Hotspur HQ

After watching West Ham United blow out Wolves 4-0 on Friday night and Leeds United defeat Manchester United on Monday night while Tottenham Hotspur could only muster another shutout loss, the reality is beginning to fully sink in around the Premier League that Spurs can't beat anybody in the English top flight and are good bets to go down. Because now, they are officially one of the three teams in the relegation zone, replacing the Hammers to join Burnley and Wolves.

If Tottenham were to officially go down to the EFL Championship at the end of the 2025/26 season, then these three things are almost certainties.

The entire starting defense will be sold

It sounds crazy to think that all five starters in the back four and the goalkeeper could leave the club in a single summer transfer window, but if Spurs were to go down, there is a great chance that the club end up cleaning house in the back line.

Destiny Udogie should stay, but he may be one of the only sellable assets Spurs have - and it's not like he plays enough to justify keeping him around if Spurs are just going to be in the Championship.

Meanwhile, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven have worn out their welcomes and are probably two of the most overrated players in the Premier League - and Spurs fans have learned their lesson about overrating them.

Pedro Porro is in the same camp as Udogie as a sellable asset, except he doesn't have the injury issues; he's also an overrated player. Guglielmo Vicario is a sure fire sale and seems almost guaranteed to go to Inter Milan, with Antonin Kinsky becoming the default starter.

Tottenham will hire a new sporting director

Vinai Venkatesham is the man Tottenham Hotspur fans most want to see gone, but the former Arsenal executive is probably safe in the eyes of the Lewis Family. Johan Lange's job is more tenuous, especially after he helped lead disastrous coaching searches and made a right mess of the winter transfer window.

But Lange is useful as a scout. His eye for young talent is excellent. What Tottenham could do - and what is currently being kicked around - is bringing back a real sporting director with experience so that Lange can move back into a more scouting role. He's only sporting director because Fabio Paratici left in the middle of the season, in part because of how bad Vinai and Lange are.

Mohammed Kudus will be the only forward older than 23

Mohammed Kudus's injury is a huge blow to the team, and he is going to be the face of the attack next season. Tottenham will hope that Mathys Tel, Wilson Odobert, and young Mikey Moore (on loan at Rangers) join him in stardom next season.

Meanwhile, Randal Kolo Muani won't be brought back on loan, while Richarlison and Dominic Solanke are two struggling players on big wages who are easy to sell and hard to justify in the Championship. Tottenham could move Dejan Kulusevski back to midfield permanently after a serious knee injury, thus leaving Kudus as the only forward not 23 or younger in the squad.

Whlie Roberto De Zerbi's first game as Tottenham Hotspur manager went far from swimmingly, there were enough fluke occurrences in that game that Spurs supporters should not feel that much more discouraged by what they saw against Sunderland in comparison to the futility that Spurs have exhibited throughout the 2025/26 Premier League season.

De Zerbi made a few managerial blunders, like not starting Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons, but Spurs were not worse than before. As long as De Zerbi learns from his mistakes and quickly gets up to speed with the strengths of the squad, he should be able to adjust. But this coming weekend, he will be tested a lot more by his former club Brighton, who do have more firepower to burn what has been a very disorganized Tottenham side.

Beyond the structure of the team, De Zerbi now has a pretty big lineup decision to make that was not quite as big of a controversy before the Sunderland game. With Guglielmo Vicario still recovering from hernia surgery to repair an injury that clearly hampered him throughout the season, Antonin Kinsky got his first start in goal since his slip and slide debacle against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.

Antonin Kinsky is making a real push

Kinsky passed his test with flying colors and was the best player on the pitch on a poor afternoon for Spurs, blameless in a 1-0 loss while showing the kind of character that should, if his teammates have any spine left, inspire those around him to play better in this relegation fight.

Now, Roberto De Zerbi has a decision make. Does he start Guglielmo Vicario, the incumbent, because of his experience and what he has done in the past? Or does he roll with Antonin Kinsky and try to see if the Czech goalkeeper is the man for the future? Because even if Spurs survive Premier League relegation, Vicario is almost certainly gone, with Inter Milan on the verge of acquiring him this summer - if they have not quietly agreed to terms already.

Meanwhile, if Tottenham Hotspur do get relegated, then not only will Vicario 100 percent be gone even if De Zerbi wants to keep him, which is probably not going to be the case anyway, but Spurs will also have trouble recruiting the upgrade they want. Nobody really thinks Robin Roefs, Bart Verbruggen, James Trafford, or the other options Spurs want in goal would join a Championship side. Meanwhile, Kinsky could be an excellent goalkeeper in the second division and continue to develop with more starts.

