Tottenham are now eyeing up a former Juventus manager to replace the under-fire Igor Tudor, with the tactician apparently among the leading contenders if Spurs decide to make another change.
Igor Tudor faces stay of execution at Spurs
The Lilywhites' season has become a slow-motion disaster, and right now nobody at the club can say with any confidence how much longer Tudor will be the man tasked with stopping it.
The numbers alone paint a grim picture, but the manner of his defeats has been even more alarming.
A 4-1 humiliation at home to Arsenal in the north London derby set the tone. A 2-1 loss at Fulham followed.
Then came Thursday night's collapse against Crystal Palace — a game Spurs led before conceding three times before half-time, watching their own fans pour out of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in disgust, choruses of "sacked in the morning" echoing around a ground that hasn't been anywhere near a fortress in a long time.
The dressing room situation is not much better.
Reports have circulated suggesting a significant portion of the squad are struggling to adapt to Tudor's rigid, uncompromising methods.
His tactical decisions have baffled observers — not least the decision against Palace to withdraw a full-back at half-time and replace him with a central midfielder while already under the cosh.
Spurs looked shapeless, toothless and utterly devoid of conviction.
Tudor was sold to the Tottenham hierarchy as a specialist — a man capable of coming in late in the season, organising a team and grinding out survival. What they have seen so far is the opposite.
The Telegraph reported on Friday that the club's leadership were already weighing up the possibility of a second managerial change in a month, before confirming that Tudor would at least take charge for Tuesday's Champions League last-16 first leg at Atlético Madrid.
That is not a vote of confidence. It is a stay of execution.
And the fixtures coming up offer no comfort whatsoever. Atlético away in Europe, then Liverpool at Anfield, then the Atlético return leg, then Nottingham Forest at home in what amounts to a straight relegation shootout.
Reports have named the interim alternatives in case Tudor is shown the door, with Robbie Keane and Sean Dyche among the possible options.
Tottenham eyeing ex-Juventus boss Thiago Motta
Which brings us to a name that few would have predicted — and one that carries its own remarkable irony.
Italian sports daily Tuttosport are reporting that Thiago Motta has emerged as a contender to take over at Spurs should Tudor be relieved of his duties.
The very man Tudor replaced at Juventus last October could now end up replacing Tudor in return.
Motta's credentials are genuine.
He transformed Bologna into one of Serie A's most admired clubs, delivering a historic fourth-place finish in 2023/24 that earned them Champions League football for the first time in the club's history.
His football was ambitious, intelligent and built on clear principles. Juventus did not work out, but the job ultimately proved too big a transition too soon.
Whether he would consider a short-term rescue mission at a relegation-threatened Spurs is another matter entirely, but stranger things have happened at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this season. Considerably stranger, in fact.
As a player, Motta enjoyed an illustrious career, and was even part of José Mourinho's Inter Milan treble-winning team from 2010.
He knows how to win, and Spurs desperately need that right now.