Tottenham Hotspur’s ‘should be ashamed of themselves’ after their ‘pathetic’ season, said Gary Neville as Spurs narrowly avoided relegation.
Roberto De Zerbi’s side beat Everton 1-0 on the final day of the campaign to hang onto their Premier League status after a woeful season.
They finished 17th, two points clear of relegated West Ham, with their victory over the Toffees their first home win since December.
It is the second season on the bounce the north London giants – one of the richest in the global game – have finished 17th in the top flight.
De Zerbi is certainly not to blame, having joined the club on March 31 and earned three of their 10 wins this season, but Neville is happy to point the finger at the players.
There were wild scenes of celebration as Tottenham avoided the drop on Sunday, which was relief more than anything, but the former England defender was not ready to praise the underperforming Spurs strugglers.
‘Is it too far to say that they’ve been pathetic? That they should be ashamed of themselves? Probably not,’ Neville said on Sky Sports.
‘This is Tottenham Hotspur. I know sometimes I get mocked for saying this is Manchester United, but this is a football club steeped in incredible traditions.
‘Now they’ve not won trophies for a long time regularly, even though they won the Europa League last year, which was fantastic. It was great for this fanbase to celebrate a trophy.
‘But they’ve been underachievers and underperforming for a long time. This is another level of underachievement and hitting new lows. The last two years in the Premier League.’
Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven sounded like he largely agrees with Neville’s assessment, telling the BBC on Sunday: ‘It is unacceptable that the last game we played this season we play for relegation.
‘This club has some unbelievable players. It was embarrassing to let it come to the final day but we did it and that is what is important.’
De Zerbi said the work must start immediately on building a squad that will do far better next season, which he tried to play down, but also suggested only a maximum of 12 of his players are good enough.
‘We don’t have to change too many players. We have 10/11/12 players good enough to stay, both as players and people,’ he said.
‘Then we have to complete the squad with first level of players because we suffered too much. The players they suffer too much. We are Tottenham and we can’t suffer like this until the last second and last game and I will be stronger. My target was staying up, and my target is to start the pre-season with a team I have in my dream.’
He added: ‘We have to learn from our mistakes we have done this season. Now we are happy as we stayed up — stupid people forget the past. Smart people can’t forget the past and we have to improve from our mistakes and we have to look forward to start being a team from this night. We have no time to go on holiday.’
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