So Kinsky vs. Vicario has become a real question for De Zerbi, and increasingly, with Spurs supporters looking towards building a better future, you may hear a lot more support for the No. 2 in the days leading up to the Brighton match.

If Tottenham Hotspur suffer their first relegation in almost 50 years, the winter transfer window will go down as a major reason why.

Those in charge of the circus, namely Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham, later rationalised Spurs' inactivity due to the fact that the players who were then out injured would soon be returning to action.

At the time, it was much easier to commend the hierarchy for not panicking in trying circumstances. Our situation wasn't anywhere near as perilous as it is now.

Still, the overwhelming majority thought we'd left ourselves short in attack after Brennan Johnson was sold and Mohammed Kudus sustained a significant quad injury. Since then, three managers have tried and failed to fit a square peg into a round hole down the right-hand side, with balance proving almost impossible to come by.

The most annoying thing is, there was an obvious solution on the table that surely wouldn't have allowed us to sink into our currently dire state.

Tottenham's Ademola Lookman oversight was criminal

Tottenham weren't completely inactive in the winter. Thankfully, we signed another runner in midfield (Conor Gallagher) and a left back for the future (João Souza). Just what we needed.

Souza has barely featured, while Gallagher has so far been a disaster. He's played plenty since joining the club, yet I'm struggling to recollect a single positive contribution since the second half of the 2-2 draw with Manchester City.

I still believe that utilising him higher up and allowing him to crash the box is the only way to deploy the Englishman effectively.

Signing Gallagher to unnecessarily high wages reflected the board's misguided priorities. He wasn't a player we required, and the move seemingly compromised a swoop for the attacker we so desperately needed.

Ademola Lookman was begging to be bought in January, having failed to secure a move away from Atalanta last summer. We were tenuously linked then, and supposedly boasted an interest midway through the season, but opted against making the £30m move that probably would've saved us from the abyss.

Lookman instead waited until the very end of the window to be scooped up by Atlético Madrid, who'd sold Giacomo Raspadori to Bergamo two weeks prior. They perhaps couldn't believe the Nigerian was still available.

Events since have been incredibly predictable. Tottenham's imbalanced and depleted attack has floundered, while Lookman has thrived in the Spanish capital. His fourth goal contribution of the Champions League knockout stages sent Atléti into the semifinals of the competition for the first time in almost a decade, having teed up the opening goal against the Lilywhites in our infamous round of 16 tie.

Lookman is a star winger who'd have improved us immeasurably. Signing him for £30m amid an injury crisis would've been the complete opposite of a "panic buy", but rather a shrewd and necessary piece of business that any competent recruiters would've overseen.

God, how sweet those three weeks were when Tottenham Hotspur Football Club wasn't ruining everything.

The Lilywhites were back with a vengeance at the weekend, this time with their third different manager of a terrible 2025/26 season, but it wasn't merely a flat Roberto De Zerbi debut that encouraged the idea of the 2019 Champions League finalists and 2025 Europa League winners succumbing to the second tier.

Plenty of supporters have borderline accepted a cataclysmic fate. I've long believed, despite our historically awful run, that we'd somehow find a way to preserve our Premier League status.

Now, though, I think Spurs are done. The number-crunchers agree, too.

Supercomputer predicts Premier League relegation fight

It's worth noting that when Thomas Frank was sacked by the club in February, Tottenham's chances of going down were remote, no more than a few percent.

However, after Igor Tudor's winless 44-day reign and De Zerbi's debut defeat, Spurs have slipped into the bottom three for the first time since the opening weekend of the 2015/16 season.

According to Opta's simulations, Spurs are the most likely team to join Wolves and Burnley in the Championship next season. After a bad, bad weekend, our relegation chances have been boosted to 49.5%.

West Ham had long been the favourite to finish 18th and spend next season (at least) in the second tier, but Nuno Espírito Santo has found a way to embolden the Hammers and render them more than merely competitive. They battered an improving Wolves 4-0 on Friday night to usurp Spurs and ensure the Lilywhites kicked off at the Stadium of Light in the relegation zone.

Admittedly, I thought Leeds United were our best bet of staying in the division. Daniel Farke's side were excellent over Christmas, but haven't won a league game since February and have struggled mightily in front of goal as of late.

