The NSNO Everton Forums

I must admit, I don’t follow Spurs closely and today was the first time I watched them in a while. But how on earth have they declined so rapidly especially in the last two seasons?

Before then they were a very comfortable top half team and not too long ago were a top 4 side season after season. But now they seem almost in the same position we were in about 3-4 years ago - except they’ve not been hindered so much in terms of PSR or financial restrictions.

Is it that:
- They’ve not been able to replace key players like Kane and Son?
- They’ve bought too many duds? (It almost feels like a long time since they’ve bought top quality players that clubs such as Real Madrid or Barcelona would want).
- The wrong type of managers being brought in to manage the team and bringing different profiles of players that have failed to gel.
- Some off field issues impacting the team. I know Daniel Levy is not there anymore, is he a big loss, even if he was an unpopular character?

Could be a combination of the above, but it’s still incredible they’ve declined so badly after a couple of decades of very strong top half table finishes (with the very odd exceptions).

I always think Spurs sign to many players from lower table clubs. The likes of Bissouma, Solanke, Maddison, Richarlison, Johnson, Odobert, Palhinha, Kudus. They're good players and stood out in England in lower pressure environments but are they the players you sign when you want to get to the next level? Eventually if you keep signing players from midtable teams then you risk slipping back there yourself.

Combine that with poor managerial appointments (Postecoglou was a joke, trophy or not) and other poor signings made where there is no clear consistent direction then there's always the risk that you go down.

Injuries have been a factor as well but all teams get injuries.

Poor Richy

I think it’s just the perfect storm of:

- spending to maintain profitability while other clubs are maxing out their resources to compete at as high a level as possible
- a sequence of poor managerial appointments and the subsequent lack of direction that creates
- signing players based almost entirely on talent and not worrying about personalities for the dressing room
- injuries

But they are in deep shit. They have by far the most apathetic group of players of the teams in the relegation battle. Check the video of Van de Ven ignoring Tudor when he urged him to push up last weekend. He’s already checked out, he doesn’t give a fuck at all, and he’s not the only one with his eyes on the exit.

He has his shortcomings and also benefitted massively from the setup at Brentford but I still believe Frank is a capable manager and it speaks to what a bunch of bad dickheads they have in that squad that he couldn’t squeeze anything out of them.