Hotspur HQ

Tottenham are slumping towards the second tier.

It's as bleak as it can get in north London right now. The Igor Tudor punt hasn't yet come off, with the group of players at his disposal struggling to buy in.

Tudor's brief tenure so far hasn't been defined by drastic tactical failings. His inability to boost this broken squad has been more damning, but it says more about the personnel rather than the man on the touchline, who's been thrust into a terrible situation.

The senior players continue to let the club down, whether that's through a lack of care or discipline. Micky van de Ven, who's sauntered through the past few weeks as if he's above it all, was the latest to spark a nadir. His sending off on Thursday night caused a rapid collapse after a moment of respite, leading to yet another Premier League defeat.

The light at the end of the tunnel is merely an oncoming train, so it's time for Tudor to turn to the kids. The fearlessness of youth may ignite something deep within, and Spurs are blessed with a talented crop of homegrown teenagers.

Here are three academy starlets who could help save Tottenham from the threat of relegation.

I suspect that if Mauricio Pochettino or even José Mourinho were in the home dugout at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Lucá Williams-Barnett would've had ample opportunities to prove himself ready for the big stage.

The crafty attacking midfielder has made fools of teenagers up and down the country all season, and Frank did hand Williams-Barnett his first-team debut last September, becoming the youngest-ever player to appear in the League Cup for Spurs.

Mikey Moore was the talent on the tip of everybody's tongues last season, and his potential was teased before his Rangers loan, but Williams-Barnett is the shiny new toy pretty much every supporter wants to see more of.

There's a serious emotional void at this football club, with the connection between players, manager and fans at its lowest ebb. However, escaping the feeling the emptiness doesn't require anything drastic. Simply giving the club's youth a chance is enough to restore something, whatever that may be. Williams-Barnett is the most gifted at Tottenham's disposal, and the Lilywhites have nothing to lose by trusting him.

This team needs personality.

A desperate situation at home to Borussia Dortmund in January forced Frank to turn to the academy, as the highly-rated Jun'ai Byfield appeared for the final 30 minutes of Tottenham's 2-0 victory.

With Tudor unlikely to deviate from a back three and seemingly one senior centre-back having to be suspended at all times, there should be an opening for the 17-year-old to at least play some minutes before the end of the season. The outside right centre-back role particularly suits his skill set, and he should certainly be above Radu Drăgușin in the pecking order.

If we can retain a backline of Kevin Danso, Cristian Romero and Van de Ven once the Dutchman returns from his ban, we should be okay. But, if any of the aforementioned three are unavailable, Tudor must opt against square pegs in round holes and instead trust someone who, despite his youth, has an excellent grasp of the position.

Remarkably, 17-year-old winger Tynan Thompson hasn't come particularly close to making his senior bow, especially after a bright pre-season. Frank had Djed Spence doing left-wing shifts over the talented teenager, who shone in the UEFA Youth League this season.

Thompson scored seven in seven against European opposition, and has developed nicely into a multi-faceted winger who boasts lightning-quick feet and an eye for goal.

Competent clubs would be handing a talent like Thompson first-team minutes here and there to aid his development, without compromising his joy at youth level. Like Williams-Barnett, age-group football has appeared beyond the winger.

And considering no moves were made by Johan Lange to replace Brennan Johnson or mitigate Mohammed Kudus' injury, Tudor still has few options out wide. Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani are the only two capable of hugging the touchline after Wilson Odobert succumbed to an ACL tear. Thompson seems like an exciting, high-upside solution that's currently being ignored.

The boos directed at Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario are getting surprisingly forceful, and even as he started the season brightly as a pure shot stopper, even his actual ability to make saves has deteroriated as the pressure of the Tottenham shirt and the sheer weight of a relegation battle have forced the league's least accountable goalkeeper to crack.

Spurs fans have been done with Vicario for months now, and even his biggest advocates in the fan base have found it impossible to defend a player who throws defenders under the bus, cannot complete simple passes, frequently sends the ball out of bounds into no man's land, completely misjudges shots from range, and haplessly flaps his wings at even the tamest of crosses.