Few expected them to claim their first league victory at Old Trafford in 45 years on Monday night, but that's exactly what they did. Leeds are now six points better off than us, with their chances of going down reduced to 1.61%. Home games against the bottom two are on the horizon.

West Ham's run-in is the toughest, while Nottingham Forest haven't pulled away just yet. However, it's absolutely imperative that we beat De Zerbi's former employers, the in-form Brighton & Hove Albion next week, otherwise we could be cut adrift.

Next week, the Hammers visit Crystal Palace off the back of a trip to Florence, while Forest are at home to a Burnley team that's won one league game since October.

It's not looking good...

Tottenham Hotspur are officially in the Premier League relegation zone after their latest shutout loss, but even though they won the Europa League last season, the reality is that Spurs have been terrible for more than just the 2025/26 season.

There are more than just three player who fit this description, but here are three men on Tottenham who have been dreary for two seasons in a row now.

CM Rodrigo Bentancur

Tottenham have not missed Rodrigo Bentancur one bit since his injury, and, in truth, Archie Gray had usurped the Uruguayan as a starting midfielder even under Thomas Frank, who almost seemed to be allergic to starting young players.

While Bentancur did come from a big club in Juventus, there is a reason why Juve were so keen on selling him. Bentancur is a very average player on the ball and in defense. He does not win possession much, his creativity is subpar, and he often plays cowardly and goes missing in the big games.

CB Radu Dragusin

There isn't much of a need to harp on Radu Dragusin, because every Tottenham Hotspur fan can plainly see that he is not good enough for this club. Dragusin is one of the worst center backs in the Premier League, and you could make a strong case for him being Spurs least talented player since he joined the club in 2024/25. But you know what? At least he tries.

CB Micky van de Ven

Dominic Solanke could have easily made it on this list, as he has been poor lately and had only nine goals and a couple of assists in 25 starts last Premier League campaign, but at least he turned it up in the Europa League. Fellow striker Richarlison has also been poor, but at least he has been a source of goals this season, and when he was healthy last season, he was scoring, too.

But more people need to be talking about how dreadful Micky van de Ven has been playing these past two seasons. Honestly, when you dig into the numbers deeper, he was quite bad last season, too. He had 0.8 tackles and 0.8 interceptions per game with 0.5 dribbles completed allowed in 2024/25. That's a terrible ratio of ball winning to getting beat one on one. He looks great in highlight clips with his speed and passing accuracy, but his actual defensive quality and instincts are atrocious. And now, he's just getting exposed for being overrated - part of it is on us for overhyping him.

It was more of the same for Tottenham Hotspur under their third manager in a dire 2025/26 season, with the opening 15 minutes at the Stadium of Light proving to be no more than a false dawn for the Lilywhites.

Roberto De Zerbi made his eagerly anticipated managerial bow for the club on Sunday, with intrigue surrounding his debut piquing as his first Spurs XI was disclosed.

Much of the team picked itself due to injuries, but De Zerbi also made a couple of calls that looked questionable on paper, and ultimately proved to be erroneous.

His exclusions of Xavi Simons and Mathys Tel from his team were a surprise, given what he'd said in the build-up to his first game, and Sunday's outing should've shown that these two need to be at the forefront of our survival bid.

Tel and Simons must play leading roles for Tottenham amid relegation scrap

Neither player was particularly impactful when they entered proceedings at the Stadium of Light, but that's besides the point.

Tel entered the fray right after Nordi Mukiele's opener, with the game's already stodgy rhythm disrupted further by the collision caused by a Brian Brobbey push on Cristian Romero. Tottenham's captain, who clattered into the onrushing Antonín Kinsky, will miss the remainder of the season with a partial tear of his MCL.

De Zerbi said Simons would've come on earlier then he eventually did (84th minute for the woeful Conor Gallagher), but Romero's enforced substitution altered his plans.

The rationale behind De Zerbi's selected front four seemed to be predicated on playing over Sunderland's press and releasing the speedy Randal Kolo Muani in behind. However, Spurs, after a couple of early successful sequences, struggled to play through or over the Black Cats. The technical limitations of Richarlison, in particular, thwarted our ability to get up the pitch, while Dominic Solanke simply didn't offer enough as a focal point.

Tel is raw and imperfect, but I would've much preferred him to have been on the receiving end of the two promising openings Richarlison squandered in both halves. Still, I could at least understand why De Zerbi opted for Richy.

