Football365

Tottenham have launched an attempt to break their transfer record by signing a Manchester City forward, and Fabrizio Romano has declared ‘he will be a Spurs player’ if a club-to-club agreement is struck.

Major changes to Tottenham’s squad are on the horizon, with the club well aware back-to-back 17th-placed finishes are unacceptable.

Juventus are attempting to hijack Tottenham’s move for Liverpool left-back, Andy Robertson. But for now, Spurs are still viewed as frontrunners for the veteran defender.

As with Robertson, Spurs have also agreed a deal in principle to sign Bournemouth centre-back, Marcos Senesi. Both players would arrive as free agents.

As such, there’ll be plenty of money left over for other signings, and according to transfer guru Romano, Tottenham are going all out for Man City winger, Savinho.

Spurs attempted to sign the Brazilian left-footer last summer and tabled two official bids. Reports at the time claimed the biggest of those offers totalled €80m / roughly £70m, which would have made Savinho Tottenham’s record signing.

As it stands, Dominic Solnake by way of his £65m (£55m plus £10m in add-ons) arrival from Bournemouth holds that mantle.

Romano declared on X that Spurs have now ‘reactivated talks’ to bring Savinho to north London. The move is being driven in part by manager De Zerbi, and Savinho will say yes to the move if the clubs agree a fee.

Tottenham launch record-breaking Savinho move

“Keep an eye on Tottenham and Savinho,” added Romano when providing a more detailed update on his YouTube channel. “Last summer they wanted to go all in for Savinho. They sent two officials bids to Man City, but City decided not to proceed.

“It’s a story from August 2025. City were considering going for Rodrygo from Real Madrid and letting Savinho go to Tottenham.

“Then the Rodrygo deal was not possible and also City decided to trust Savinho, so they decided to offer him a new contract and in September he put pen to paper.

“But this season for Savinho at Man City has not been easy. He wants to play regularly and now Spurs are prepared to go for it.

“Roberto De Zerbi and people at Tottenham want Savinho, and so they’re prepared to re-open negotiations with Manchester City.”

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Savinho will say yes to Spurs

Romano went on to note Tottenham could face competition for Savinho’s signature from Newcastle.

Nevertheless, Spurs aren’t waiting around to find out how serious Newcastle are and are will now attempt to make a breakthrough in club-to-club talks with City.

And crucially for Tottenham, Romano then noted Savinho was open to joining Spurs when his future was up in the air last summer. Agreeing personal terms should therefore not be an issue this time around either.

He concluded: “If this summer Tottenham and City reach an agreement, Savinho will be a Spurs player because he’s quite open to the move, even without European football.”

“From tonight we have to start to organise and to build a new team. I don’t think we have now to change too many players. We have 10, 11, 12 players good enough to stay. Good enough. Like players. Especially like people. And then we have to complete the squad with the first level of players.”

Roberto De Zerbi wasted no time after Spurs’ final-day survival was secured, swiftly and pointedly reminding those who run the club that promises were made amid the desperation to get him into the club at a time when relegation was starting to look unavoidable for a team that was sleepwalking into catastrophe.

Spurs have ended the season with a decent bit of momentum, 11 points from their final six games of the season representing frankly unimaginable improvement from what had gone before, and we’ve all seen teams use that kind of springboard to far better things in the very next season.

That can be Spurs’ future, but only if De Zerbi gets what he wants and Spurs do what they must. And what De Zerbi wants does, somewhat inconveniently, amount to something Spurs never, ever do.

There is already chat of ‘Never again’ after Spurs avoided what would have been the single most absurd, hilarious and humiliating relegation in Premier League history. But those same ‘Never again’ warnings were sounded and ignored last summer. It even cost a trophy-winning manager his job, because 17th place was so unthinkable a disaster.

If Spurs are to avoid another season of misery, an awful lot has to change.

The boardroom

Here’s where things get immediately ticklish, because it’s almost impossible to imagine meaningful lasting change at Spurs under an ownership regime that is failing hard.

Spurs had their problems before, but they were a profitable club. They are now one that is leaking money and racking up debts. Vinai Venkatesham was brought in to oversee significant change. Daniel Levy is gone, and so are all his most loyal and trusted lieutenants. The problem is that absolutely nobody who’s come in to replace them has done anything to inspire confidence that they can deliver.

Vinai’s Arsenal roots don’t help him, especially when decisions are being made that are so catastrophic it’s almost easier to imagine they are being made by an Arsenal sleeper agent than in good faith.