At this point, it is an upset that young Antonin Kinsky still has not received his shot, and after Vic surrendered three more goals in another relegation battle opportunity lost vs. Crystal Palace, a large portion of the boos were the result of Igor Tudor not giving Kinsky that chance.

Juventus really want Guglielmo Vicario

The good news for Tottenham is that Serie A still values Vicario highly. Inter Milan have been frequently mentioned as a landing spot as the Nerazzurri look to replaced a washed Yann Sommer, and now Turin based outlet Tuttosport's Lorenzo Aprile is reporting that Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti is pushing hard for the Bianconeri to bring on Vicario as Michele Di Gregorio's replacement. Roma are also interested.

Spalletti, shockingly, is said to be desperate to sign Vicario, and what makes that even wilder is that even though Vic was Empoli's hero in Serie A, he actually was not as good of a goalkeeper as Di Gregorio was for Monza. Both Sommer and Di Gregorio have been massive disappointments this season, but even their bad campaigns are still actually way better than what Vicario is doing for Spurs.

Maybe these Serie A giants are not paying attention, or maybe they are confident enough to think that they can recover Vicario, blaming his issues on the rot of Spurs. No matter, Tottenham will be very happy to hear that Spalletti, one of Italian football's great modern managers, is such a big fan of Vicario that he's willing to cast Di Gregorio aside for him. It will make parting ways with Vic even easier if these big Serie A clubs get into a bidding war with each other, and we know how much Italian clubs, especially Juve, love doing business with Spurs.

Already, Tottenham Hotspur's interim manager Igor Tudor is starting to feel the heat on his job, as he is yet to win a game for Spurs in the Premier League. Following a 3-1 loss to rivals Crystal Palace, fueled by an inexcusable red card from Micky van de Ven, Spurs are dancing precariously above the drop zone, and Tudor may be sacrificed in yet another desperate ploy for survival.

He can help his chances by bringing Richarlison into the fold as a starter, because, bafflingly, he did not start the relegation specialist striker against Palace, instead opting to give more minutes to a mentally checked out Randal Kolo Muani, who was awful as per usual.

Now, Richy would not have spared Spurs in this case, as Tottenham were totally doomed by Van de Ven's red. But it is surprising to see that Richarlison is not counted on by Tudor when everyone knows how much drive he has and how valuable he is in a relegation fight. Everton fans looking on with pity are surprised, too, given how Richy became a hero, even earning his move to Tottenham, by dragging the Toffees to survival in their darkest hour.

Richarlison has been one of the Premier League's best shooters

Beyond the intangibiles, though, there is another reason to start Richarlison. He scores. Even in this difficult season, Richarlison is someone, statistically speaking, who should be getting more shooting chances. Gradient Sports calculated Richy's shooting grade as a 91.2, ranking his finishing above Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago, Benjamin Sesko, and Viktor Gyokeres.

These are the top strikers in the Premier League, and though Richy did take the shooting option over the better option more frequently than the likes of Gyokeres and Haaland, it is quite striking to see Richy rank as one of the very best shooters in the league.

What got Richarlison benched was how much he was lacking in the all around game, especially compared to Dominic Solanke. But he has scored some bangers this season, and his overall clip of eight goal and three assists in 13 starts and 24 overall appearances is not bad at all for a club that is dangerously close to relegation.

If Tudor were looking for yet another reason to entrust Richarlison to help lead Tottenham to safety in the Premier League, then his ability to find the back of the net and shoot accurately may be an even more important trump card than the experience and pure heart in a relegation fight.

Now finished in European football and playing for the San Jose Earthquakes in MLS, the beginning of the end for Timo Werner was an ill fated loan spell at Tottenham Hotspur in which he scored two goals in the Premier League. And although that is a figure Randal Kolo Muani, Spurs current loan acquisition at striker, exceeded in one Champions League game against actual employers PSG, RKM has been so poor that Spurs supporters may as well pine for the days of Werner.

There is something to be said about character and effort in a relegation fight, and Spurs now sit in an unprecedented situation, just one point above the Fray after losing yet another London derby - this time 3-1 to Crystal Palace.

