Why Tottenham Hotspur winning the UEFA Champions League would be 'embarrassing' for European football

Why Tottenham Hotspur winning the UEFA Champions League would be 'embarrassing' for European football - Fara Williams column

In her latest exclusive column for TNT Sports, England legend Fara Williams details why it would be "embarrassing" for European football if Tottenham Hotspur managed to win the UEFA Champions League this season while also battling to survive in the Premier League. She also explains why Mary Earps deserves credit for her recent comments surrounding the backlash to her book release.

Former England international Fara Williams will be providing exclusive insight and analysis for TNT Sports for the 2025/26 campaign. In her latest column, she breaks down why it would not be a good look for European football if Tottenham Hotspur won the UEFA Champions League this season, while also battling Premier League relegation. Williams also credits former England goalkeeper Mary Earps for her recent comments surrounding the backlash from her book. Watch the women's and men's FA Cup, Premier League and UEFA Champions League live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

'Embarrassing' if relegation-threatened Spurs win the Champions League

Following their recent London derby defeats to Arsenal and Fulham, it doesn’t look great for Spurs at the moment. They’ve brought in Igor Tudor, who has a fantastic record of saving teams and making the players work hard and show that fight.

Are Tottenham too good to go down? The fact is that they are in a relegation battle. I had the privilege of visiting the training ground the other week, and for a club that big, with those amazing facilities, to be in the Championship next season is just not acceptable.

Looking at their league fixtures until the end of the season, they have a very tough run of games. I’m worried for Spurs, because their main relegation rivals are starting to pick up form, with Nottingham Forest looking a bit rejuvenated under Vitor Pereira, while West Ham are picking up more points than before.

Are these Spurs players ready for the dogfight of a relegation battle? They are not in a false position, because they finished one place above the bottom three last season.

I’m not overly surprised by their league form, because there was not much transfer business in the summer to progress the team, and they have been unfortunate with long-term injuries to the likes of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski.

Spurs have sacked a lot of managers, including Thomas Frank this season, but some of these players need to take accountability for performances, and maybe their attitude towards the different managers who have been in charge at the club.

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If you look at the quality of players in their squad, there is no way that Spurs should be in this position.

Individually, there are players who are well-equipped to play in the Premier League, but collectively, they don’t seem to come together, and sometimes it looks like they don’t have the right mentality.

They need a big turnaround, and I know they’re in the last 16 of the Champions League, where they face a tough tie against Atletico Madrid, but their focus has to be Premier League survival.

Although they managed to turn it on in the Europa League last season to end their trophy drought, I’m going to say it outright – Spurs are not good enough to win the Champions League.

The Europa League is different to the Champions League, and they won’t be able to avoid all the big teams on their way to the final this time around.

If you were to ask me what the bigger shock would be – Spurs getting relegated or Spurs winning the Champions League, I would say the latter.

There are far superior teams than Spurs in the competition, so if they manage to somehow win the Champions League this season, I would say it is embarrassing for the rest of the teams in Europe.

They have to start showing more consistency until the end of the season, and, once they avoid relegation from the Premier League, they can start to rethink everything in the summer.

'Reflective' Earps deserve credit for recent comments

It was great to read about Mary Earps reflecting about the fallout from her book last year.

After an excerpt from her autobiography was released, I wrote that her legacy didn't deserve to be tarnished despite her claims in the book.

I’ve known Mary, and I’ve played with her during my career, and I know that she’s not a malicious person who would want to directly hurt people in a way that came across in her book.

She is a very reflective person, and she was similar as a player. I know that she was very critical of herself as a player when we played together, where she would highlight more negatives in her play than positives.

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She was an absolute perfectionist during my time with her, and she is someone who has always held herself accountable for things.

It doesn’t surprise that she has probably sat with it, and, on reflection, feels that the right thing to do publicly is come out and reveal that she has spoken with the relevant people mentioned in the book and more or less apologised and held herself accountable.

It’s big of Mary to do this. There are some people who put things out, and that would be the end of the story, and they would not reflect on the situation.

I don’t think what Mary wrote in her book was nasty in any way, but, as players, it is something that we would probably prefer to keep in-house. It’s almost an unwritten rule where you don’t expose people’s characters in a way that could have been perceived in the book, and maybe Mary didn’t want that to be interpreted in a certain way.

Let’s remember that the book was Mary’s truth, and that’s how she felt. Who am I to say that she’s wrong in saying her truth?

People will always advise you to have a story in any book you’re preparing to release, and it doesn’t matter how many other great topics are included, they’re looking for that one talking point, and that’s what happened in Mary’s case.

In the book, she opened up about several different topics, but the world didn’t want to put a big spotlight on that and praise her bravery for expressing herself in such an honest way.

I think the success of the Lionesses also played a big part in the huge exposure of her book. If the Lionesses had been less successful, maybe the comments wouldn’t have been such a big deal, and it didn’t work in her favour.

It takes a big person to do what she’s done by having face-to-face conversations with people you could have potentially upset after the book was released. It’s a brave thing to do and credit to her for that.

For players planning to write books in the future, if it’s your truth, then it’s fine. I always believe that if you write about how you felt during that period, it’s okay, but it’s also acceptable for other people to have an opinion on that.

I know from my experience that I’ve expressed my truth and my views on things, and there will be people who don’t like it, and there will be people who agree with them, and that’s the reality.

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