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Tottenham Hotspur center back Luka Vuskovic is a generational talent who has Germany's biggest legends like Lothar Matthaus raving about his wisdom and athleticism, yet by loaning the teenage sensation to Bundesliga side Hamburg, Spurs deprived themselves of a world class player both this season and potentially for good.

When Hamburg made the decision to acquire Vuskovic, they did so knowing full well they were acquiring a young talent with the potential to immediately make a difference in their Bundesliga fortunes. Whereas Tottenham are now actually the ones playing for their own survival, Hamburg, at the time of signing Vuskovic before the 2025/26 Bundesliga season started, were the ones aiming to sign the Croatian in the hopes that he would help them avoid the drop.

Far from it. Hamburg are pretty safe, and Vuskovic has been even better than expected, taking the reigns early in the season and immediately winning award after award. He is by far the consensus No. 1 defender in German football right now, and if it were not for the sheer brilliance of the Bayern Munich attacking trio of Luis Diaz, Michael Olise, and Harry Kane, Vuskovic, at just 19, would be the Bundesliga Player of the Season favorite. And there are already plenty of those within the Bundesliga who are ready to give Vuskovic their vote.

Luka Vuskovic is better than what Tottenham have

It boggles the mind, though, why Tottenham didn't just keep Vuskovic in the first place. While it is unfair to expect Spurs to have known Vuskovic would be this good, it does speak to the lack of competence of their own internal scouting and player evaluations that they did not realize Vuskovic could be a key difference maker this season for Spurs. Both Thomas Frank and now Igor Tudor are at their best when utilizing a back three, which would have been far more feasible with Vuskovic, who is right there with Alessandro Bastoni as the best defender in the world in this setup.

Tottenham did get a close look at Vuskovic in the preseason, and it was obvious even then that the Croatian international was special. Spurs supporters were giving him Sergio Ramos regen shouts, and that included even the more measured members of the fan base.

What Spurs need to do is learn from this misstep. Vuskovic could have made a huge difference this season and would have been even better than Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero. They have been far too reluctant to give chances to their youth players or even young, productive members of the squad like Lucas Bergvall and Mathys Tel. Vuskovic has to be a lesson to Spurs that they need to do a better job of evaluating, valuing, and trusting their young players, because they are missing out on serious opportunities to help their squad in the short and long term.

Tottenham Hotspur completely botched the recruitment of new manager Thomas Frank, who was spoonfed ideas by Brentford and brought the same highly defensive, counterattacking brand of football that would be woefully ineffective with the players, philosophy, and opposing setups that Spurs would face.

And after the Frank hire blew up in their faces, Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham took ages to pivot, failing to ever create a real contingency plan. Eventually, enough was enough, and the duo were forced to mercifully can Frank, hiring interim manager Igor Tudor of Juventus "fame" as his replacement.

Well, the Tudor hire is going over about as well as anyone would have expected - well, anyone besides Vina and Lange, apparently - which is to say that he has been a flop. Spurs are yet to win under Tudor, inching ever closer to relegation with just one point now separating them from such dignitaries as West Ham United and Nottingham Forest in the Premier League table.

Igor Tudor was not the right hire for Tottenham

Tudor looks about as good of a fit for Spurs as Dimitar Berbavov would be on the New York Stock Exchange with the desperately screaming traders. His 3-4-3 tactical system is something he has been pretty much married to in his career, and trying to pigeonhole Spurs in that or deviate from it to fit Tottenham is not something that is going to work and not something that has been working - or will ever work.

You can see evidence of Tudor trying to mish-mash it all together, and the result is that Tottenham are as ineffective as they were before at creating cogent attacking play. They do not progress the ball, and they are perhaps even more cavernous defensively, as evidenced by their string of three straight London derby losses.

Tudor's idea of how a team should be set up fundamentally does not match the players Tottenham have, and this goes back before Frank to what was being built up under Ange Postecoglou before it was torn down. And though it was torn down out of necessity, Spurs and their undynamic duo of decision makers have failed to find a way to forge ahead with a real plan under a leader whose ideas suit what is already here.