Kolo Muani almost inexplicably started the game, but not even Igor Tudor, who managed Kolo Muani's brief resurgence at Juventus last season, could get the Frenchman to look like a competent Premier League forward. Although Kolo Muani had a brief run of form in a Tottenham uniform, he has looked mentally checked out over the past couple of months, and it is remarkable he is still on the team after winter transfer rumors.

Randal Kolo Muani is a bigger flop than Timo Werner was

There is no doubt that Werner was a loan transfer flop for Spurs, and beyond his 2020/21 season in which he had 14 goal contributions for Chelsea in the league en route to hoisting the Champions League in a fairytale run under Thomas Tuchel, the German international has been terrible since then - a certified Premier League bust who could not even cut the mustard in his second stint at RB Leipzig.

But Tottenham would gladly take that over Kolo Muani at this point. Because even though Werner could not hit a barn door during his time with Spurs, at least he would run and try. His pace alone was something for defenses to worry about.

Kolo Muani, right now, is offering nothing. Even the bare minimum of effort is missing from his game, and Spurs supporters are beginning to see him as a waste of space mercenary who typifies the ego and overrated sense of self importance of the current crop of Spurs players.

Werner was a flop, but at least he tried and was never full of himself. He did not give up on the team. Kolo Muani has become such an albatross at Spurs worst moment of need that in comparison, Werner looks like Fernando Torres.

As Conor Gallagher floundered as a substitute in another horrendous Tottenham Hotspur outing, doing nothing but get overrun against former employers Crystal Palace in a 3-1 loss, every single Spurs supporters could only look back at his 40 million euro transfer and groan at a panic buy that never should have been made.

All the while, the manager of Spurs next opponents, Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone, can only laugh, because Gallagher was the center midfielder he sold to Spurs for more than his market value. Simeone had been desperate to sell Gallagher for months, if not a year, pretty quickly giving up on the player Atleti signed from Chelsea when he realized that the man did not have the tactical IQ or technical quality to play for a top La Liga and Champions League side.

Atleti have ambitions of winning La Liga again one day and being a Champions League contender, which was their status briefly in the 2010s under Simeone. Tottenham's aspirations are, at this point, to avoid Premier League relegation, and Gallagher is so poor that he cannot even help Spurs achieve that.

Diego Simeone knew Conor Gallagher wasn't good enough

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid have one of the best winter signings in new addition Ademola Lookman, who was one of the best forwards in Serie A. Spurs could have signed him both last summer and this winter, and in their failure to do so, they signed Gallagher who then helped Atleti fund the Lookman signing.

Lookman is already en route to the Copa del Rey Final and has been an asset to a Rojiblancos side that is preparing to lose Antoine Griezmann to Orlando City in MLS this year. Meanwhile, Spurs already lost Son Heung-min to MLS last summer and failed to replace him when Lookman was sitting right there, disgruntled at Atalanta and ready to return to the English Premier League to be Spurs new starting left winger while Mathys Tel developed.

Atletico Madrid and Tottenham will clash head to head with very different tales of the winter transfer window on their minds and very different results domestically. Los Rojiblancos are competing for Champions League places and a prestigious cup title, while Spurs are out of their domestic cup competitions and barely above the drop zone.

While it does feel a bit like grasping at straws to find positives and individuals worth praising after Tottenham Hotspur melted down hard in a must win game, losing 3-1 to another London rival in Crystal Palace with their survival on the line, center midfielder Archie Gray and left winger Mathsy Tel deserve some flowers.

Gray registered back to back assists for Spurs in losses, shining even when out of position, as Igor Tudor had to shuffle things out of necessity, especially after supposed captain Micky van de Ven got bagged for an atrocious red card.

Whereas Van de Ven let the team down yet again while masquerading as their captain, the 19 year old Gray looked like the real captain, showing the hunger and urgency in the relegation fight that so many of his more experienced Spurs teammates have desperately lacked.

