Embarrassing - that's the word that currently sums up Tottenham Hotspur, whichever way you want to look at it.
It's embarrassing that Spurs sit 15th in the table, that they once again generously ended another team's losing run and that they defended so poorly for two key moments in a match against the Premier League's second from bottom team.
It's embarrassing for Ange Postecoglou that Tottenham are the third highest scorers in the Premier League yet have won just one of their past 11 matches in the competition and failed to win any of the previous seven and that they are currently closer to the relegation zone than they are to 10th place in the table.
It's embarrassing that Postecoglou had to use two players on Sunday who shouldn't have even been involved against Leicester because he's so low on squad options and that he didn't even have enough players to fill his bench.
It's embarrassing that the Australian has had to constantly defend the mismanagement of a transfer window that has been a disaster for Spurs in Premier League terms however it ends. Postecoglou and the players have been crying out for help either vocally or in their tired displays for weeks yet nothing has come their way in terms of aid, which is indefensible when other clubs have somehow managed to get deals done. Where was the planning for different scenarios?
It's embarrassing that the manager is the only person heard when things aren't going well at the club. When chairman Daniel Levy speaks it's normally when he's sacking a manager, talking about financial results or sending a letter to fans at the end of another season without silverware and when a sporting director utters a word it's twice a year to explain the transfer windows that have often left the fans frustrated. An interview between Levy and former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan reportedly recorded weeks ago is yet to see the light of day.
It's embarrassing no doubt for Levy to hear the loudest chants yet in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - his crowning glory - from thousands of supporters for him to leave his position at the helm of the club. The post-match music was cranked up loudly - Spurs fans have heard that before - but it could not drown out the chants during the match.
It's embarrassing that the club are currently in danger of repeating those two critical transfer-less windows that sucked the life out of the club and the manager in Mauricio Pochettino's final full season, seemingly learning not a single lesson from a period that ended their hopes of building on what the Argentine had created and they've been flailing since. Recent reports detailing the far lower percentage Spurs spend on salaries compared to revenue in relation to all of their rivals, which will only have dropped further this season, have not exactly screamed ambition from the owners to the fanbase.
It's embarrassing for the club to see those couple of banners in the south stand. One read: "24 years, 16 managers, one trophy - time for change". Another proclaimed: "Our game is about glory, Levy's game is about greed". That video footage appeared to show stewards trying to take down the first banner is equally embarrassing.
What's perhaps most embarrassing of all is that when those chants occur - and they've never been this loud - and the banners are held aloft, the conclusion usually heads in only one direction. The manager will end up paying the price and the whole cycle starts again.
For now at least, football.london understands that Spurs are sticking with Postecoglou amid the injury crisis his squad is engulfed in and will try to sign at least one player for him in the week ahead to ease that, even if that should have happened long ago.
Postecoglou is not blameless in all of this. He is well aware that results under his leadership have not been anywhere near good enough this season, particularly when he had the full squad available at the start of the campaign and the defending, even now from a makeshift backline, has not been good enough.
However, the Australian is operating within the most absurd of workplaces. He lost James Maddison - excellent in midweek at Hoffenheim - to a late fitness call just before the match which prompted the need for a clearly unfit Pape Matar Sarr to play in a game he was struggling to move freely in at times.
Even though Sergio Reguilon's presence at the club remains baffling on all counts and he's not a fit for the system, there was the option to play him instead of Sarr and push Archie Gray into midfield, which happened anyway later in the game.
Richarlison should have come off at half-time following his excellent, improvised header from Pedro Porro's cross which had put Spurs into the lead. The Brazilian came into the changing room admitting to discomfort in his groin but wanted to play on for a while longer.
"He was feeling his groin, he should have come off at half-time but he wanted to give another 10 minutes. I could see he wasn’t running well so that is why I took him off," explained Postecoglou.
That the only fit and viable players for the Spurs boss to bring on to try to change the game were a 17-year-old boy and a player who hasn't been wanted at the club for two-and-a-half years says it all.
That Yang Min-hyeok is clearly not seen as an option right now also speaks volumes about the club's transfer policy in buying for the future rather than the now. The South Korean teenager could yet be loaned out in this January window if Spurs bring in a new attacker and a suitable development destination presents itself. Likewise Will Lankshear needs his own loan to develop and is not quite ready for prolonged exposure to this level of football.
There have been calls from supporters that Postecoglou should be throwing more academy youngsters in but beyond Moore they're not at Premier League level at this point and many likely won't ever be. That's academy football and how it works. You have to be an exceptional teenager to play Premier League football. Gray and Lucas Bergvall for instance have gained experience in lower leagues and are among the finest prospects in the European game.
Tottenham's U21s side are having a difficult season, having been shorn of the players that Postecoglou could have feasibly brought in like Jamie Donley, captain George Abbott and to a degree Alfie Devine, who spent most of last season on loan and is currently at Westerlo.
The U21s sit 21st in the Premier League 2 table, having won four of their 13 matches so far. These are not players ready to be thrown into the Premier League cauldron in a difficult situation. They're not at that level, certainly not at this point.
Postecoglou has needed senior help and he hasn't got it. Instead some fingers outside the club are pointing at him for injuries while those same people nod towards how Bournemouth and Andoni Iraola for instance are doing on the south coast with their own large number of injuries.
The Spaniard is doing a terrific job but few point to Bournemouth retaining most of their key players and having no midweek fixtures to tire them and certainly even fewer are accusing Iraola's high energy, heavy running system of causing some of those injuries, when like Postecoglou's brand it probably does.
That's what happens when you win games. Defeats only accentuate the negatives and that's where Postecoglou is right now.
