Every Tottenham fan will remember where they were one year ago today. Maybe they were in the lucky thousands inside the San Mames stadium in Bilbao. Maybe they went to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or the surrounding pubs, to be part of a communal experience there. Maybe they watched it in a Spurs bar somewhere else in the world, or at home with the people they love to share Tottenham with.
But wherever you were on May 21 2025, some things will be the same. The desperation for it to be different from the Champions League final in Madrid six years before. The pride in seeing how well-represented Tottenham were in the stadium. The momentary disbelief at how the ball diverted off Luke Shaw and Brennan Johnson and into the net. The nerves in the second half as Spurs defended their lead. The ecstasy at the final whistle. The pride. And above all, more than anything else, the sense that a great cosmic weight had been lifted from the whole Tottenham community.
To call it a ‘historic’ occasion barely comes close to conveying its significance. For a whole generation of Spurs fans, it was the greatest night, not just the win itself but the trophy parade on the Friday, when hundreds of thousands of fans came back to Tottenham to celebrate and commune. It felt like it could be a transformative moment for the club, a dividing line between before and after.
It certainly felt as if it was the climactic point of so many long stories with Spurs. The perfect end to Son Heung-min’s 10 years at the club. The conclusion of six years of drift following the 2019 Champions League final and the move to the new stadium. The vindication of the appointment of Ange Postecoglou, the return to progressive football, and perhaps the launch pad to greater things.
Now we can argue all day about why this has not proven to be the case, about how Tottenham Hotspur as an institution has squandered the legacy of Bilbao over the last year. It is hard to imagine how things could have gone any worse in the last 12 months. That is a conversation for another day.
But the really remarkable thing, the thing that no one would have expected, is that this Sunday, Spurs have a game which is in fact bigger than Bilbao. One year and three days on from their greatest modern night, they now have a game with even higher stakes. The only difference is that this time they are not playing to win. But playing not to lose.
It was a comparison that Roberto De Zerbi offered when he gave his press conference in the Stamford Bridge media room just before 11pm on Tuesday night. He had been asked about the penalty claim when Micky van de Ven was wrestled to the ground in the area, when Spurs were desperately chasing a goal. But De Zerbi wanted to talk about something very different.
“Sunday is the final for Tottenham,” De Zerbi said. “Not Bilbao, against Manchester United. The most important game is Sunday. Last season, they played for the trophy. Now we play for something more important than the trophy. Because the pride, the history of the club, the dignity are more important than the trophy. The trophy you can win, you can lose, nothing changes in your life. You can have one trophy more, but the most important is to keep the dignity, to keep pride. To go on holiday like this (De Zerbi lifted his head up high), and not like this (De Zerbi pointed his head down).”
It was the most interesting thing De Zerbi has said since taking over. Ever since he arrived, the tone has been upbeat. He has focused on building his players up, talking about how good they are, how often he tried to sign them in previous jobs. He has tried to expel all negative talk. After the painful Brighton game, when many fans concluded Spurs were down after a 95th-minute equaliser, De Zerbi insisted that he would countenance no sad faces at training on Monday. Everything that he has said has been positive, optimistic, and designed to lift the players up.
But on Tuesday night, the tone changed. It felt as if, for the first time, De Zerbi was telling his players how important this is, and that the responsibility is theirs to fix it. That he was reminding them of the huge cost of failure, if they lose to Everton on Sunday and West Ham United beat Leeds.
He did not even need to use the word ‘relegation’. His framing was more emotional, more personal. Perhaps more designed to appeal to the egos and consciences of the players on the pitch. It was not just the dignity of the club and the fans that is at stake. But the dignity and reputations of the players as well. If they are the players who take Spurs down, then they will bear the mark of shame for years, and not just for their summer holiday.
It felt like a brave move. But maybe that is the way to appeal to the players ahead of Sunday. Maybe that fear is what will truly move them. “For me, all drama is about dignity,” said playwright Jez Butterworth, in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in 2019. “I don’t think we really care whether people live or die; we care about their dignity as such. As soon as that’s the case, then you really look through your fingers.”
Tottenham have been at risk of losing their dignity all season. That is what they have been scrambling to try to save all year, and what De Zerbi was brought in at great cost to secure. But they are not there yet, and after Tuesday night, they will have to go out and fight for it again against Everton. Maintaining it, maintaining their pride, avoiding shame, being able to look yourself in the mirror; these are things with a weightier value than just trophies, medals and Premier League status. They are not things that go on players’ Wikipedia pages. But maybe they will extract an extra commitment from the players on Sunday. While the crowd looks through their fingers.