Mathys Tel belongs as a Tottenham starter

It was not only Gray, though. After being snubbed from the starting lineup over the weekend, young Mathys Tel came off the bench once more to nearly change the game vs. Fulham. Finally, the new manager Tudor rewarded the rising Frenchman with the start against Crystal Palace, and he led the way with four key passes in a quietly great performance as part of a woeful Spurs attack.

Tel is the one guy on the front line trying to make things happen, and he deserves just as much praise as Gray. It is not easy to create chances when your team is getting blown off the map like Spurs were by Oliver Glasner's Eagles, but Tel never gave up on his team.

Neither Tel nor Gray can ever be accused of not trying. These two young gems have future superstar written all over them, and it is a shame that even some of the Spurs faithful have turned on them at points this season or criticized them for not being good enough.

Well, they are good enough, and they are certainly superior to their more experienced peers like Conor Gallagher, Joao Palhinha, Richarlison, and Randal Kolo Muani. Tel, in particular, is really embarrassing players like Kolo Muani who do not even try.

At least Tudor has the foresight to startTel and Gray and make them important players for the team. They belong as Tottenham players in the 2026/27 season, regardless of what happens to end this relegation fiht, much more than many of the bigger names in the Spurs first team.

Despite multiple disaster classes in important games, including a tragic red card vs. Crystal Palace that may cost Tottenham Hotspur the Premier League, center back Micky van de Ven is one of the most coveted players on the summer 2026 transfer market. La Liga rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona are lining up to bid for the Dutchman this year, but he is not the only Spurs talent top clubs want to steal away.

The biggest gem, by far, is Luka Vuskovic. Just 18 years of age, the Hamburg center back is having a season for the ages, and the shouts of him being a Sergio Ramos regen by Spurs fans during the preseason may have actually been an understatement rather than an overstatement.

A Bundesliga Player of the Season candidate after the Bayern Munich duo of Harry Kane and Michael Olise, Vuskovic has even played himself onto Bayern's radar, though he appears to be more interested in staying in northern Germany for one more year of seasoning.

Barcelona, others want Luka Vuskovic

Well, Spurs supporters worst fear is that he will never make it back to the N17 because of all the interest from Bayern in him, and now those fears are being accelerated by another one of European football's biggest clubs - and an even bigger club, if you ask Robert Lewandowski.

According to a report from Sky Sports Germany's Florian Plettenberg, via Spurs Global, Barcelona have added Luka Vuskovic to Micky van de Ven in their search for a world class center back. Plettenberg says that Barca have already begun initial talks with Vuskovic's camp, further adding that other top European clubs are after the Hambrug sensation.

With Tottenham closer and closer to relegation after their brutal loss to rivals Crystal Palace, the sad reality of Vuskovic leaving early to a bigger club is starting to sink in. Vuskovic was so good this season, and the worst part of all this is that even when Spurs get a young gem right, they are so futile as an organization that they will not get to truly benefit from him. It is a story as old as time, dating back to when Luka Modric and Gareth Bale were stolen away by Real Madrid before their peaks.

What makes the Vuskovic situation even worse is that Tottenham may not even get to enjoy a big transfer fee as they did with Bale, as Vuskovic is not yet at peak value and Spurs may not have any leverage at all if they are indeed relegated.

With a 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace and an implosion at the stroke of half time after psuedo captain Micky van de Ven's abhorrent sending off, Tottenham Hotspur truly are on the brink of relegation like never before. And though the relegation would come without Daniel Levy as the club's CEO, the notion purported by many fans that Levy would have saved them from relegation could not be further from the truth.

Because as much as the ills of Tottenham right now are owed to the incompetent duo of Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange, this relegation would very much have Levy's paw prints all over it. Just because Levy is not in charge right now at this moment of crisis does not mean his actions of the past several years that led up to this point are all of a sudden erased or attributed to someone else.

The current malaise of Tottenham Hotspur can very much be attributed to the culture and the actions of Levy that have been built up over the years, and while some level of evil shrewdness may have been holding the tatters of Spurs together they were 17th last season - only kept alive by the historic ineptitude of the trio of newcomers from the EFL Championship.