The defending on Sunday in the five minutes after half-time was amateurish. Porro was, as often is the case, out of position, and with Radu Dragusin trying and failing to cover, Bobby De Cordova-Reid was able to hit a low cross that Antonin Kinsky and Ben Davies both completely missed to allow Jamie Vardy to tap in the loose ball.
Then everyone stood off Bilal El Khannouss to allow the Leicester man to run into a midfield-less midfield to curl in a shot from the edge of the Spurs box.
The hosts had enough chances during the game with Son Heung-min, Porro and Dejan Kulusevski all forcing Foxes goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk into saves while Son and Porro both had efforts hit the crossbar with touches from the keeper or a defender.
Yet the ball would not cross the line again and Leicester's seven-game losing streak came to an end at the hands of their generous hosts.
"I think for the most part we controlled the game pretty well. We certainly created enough opportunities to win the game. We had that five minute spell after half-time where we were punished but either side of that there was enough there for us to win the game," said Postecoglou.
"The players are giving everything. From my perspective, I can’t get away from the fact that this group of players are trying as hard as they possibly can to turn our fortunes around."
Postecoglou could not be angry with his players. They've been run into the ground with no relief available. They are mentally and physically drained. Most had only stepped off a flight from Germany a little over 48 hours beforehand, having played a gruelling Europa League away game, the latest in a series of matches coming every three days with no let up.
The perfect example is Kulusevski, who was flying earlier in the season and tipped as one of the league's most in-form players. Now the Swede looks out on his feet, a shadow of his former self and it's a wonder he's not wound up injured.
"I have been around long enough to know that some will just judge on where we are at the moment and rightly so in some respects," said Postecoglou of the terrible league position. "It’s not good enough. If people want to put context to that they can, if not so be it. From my point of view, I’m still very much stuck on the fact that the players are just giving everything they can. They did on Thursday night, they did today.
"There are probably at least two who shouldn’t have been out there. They were just desperate to try to turn our fortunes around. Hopefully over the next 10 days/two weeks we should get some significant players back which I think will help this group a lot. It will give them the boost they need. We have still got some fantastic opportunities this year to make an impact in the second half of this year and I’m sure that will happen."
Postecoglou was asked whether he will still be around at Tottenham to benefit from the return of the players he's been desperate for.
"Who knows. I reckon there is probably a fair chunk that will say no. When you are the manager of a football club you can be very vulnerable and isolated. I don’t feel that. I feel like this group of players, not for me, are giving everything for the club," he said.
"I have a group of staff that is really committed. I focus on that. My role within that is to try and support these players. I can even see in training when the guys who are coming back come back in it is going to give everybody a lift.
"As I keep saying to the players, there is a fantastic opportunity this season to really make an impact and I know we can. But in terms of your question, is there anything I can say about that that is going to change anything that I need to do tomorrow morning? Nothing."
He once again called for help in the transfer window even if it feels like most of the damage has already been done.
"I've said all along, the players need help and I've also said the club are working hard in that area to try to alleviate some of those problems, because Pape Sarr shouldn't have played today. He obviously wasn't fit," he said.
"The players are going out there and giving everything they can because we can't call off games. We've got another game in three days' time that these players have to front up for.
"The injury situation will ease and I'm confident they will sort of help us. Even one more player coming in, just in the short term will give us an opportunity, at least to navigate these last 10 days, two weeks, of what's been a really hard slog for this group of players."
If Levy and Tottenham were to once again deflect attention with another new manager - the 14th of the near quarter century of ENIC's time at the club - then any newcomer will enter the same absurd environment with so many players out.
Which high level managers for the long-term - yes we know the average tenure is roughly 18 months - would leave their current projects in mid-season for the constant Tottenham chaos?
The currently out-of-work candidates have failed at their recent clubs or are big risks and a number of them bring football that would flip-flop back to the style the Spurs fans hated before.
There is the option to hand Ryan Mason the caretaker reins for a third time, something that in itself would be an embarrassing admission of failure that the club keep having to turn to the young coach.
A managerial change this time is not going to provide the sudden injection of hope that stops supporters from being disgruntled. With Pochettino's exit despite his credit in the bank, so Levy quickly threw The Special One into the mix less than 12 hours later. When Fabio Paratici's Nuno Espirito Santo experiment failed, there was Antonio Conte to make everyone feel better for a short while at least.
It has not gone unnoticed that all three of those managers are currently in the top three in their respective leagues, finding that once they left Tottenham it was easier to return to the success they had before arriving in N17.
Yet another managerial change is not going to deflect any attention right now away from the problems at Tottenham Hotspur.
"I don't really speak regularly to [the chairman]," said Postecoglou. "He lets me get on with it, during this January period there's always regular contact, but that's not what I'm talking about [in terms of managers being isolated]. All I'm saying is I come into the club and I feel like everyone, all the players and staff are in the belief of what we're trying to do. I don't feel like I'm trying to convince people in this moment about what we're doing and where we're heading.
"That's where I get the solace to say 'ok I still believe we can'.... I still think there's an opportunity here. I really believe in this group of players. Even today, what I asked of them, some of the performances were outstanding considering what they've been through. To me that's all positive, but ultimately, the fact that we've lost another game of football, the focus is on that."
The Australian added: "I have felt all along that the players are still very committed to what we're doing. That's important to me, because I firmly believe in it and I really believe that this is as low as we've been so far this year but I still think that in these last three months we can do something really special and these players believe that.
"Right now it's very hard to visualise that with the current circumstances we're in, you just have to look at our absences today. They'll all be back. Even missing Madders today, he was so good the other night. All these little things that are not allowing us to get any momentum I'm sure will change and when they change I'm really confident we can make an impact."
For now Spurs are giving the Australian a rare, prolonged chance to find that momentum and make an impact, but Postecoglou needs things to change around him otherwise history has shown what happens next.
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