The more confusing decision was the deployment of Lucas Bergvall as the most advanced midfielder. Thomas Frank tried this, and we never saw the best of the young Swede. Bergvall is far more effective when he's able to carry the ball from deep, with his courage and bravery in possession under-utilised by De Zerbi's predecessors.

He doesn't look comfortable receiving ahead of the ball, and merely using him to run around and win second balls seems to be a waste of his talents. While De Zerbi is offering a lite version of his complex principles at this early juncture, it seems bizarre for Tottenham's most creative player not to be on the pitch as much as possible.

Without Simons, Spurs seldom seem like prising any defence open. The Dutchman hasn't yet settled into Premier League life, but he's caught fire in Europe and was at the forefront of our two most impressive performances of 2026 (vs. Manchester City and Atlético Madrid).

Tottenham Hotspur are the laughingstock of the Premier League right now. Spurs supporters are feeling what Schalke, Hertha Berlin, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Saint Etienne, and so many other fan bases around Europe have felt when their giant clubs started teetering on the brink after years of mismanagement. Nobody in the building listened to their frustrations, and now the Tottenham faithful are the ones meant to pay.

After losing 1-0 to Sunderland over the Premier League weekend while West Ham United trounced Wolves in their relegation six pointer, the Lilywhites sit in the bottom three and, at this point, look like they are "comfortably" headed straight to the bottom.

There is no pundit in England who does a better job of telling it like it is, and if he ruffles feathers, then that is because the people listening to him are not ready to confront the reality. Tottenham Hotspur fans, however, have been confronting their own club's incompetence for years, so Jamie Carragher's honest, scathing critique of the Lilywhites will not come as an offense.

Tottenham's winless streak is staggering

The former Liverpool defender said on Sky Sports, "No club in the Premier League should be going without a win for this long, it's not acceptable."

Carragher acknowledged that, yes, Tottenham have had a lot of injuries, but his assessment, obvious as it may be, was absolutely spot on. Spurs are not showing enough fight, and for the stature of this club and for the players that they do have who have been healthy for most of this season, the results they are turning in are beyond appalling. Finally, Carragher made the assertion that it's clearly not an issue of coaching and that there is a deeper problem, seeing as how Spurs have been cycling through managers with no change in results.

Roberto De Zerbi definitely has his work cut out for him, that's for sure, but it really is insane to think that Tottenham, one of the Big Six clubs of the Premier League and one of the 10 biggest in terms of revenue in the world, have not won a single league game since Dec. 28 when they barely eeked a 1-0 out of Crystal Palace.

In the entire calendar year, in three and a half months of matches, Spurs cannot get a single win despite having their backs to the wall and now three coaches in that period of time. Winless in their last 14 Premier League fixtures, Spurs look exactly like a team that deserves to go down.

The hope that Roberto De Zerbi could immediately offer a boost to Tottenham Hotspur and shake things up positively enough in his managerial debut that Spurs would be able to finally get a win in the Premier League were met with a harsh reality. This Spurs team looks like one that is doomed to relegation.

In the morning after the game, The Athletic's Nick Miller summed up the situation Spurs are in from a national perspective, and it really sinks in just how dire things are:

"The basic facts tell you that there is still everything to play for in the Premier League relegation race. Three points separate four teams, with Tottenham currently occupying 18th place and Leeds yet to play this weekend. West Ham and Nottingham Forest are between those two, so with six more rounds to go, in theory, it’s shaping up to be a thoroughly entertaining scrap for survival. But then you watch the games, and you start to feel much less optimistic about Tottenham’s chances of staying up."

Tottenham look like the underdogs

Everything that could have possibly went wrong ended up going wrong. Spurs played horrendously and didn't look for a moment like they would score. So many calls ended up going against them yet again, including a despicable Brian Brobbey challenge that led to Cristian Romero joining Mohammed Kudus (and others) with a season ending injury.

Although you would normally back Tottenham with De Zerbi coaching and the players that they have to stay up when the competition is West Ham, Wolves, Burnley, and Nottingham Forest, Spurs, right now, look like the worst team of the lot.

At this point, as Miller's comments allude to, Tottenham Hotspur are starting to look, if anything, like the underdogs in the relegation fight. Whereas West Ham United are knocking down Wolves 4-0, Spurs lost 3-0 to Nottingham Forest before the March international break and were as putrid offensively in Roberto De Zerbi's first game managing the club vs. Sunderland as they were under Igor Tudor or Thomas Frank.

