Igor Tudor certainly knows the size of the task in front of him now.
It was a brutal introduction to English football as they were battered 4-1 by Arsenal in the North London derby and the few remaining Tottenham fans in the stadium booed the players off at the final whistle.
The familiar question no longer feels such a given. Are Spurs are too good to go down? Well, are they? On the evidence of Sunday, Tottenham are in a full-scale relegation scrap and are facing the fight of their lives to stay up.
Relegation would be unthinkable. It is why they sacked Thomas Frank and rolled the dice with Tudor in a desperate attempt to bring in some new manager bounce.
Tudor, whose last job was at Juventus, introduced his own style into the Spurs line-up as it was high press, energy, five at the back and warriors in midfield. It simply did not work. They were exposed by Arsenal. That is on Tudor. Yes, they do have got a catalogue of injuries for a start but their form is so alarming.
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They are the only team in the entire league without a win in 2026. They have not won in the Premier League since a 2-0 victory at Crystal Palace on December 28. They have not won in nine Premier League games, they have drawn at Burnley in that time and lost at home to West Ham who are perhaps the biggest threat to their survival.
West Ham were unlucky not to beat Bournemouth on Saturday or hold on to win against Manchester United. If they had, Spurs would be right in it.
Even so, they are fifth from bottom, just four points above the drop zone and now face a trip to Fulham in their next game then it’s Palace at home followed by Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland.
The plain truth is that Tottenham are in serious trouble. That quickly became obvious to Tudor who looked a worried man on the touchline.
One of his coaching staff sat in the press box and was getting increasingly agitated at the way Arsenal ripped Spurs apart in the first half, particularly down the home side’s left.
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It was probably a good idea that they found a different seat for him in the second half. Mind you, there is always an army of analysts in any press box these days.
They know they have got problems because they are the team without hope, without form and momentum and a crippling absentee list.
Tottenham last went down in 1977 and, despite finishing fourth from bottom last year under Ange Postecoglou, they were never going to go down. They finished 13 points above the drop zone.
That is the key difference this year. It’s tight. West Ham are picking up points. Wolves are doomed and it looks bleak for Burnley. But West Ham are picking up points. Nottingham Forest played well but lost to Liverpool and Vitor Pereira will give them a lift.
This is a full-blown crisis. The last team who were cast as being too good to go down? I think it was West Ham in 2003. They finished with 42 points - the highest in a 20 team Premier League season - and still went down.
That team had David James, Paolo di Canio, Glen Johnson, Trevor Sinclair, Joe Cole, Freddie Kanoute, Jermain Defoe and Don Hutchinson. And a few more besides.
To good to go down? Up against that team, are Spurs really any better. It is hard to argue that Tottenham really are in serious trouble.
And the specie of relegation for a club in a £1billion stadium would be catastrophic let alone the humiliation for the fans.