We still can’t quite believe how long it took for Thomas Frank to be removed. We still can’t quite believe they went for Igor Tudor in his place. We still can’t quite believe just how hard they lucked out in convincing De Zerbi to take on what was starting to look like an impossible challenge.

Who knows what they’ve promised him, though, and more importantly whether they have the aptitude or desire to deliver on those promises. But deliver they must.

Spurs fans are very clear. They want Vinai out, and they want ENIC out. Both are understandable positions given the scale of the mismanagement and the malaise. But both are longer-term goals. Selling the football club to new owners is not a quick or straightforward process and there are few indications it’s even on the radar. ENIC and the assorted Lewis Family nepo babies are going nowhere for now, and nor is Vinai.

He should be, but he almost certainly isn’t. We do think Spurs can have some nice things this summer, but we doubt they can have all the nice things.

The sporting director

But there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that change cannot occur at the next level down, where football operations meet boardroom operations. There is quite literally no justification for Johan Lange remaining as sporting director.

There is, very obviously, no one individual singularly responsible for why Spurs are where they are. But there is one who very conspicuously arrived at the club when they were sitting top of the Premier League in October 2023 and who has been present throughout the slump from those giddy early Ange Postecoglou days to the current shambling, hubristic, directionless mess.

There has been almost no incoming transfer during Lange’s time as, variously, technical director, co-sporting director or sole sporting director, that could be viewed as an unqualified straightforward success.

His reign currently stands to be defined by his near-disastrous pronouncement at the end of a January transfer window spent sitting on their hands that he was proud of the fact Spurs hadn’t panicked and that injured players would return.

Tricky thing, panic. Generally considered a negative response to any situation, but sometimes it is the only correct and natural response, and can drive necessary change. Spurs were certainly panicking by the time they went cap in hand to De Zerbi just two months later.

Sometimes if you’re not panicking it’s actually not because you’re a very sensible grown-up being in charge, but because you simply haven’t grasped the enormity of a situation that had by this point dawned on every single Spurs fan on earth.

He has to go.

Lange briefly worked alongside Fabio Paratici before Spurs granted his request to return to Italy, and there is much talk that Lange will soon once again be working alongside another sporting director.

It’s widely expected now that this will be former Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl, who left the club in March after four years in the role. There is obvious appeal in what Dortmund are and how they operate with what the very best version of Spurs could be and once was.

If Kehl is a man Spurs think can get them back on track, and there’s every chance they’re right, then there is absolutely no reason to saddle a man who did the job at the second-biggest club in Germany with a spare part the fans despise and who has failed in every way imaginable.

Spurs should just back their judgement. If you’re getting Kehl in, then do it with your whole chest and get Lange out while you’re about it.

The medical department

We’re told that a sweeping overhaul of the various medical departments at Spurs is already under way, and not before time. Non-executive chairman Peter Charrington touched upon it in his open letter to fans after the conclusion to the season, a letter we can only assume he penned while dressed as a hot-dog, so determined is he to find the guys who did this.

There comes a point somewhere in the third season of an unprecedented injury crisis where you do have to start considering that it isn’t just rotten luck. There has been some of that, sure, but it cannot explain a season in which no senior player at the club has avoided the treatment room.

There are rumblings about the pitch at the new stadium, about whether its unusual design – the grass football pitch sits in shallow retractable trays atop the synthetic American football one – could be a contributary factor.

It may be. But what’s abundantly clear is that Spurs don’t just suffer a high number of injuries, far more than any other club in the division, but that those injuries are mismanaged when they occur.

Dejan Kulusevski has now been sidelined for over a year after suffering what was initially described as a ‘knock’ against Crystal Palace in May 2025. James Maddison suffered a partial ACL tear around the same time, was advised against surgery only to suffer a full tear in pre-season that kept him out of action until a few substitute cameos at the very end.

Mohammed Kudus suffered a season-ending setback in his own recovery from injury as Spurs pushed to get him back on the pitch, while Dominic Solanke has essentially never really been 100 per cent fully fit at any time of the season.

It seems certain that, at best, Spurs are exacerbating their misfortune in this area. At worst, something far more serious.

Outgoings

The off-field stuff that has to change can always feel a bit intangible. We’re all out of our comfort zone with that stuff, aren’t we? We all know something’s not right in how Spurs are being run, but it’s far harder to know precisely what than with the actual on-field action we all know and love (well, not love, but you know what we mean).

