Good morning everyone, and welcome to another edition of Trending Up / Trending Down, where hoddle headquarters takes a look at who around Tottenham is trending up, and who’s trending down.
Spurs don’t play another match until 22 February, making this a perfect time to gauge where things stand around the club. It also gives us all a good 12-day break from having to watch this team play, because it is bad.
I went for a run after Tuesday’s game, and I got increasingly angry with the result and the potential relegation permutations that might await the club at the end of the season. I had planned on today’s hoddle being about a Heung-min Son bobblehead for the Los Angeles Dodgers or the incredible athletic prowess of Norwegian cross country skier Johannes Hosflot Klæbo, but instead I’m doing this.
That makes this a difficult time for me to really identify how to group everyone in these two categories. I think I’ve settled on it, though.
Trending Up:
Xavi Simons: His development is probably the most exciting thing happening on the pitch right now. That’s really not saying a lot. There’s still a lot of raw product to develop and hopefully whatever happens with Thomas Frank doesn’t derail him.
Mauricio Pochettino: The fans were singing his name at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday. The man was sacked almost seven years ago and his figure still looms large over the club and its fanbase. It looms so large, in fact, that Thomas Frank was even asked about the fans singing Poch’s name.
The Argentine during a recent podcast said a Europa League title is still not good enough for a club of Tottenham’s side. For him it’s all about the Premier League and Champions League - which goes back to his old day at Spurs but also is a little more reflective of the vision Daniel Levy laid out after sacking Ange Postecoglou this past summer. Could a shadow Tottenham manager be emerging?
Trending Down:
Tottenham Hotspur: The players look as if they have no confidence in themselves. The manager is on the bring of getting sacked. Boos travel wherever the club plays, but they are always the loudest at Bill Nicholson’s burial ground. They’ve won two games since October and sit five points above the drop. Games that would in the past be seen as opportunities to maintain a spot in the top four are now six-pointers to save themselves from a catastrophic relegation. It’s bad.
Thomas Frank: The Dane has occupied this spot in, by my count, at least three straight times now. I don’t understand how worse it can get for him. The club sit 16th with no signs of improving. The fans continue to boo him, and questions continue to swirl around just how long he can hold on to the job.
Ftizie’s track of the day: Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away), by Motley Crue
And now for your links:
Matt Law: “Tottenham must survive at any cost and then turn to Mauricio Pochettino”
BBC: “Frank insists he is safe - but will he avoid Spurs sack?”
The Athletic ($$): “Tottenham 1 Newcastle 2 – Where does Thomas Frank go from here? Has Jacob Ramsey finally arrived?”
Alasdair Gold: “Every word Thomas Frank said on his future, sack chants, his Arsenal claim and Odobert injury”
The Standard: “Three things we learned from Tottenham loss as Thomas Frank can no longer ignore the obvious”
David Hytner: “Thomas Frank ‘convinced’ he is still right man for Spurs job despite Newcastle loss”