Daniel Levy is as responsible as anyone for this

And now, as evidenced by their latest losses in the London derbies, Tottenham themselves are as incompetent as any club in European football. The mentality of this team is weak, the underperformance is historic, and the way Levy has set them up to fail is almost a middle finger on the way out of his exit at the start of the 2025/26 campaign.

Levy should not be praised by the Tottenham faithful or remembered fondly, because while even Mr. Levy had his positive traits, keeping Spurs competitive was not necessarily one of them. That credit is owed to the players who came before, especially titans of the sport like Son Heung-min and Harry Kane.

There were very few reasons for Tottenham Hotspur fans to be happy after their brutal 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace, fueled by yet another disastrous performance by Micky van de Ven - a man who has done a lot to destroy his reputation with the arm band around him. But young center midfielder Archie Gray was the one thing resembling a silver lining in defeat.

Though he is just 19 years old, Gray showed a mentality far beyond that of his teammates, who have frustrated the fan base with their egos and thin skin this season. Gray was the one guy running hard and fighting to keep Tottenham afloat, and though he did get an assist in back to back losses, once again, his contributions were not enough for Spurs to turn the tide.

Even so, Tottenham fans appreciate Gray's resolve greatly. Many of his teammates could stand to learn from him, and juxtaposed to what Van de Ven did against Crystal Palace, Gray certainly looked more like captain's material than either the Dutchman or even the (too harshly) criticized real captain, Cristian Romero.

Archie Gray was doubted by Tottenham fans

So often this season, Gray has been disrespected by the managers, even played out of position in these two games against Fulham and Crystal Palace. But Gray never complains or lets his head down. Instead, he grinds harder than anyone else in the team and focuses on what he can do to help Spurs win and make his teammates look good, even as they routinely fail him in return.

What makes all this even more remarkable is that many of his own fans at Tottenham have slagged him off this season, criticizing him and openly wondering why clubs as big as Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid are all lining up with transfer interest in the 19 year old.

Well, if by now those same Spurs supporters do not value Gray, then there is no hope for them, because Gray has proven them to be quite foolish for their critiques. There are indeed a lot of overrated players at Tottenham and characters who do not deserve to hold the weight of this jersey, but Gray is absolutely not one of those expendable parts.

Gray has the mentality of a future superstar, and if the elite clubs in European football and even his new teammates like Xavi Simons can see it, then those fans who did not were always going to be proven horribly wrong.

Like Tottenham Hotspur's season, star centr back Micky van de Ven began the 2025/26 campaign so brightly, even scoring a Puskas quality solo goal. But as the season has gone on, Van de Ven has devolved into one of the club's biggest problems, and it is baffling that Real Madrid and Barcelona are both rumored to be driving hard after such a mistake prone player.

Tottenham have been the biggest underachievers in world football this season with a squad of players who have either recently played for top European clubs or are, like Van de Ven, linked to top clubs. And yet, here they are, barely treading water in the Premier League relegation fight and now coming off a 3-1 drubbing at the hands of another mid table London rival in Crystal Palace.

This was a must win game for Spurs, and though the Lilywhites were up 1-0 in the first half, they immediately collapsed after Van de Ven's insane red card, pulling down Ismaila Sarr in childish fashion. Tottenham were immediately doomed, surrending three goals at the cusp of half time and unable to get back into the game.

Micky van de Ven is no mentality monster

Van de Ven has almost doomed Spurs to relegation, though his moment of madness was far from his first error in relief of Cristian Romero as the leader of the back line and the club's captain. No player in recent memory has disgraced the captaincy honor for Spurs quite like Van de Ven, who was already a monumental flop at the weekend in the atrocious loss to Fulham.

In one moment, he became even worse against Crystal Palace with this red. All season long, Van de Ven has alienated himself to supporters, screaming at them after tough losses or blatantly ignoring them or even his manager when things do not go his way.

He is more petulant child than growing young leader, and clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona built on mentality monsters at center back during their peak achievements like Carles Puyol, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Fernando Hierro, and Rafa Marquez should want nothing to do with this guy,