Tottenham are in danger of dropping down to the Championship and a former captain has questioned the moment he believes things turned
Teddy Sheringham says he is "still mystified" by Tottenham's decision to sack Ange Postecoglou as they attempt to save their Premier League status in the weeks ahead.
Spurs dispensed with the services of Postecoglou just weeks after he ended their 17-year trophy drought with the Europa League triumph in Bilbao. The club appointed Thomas Frank and then sacked him after eight months in charge. Igor Tudor was brought in as an interim head coach and duly left winless after 44 days at the helm.
Now Roberto De Zerbi has taken on the job and with just four matches remaining, Spurs lie in the drop zone, two points behind West Ham.
"Ange Postecoglou must still be sitting at home thinking 'how did I lose my Tottenham job?' Why is he still not in charge? I understand the league position last season wasn't great, but he put all his eggs in one basket to win something, because he wanted to win something. I'm still mystified on that decision to replace him to this day," Sheringham told Oddschecker.
"Some of the games I saw they could have been six up in the first 10 minutes, by the way they peppered teams and got behind them. It was just unbelievable, unbelievable edge of the seat football. I'm not saying that Spurs should go back to him, not now anyway, but we'll never know."
The 60-year-old added: "I've been concerned for a good two months how it's escalated into a debacle at the football club. For a start, Igor Tudor coming in, not knowing a thing about the Premier League, was one of the most absurd appointments I've ever seen, especially in a crunch time!
"For me, I think there's going to be a lot of points won by the teams down there, by Tottenham and West Ham. And I think it's going to bring Forest and Leeds back into it. My gut feeling, as of today, is that we still stay up. I suppose that's the optimistic view. You know Terry Venables, my old manager, always used to say when you're losing games, you can't see yourself winning, but when you're winning games you can't see yourself losing."
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Sheringham believes the fault lies at board level when it comes to the mess the north London club find themselves in.
"Well, everyone thought Thomas Frank was such a good appointment in the first place, but that turned very sour very quickly. He did well at Brentford but there's a big difference between managing Brentford and Tottenham. Then, for Igor Tudor to come in, who doesn’t know anything about the Premier League, was just so such an absurd appointment that it just couldn't work," he said.
"It’s the people above the management, and after that you need to take account of what's happened. It’s absurd what's been going on at the football club over the last 18 months."
Sheringham believes Tottenham's two centre-backs for the run-in will have to lead the team from the back.
"I think Van de Ven is your leader as a player, but I don't know what he's like as a talker. I've not really heard much about the way he speaks, but he definitely leads on the football pitch," said the former England striker.
"He's Dutch as well, which, which gives him an air of being above other people and that he understands what football's all about. That's the way the Dutch are in general.
"I really like Kevin Danso as well. I think he leads by example in his play. Other than that, there's not a lot of leaders out there."