.

In January. the club’s decisions came under a harsh spotlight—not because the season was stable enough for perfect choices. but because so many problems struck at once. There were injuries. Lots of them. Some were freakish, like Romero’s. In five games in January. five big injuries arrived as chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange had decided against plunging into the transfer market.

Their reasoning was laid out at the time: the summer market would offer more options and better value. and Frank would be given patience even as supporters turned against his pragmatic football. Still, defeat at Bournemouth in January became a catalyst for Frank’s demise. Another defeat followed, and Rodrigo Bentancur—quietly influential in the balance of midfield—was injured.

It wasn’t just results. There was Frank’s pre-match blunder, when he wandered around drinking from an Arsenal branded coffee cup. Then, after the final whistle, there was an angry exchange between Micky van de Ven and fans in the away end.

Romero added another sting with a social media post branding people inside the club as “liars,” with a clear nod towards transfer strategy.

Frank survived eight more games after Bournemouth, but the end came by mid-February. John Heitinga came in to assist him, replacing coach Matt Wells, who left for Colorado Rapids in December.

The internal pressure had been building for longer. Fabio Paratici—one of two sporting directors at the club at the time—had wanted Frank out before Christmas and pushed alternatives. Those calls were ignored. and when Paratici accepted a job at Fiorentina in December. Spurs forced him to wait until the January transfer window closed.

Behind the scenes, instability became a constant, and the reshuffling didn’t stop. Venkatesham and Lange were searching for an interim head coach and consulted a list compiled earlier in the season. Igor Tudor arrived with what Paratici’s fingerprints seemed to suggest.

Tudor and Paratici had worked together at Juventus, and Tudor was billed as an impact coach. But his impact at Spurs was immediate and grim: his only impact was to make a poor team worse. After Frank’s humble decency, Tudor aimed to give players a proverbial kick up the backside—and it backfired.

The players quickly took against Tudor’s brusque and distant manner. An example came in the Antonin Kinsky episode against Atletico Madrid. Tudor barely acknowledged the young goalkeeper when he hauled him off in the 17th minute as Spurs trailed 3-0.

Random factors have kept turning up all season, and they’ve never made the task easier. In September, Destiny Udogie was allegedly threatened at gunpoint by an agent. Randal Kolo Muani crashed his car on the way to Stansted Airport. and Spurs left for Eintracht Frankfurt without him and without Wilson Odobert. who pulled over to help his team-mate. When Kolo Muani eventually arrived belatedly in Frankfurt. he scored in a win to secure a place in the last 16 of the Champions League. Four of his five goals have come in Europe.

Yet the problems weren’t only about circumstance. Misfiring strikers became a theme, and Spurs have misfired everywhere. If they tried to be more adventurous, they were fragile at the back. They lacked mature leadership on the pitch. In midfield, they were low on craft and guile, short of passers, and balance kept eluding them.

Home form looked equally stubborn. Two wins and six draws from 18 games at home is as bad as any in the Premier League.

And while Everton—Sunday’s visitors—are fading, their away record still carries a warning. Everton have lost only six of 18 on the road, but they have not won away since February.

Tottenham’s final-day setup is tight. Spurs only need one point, not three, thanks to Roberto De Zerbi’s impact. Tudor’s five Premier League games produced only one point, and his spell included three emphatic home defeats, among them a second 4-1 north London derby defeat of the season.

The players appeared consumed by anxiety, paralysed by a fear of becoming the first Spurs team to be relegated since 1977. They looked unable to cope with any setback.

De Zerbi changed the mood by leaning into experience and offering his players “a little more love and understanding.” He peppered them with YouTube footage to remind them of their qualities. He also got Bentancur back from his hamstring injury in the nick of time and found an effective team.

After De Zerbi’s first game, Tottenham were in the relegation zone with six games remaining following a defeat at Sunderland on April 12. Then came the turn. Eight points from the next four games lifted them back above the line.

Their fate is in their own hands, and there should be enough. If they don’t get it, the alternative routes sit outside their control—West Ham’s own revival has slipped into three successive defeats.

West Ham must beat Leeds and pray for a favour from Everton, managed by their old boss David Moyes, if they are to pull off a remarkable escape.

The picture in Tottenham’s favour is clear, too. Saturday marks one year to the day since the Europa League victory parade filled the streets of N17 with joy. Now there is one more familiar job: the relief of a point on Sunday. Keep a clean sheet against Everton, breathe, and move on.

But in a season where everything has gone wrong, nobody will take it for granted.

Tottenham Premier League relegation Roberto De Zerbi Thomas Frank Igor Tudor Vinai Venkatesham Johan Lange Cristian Romero Bentancur Everton Micky van de Ven James Maddison