Tottenham have hired managers who are better in a back four with the players and foundation of a team that, currently, would be best suited for a back four in either a 4-3-3 with a No. 10 or even a 4-4-2 with two forwards playing off each other. That is why we are seeing players woefully out of position like Randal Kolo Muani on the right or in the attacking midfield, Archie Gray as a left or right winger, or Pedro Porro as a center back.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters can prepare for a very grim summer 2026 transfer window if they go down from the Premier League this season, and after another listless defeat to a London rival, it's all not looking too good for Spurs.

Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, and Luka Vuskovic are three crucial players who have already been linked to big clubs abroad, but they are not the only star players who could leave Spurs this season. As is evidenced by the performances of these actually talented players, there is not a lot of heart or character in the Tottenham dressing room, so loyalty is going to be hard to come by. These players will not hesitate to bolt from the ship they sunk.

Yet even the players who have worked hard and been effective will be coveted, perhaps even moreso, by other clubs around Europe, including within the Premier League. According to a new report from Simon Jones of the Daily Mail, striker Dominic Solanke is one of the big names who could quit Spurs this summer. Newcastle United are already interesting in poaching him after the move for Brentford veteran Yoane Wissa failed last summer.

Newcastle want Dominic Solanke

Solanke cost Spurs a record 65 million pounds in 2024, and while he has not repaid that fee and has serious injury questions, Solanke did help Spurs win the Europa League last season. The all arounder has also been the team's best No. 9 this season with a few excellent performances.

Although big players, like Van de Ven and Vuskovic, have been linked with moves away from Tottenham throughout the 2025/26 season, Solanke is the first new name to be strongly linked with a team that should honestly be of lesser status than Tottenham. Newcastle are a big club and have come bigger thanks to Saudi Arabia, but they are not in the Big Six or a historic club in London like Spurs.

At the beginning of the season when Guglielmo Vicario was first getting major criticism from Tottenham Hotspur supporters after a series of blunders that did not involve actually making saves, many fans defended Vic by calling him one of the best goalkeepers in the league, pointing out his strong save percentage and post shot expected goals.

Slowly, though, those numbers have devolved as his shot stopping has deteroriated. Either Vicario's confidence is shattered, despite a false sense of bravado that includes throwing defensive players under the bus every time he makes an inane error, or he has simply been exposed. But either way, the numbers that propped up Vicario are no longer valid.

Right now, Vicario ranks the from the bottom in terms of save percentage in the Premier League, stopping just 63.3 percent of the shots he faces. What makes that mark even worse and seals him as the worst keeper in the league is the fact that the other two keepers, Sam Johnstone of Wolves and Lucas Perri of Leeds United, are literally no longer starters for their clubs.

Guglielmo Vicario is worse than other relegation goalkeepers

Wovles and Leeds have both upgraded with Jose Sa and Karl Darlow, and while these two keepers also rank near the bottom of the list in save percentage, they are both better than Vicario by more than two percentage points.

Both Wolves and Leeds are right there with Tottenham in the Premier League relegation fight, so the fact that they were willing to start other goalkeepers while Igor Tudor and Spurs are still trotting out Vicario every week despite a chorus of boos speaks volumes to the sheer complacency that has rotted this once great football club.

Tottenham are an embarrassment, and the fact that they continue to start the Premier League's worst shot stopper is a further indictment of their incompetence. As if that could not get any worse for Spurs, Vicario is the worst shot stopper in the league statistically despite being touted as a strong shot stopper. His ability to make saves was the reason why he kept his job in the first place despite the obvious errors that cost them points in the table.

Vicario made two more blunders in goal to help Crystal Palace win 3-1, and while he was no the primary reason for the defeat to the Eagles, he did nothing to help. If Vicario cannot pass, cannot stop crosses, cannot read shots from range, cannot lead this back line, and now cannot make saves, then he can offer nothing.

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.