Now, Spurs can only go up from here with De Zerbi coaching them, and James Maddison may still be on his way back from injury. But there are no other saviors. Mohammed Kudus is done. Cristian Romero is now gone. And unless if Spurs can dramatically improve - not just improve marginally - from where they are now, then the Lilywhites can kiss the Premier League farewell.

Although Roberto De Zerbi has been in the Premier League before as a manager after a successful spell at Brighton that ended in another implosion behind the scenes, it is still valid to call his first match in charge of Tottenham Hotspur a rude awakening of sorts.

Spurs hired De Zerbi to turn around a club floundering in the relegation battle, and after Sunday's 1-0 loss to Sunderland, the Lilywhites find themselves officially in the relegation zone now, failing to respond to West Ham United's scintillating 4-0 win over Wolves.

De Zerbi has to be getting some serious stick from Spurs supporters, because even though it was only his first game and an adjustment period is needed, the club looked no better than how they did under Igor Tudor before him. Worse yet, the personnel decisions De Zerbi made were shocking.

Randal Kolo Muani was not so good after all

In particular, De Zerbi entrusted Conor Gallagher and Randal Kolo Muani with starts against Sunderland when there were a couple of much better options like Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons (among other switches he could have made).

Before the match against Sunderland, Roberto De Zerbi had praised Gallagher to the surprise of many fans, and he also had some kind words to say about Kolo Muani, even though he did actually admit that the striker is not having a good season by any means.

Perhaps it was hubris and De Zerbi wanted to prove that he is right about these guys being good footballers or perhaps he genuinely thought he could get the most out of him in his first game in charge, but whatever it was, both Conor Gallagher and Randal Kolo Muani were horrendous against the Black Cats this past weekend.

Now, they were far from the only culprits in the shutout loss, but they were both at the bottom of the barrel. Gallagher did what he has done all half season long for Spurs since coming from Atletico Madrid in January. He was overrun in midfield, did not provide any of the ball winning or progression that was advertised, and was a huge creative black hole, especially in comparison to the player who should have started for him in Xavi Simons.

Meanwhile, Kolo Muani was part of a clown show trio of strikers, and he only doesn't get even more stick because Dominic Solanke was somehow miles worse. De Zerbi entrusted these two players against basic logic to start, and it blew up in his face. He may not be as willing to give them a chance next weekend when he tries to exact some revenge on Brighton.

Tottenham Hotspur are officially in the relegation zone. After watching West Ham United dust Wolves 4-0 on Friday night, Spurs responded to their London rivals by putting together another offensive disaster class against a stingy Sunderland defense, failing to take any advantage of Dan Ballard's injury in Roberto De Zerbi's managerial debut for a Premier League Big Six club.

De Zerbi obviously has a lot of work cut out for him, and he is not even one of the top five biggest problems, at least in a footballing sense, at Spurs right now. Spurs were terrible before De Zerbi, and they will, logically, most likely continue to stink for the remainder of the season.

But De Zerbi was hired for a lot of money immediately to help Spurs stink less - and at least mitigate the rotten stench of a decaying organization enough to survive relegation. He didn't help himself, though, with the decisions he made both during and before his first match as Tottenham manager against Premier League returnees Sunderland in this 1-0 loss.

Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons snubbed already

It was baffling to see Xavi Simons and Mathys Tel sitting on the bench, only coming on in the second half as substitutes. Roberto De Zerbi attempted to justify the Simons snub in the press conference after the loss, but all of his fumbling fell on unreceptive ears.

Spurs supporters had seen Thomas Frank embarrass himself by leaving off his most dynamic attacking players, as Tottenham are a much worse team without these two. De Zerbi snubbing Tel was particularly bizarre, considering he had just spent the pre game press conference time telling everyone that he liked the Frenchman enough to try to sign him for Marseille.

Alongside Archie Gray, Mathys Tel had been Tottenham's best player over the last few weeks and the only real source of attacking threat. With the only other true winger in the squad actually out injured for the rest of the season in Mohammed Kudus, you would have thought that De Zerbi would have written Tel's name in permanent marker as a starter.

Instead, he rolled with three strikers. And all of Richarlison, Randal Kolo Muani, and Dominic Solanke were predictably poor and even worse together. It was the sort of managerial blunder that you, again, would have thought that De Zerbi would have learned from by watching Frank's mistakes before him.