Now we get down to the core of the problem for Spurs. Everything else they do or don’t do in the short or long-term will be moot if they don’t end up with a significantly stronger and vastly more rounded playing squad next season. They are going to have to be extremely busy.

We’ll get to incomings in due course, but outgoings are at least as important. And a point of significant historical weakness for Spurs under Levy.

We saw tentatively encouraging signs in the way Spurs were willing to accept good-not-great money for Brennan Johnson to move him on early in the January window. Nothing he’s done at Palace suggests Spurs got that wrong.

Completely failing to replace him in the squad even after Kudus went down injured in the very next game is, clearly, a different matter. But Johnson’s sale was a solid bit of professional football trading done right. More of that please.

There are obvious departures from this squad. Cristian Romero is surely done, a wholly ineffective captain and an unreliable player. We have some sympathy, because it’s clear his reputation now precedes him and, subconsciously we’re sure, he is now treated differently by referees and pundits alike. His red card against Manchester United was widely accepted as straightforward, but has looked increasingly absurd as the season’s gone on and countless similar challenges have escaped similar punishment.

But he cannot be relied upon. He does take unnecessary risks, he does pick up bookings at an unstoppable rate, and you just can’t have a captain who misses as much of the season as he does.

The whole palaver around his return to Argentina in the week leading up to the final game was an unwanted and unnecessary distraction – one that again raises serious questions of those in all decision-making roles at the club because it was bizarre to have authorised his departure in the first place.

Romero has become more trouble than he’s worth, frankly, but the new contract he signed last summer means Spurs can get good money from one of his many suitors on the continent. It seems just entirely rational and uncomplicated that absolutely everyone involved would be happier and more fulfilled in their lives if Romero played for Atletico Madrid rather than Tottenham.

We suspect Richarlison has also played his final game for the club and he gets a passing grade for scoring 11 often vital Premier League goals in a season where Spurs were so, so poor going forward. We also don’t think De Zerbi rates Solanke; you don’t have to read too far between the lines to sense he’s been unimpressed with the striker’s latest injury absence at a crucial time.

There are probably no great secrets being exposed in suggesting Randal Kolo Muani’s loan deal will not be made permanent.

De Zerbi has been at pains to insist Guglielmo Vicario is still Tottenham’s number one, but counterpoint: he isn’t. He too surely leaves this summer, a return to Italy in all likelihood. In a Spurs season ruined by injuries, it’s odd to think that the most impactful in the end might well be the one that forced Spurs to go back to Antonin Kinsky, whose redemption after his Madrid humiliation – which really was only as far back as March – has been one of the great stories from the season’s closing weeks.

Retentions

De Zerbi’s claim that there are maybe 10-12 players good enough to play for Spurs among the current squad is absolutely mental and absolutely damning because it’s absolutely true.

Here’s our best guess at the group of players he definitely wants to retain: Kinsky, Porro, Van de Ven, Danso, Bentancur, Gallagher, Tel, Gray, Bergvall, Maddison and assorted injured lads around whom there is little choice at least in the summer.

We would place question marks against the names of Destiny Udogie and Radu Dragusin, although it’s worth noting that the latter was among those mentioned by name in De Zerbi’s off-the-cuff list of players to impress him over the last six traumatic and difficult weeks.

There has been talk that Joao Palhinha favours a return to Portugal, which is fair enough. But if he is at all open to the idea of his loan move becoming permanent then Spurs should do it. Everyone knows about his tackling and commitment, but it has weirdly been his penchant for a clutch goal that has made him so vital this season.

Without his late goals home and away against Wolves, or the nerve-settler against Everton on Sunday, the whole season might have looked very different indeed.

The most important retention of all does now feel like it’s Micky van de Ven. He’s had his worst season at Spurs, and it’s been very clear at times that he’d lost faith in the whole project. But he, Pedro Porro and Conor Gallagher have been the players most conspicuously revived and rejuvenated by De Zerbi. Good players who have remembered that fact.

Van de Ven was immense during the run-in, and looks a far more worthy recipient of the new-contract-and-captaincy reward than Romero last year. That should be a top priority, because losing both starting centre-backs this summer cannot be the plan.

Further decisions must be made about returning loan players. There are two in particular where big decisions are needed. Luka Vuskovic has been sensational in the Bundesliga for Hamburg, while Mikey Moore has excelled for Rangers. Both deserve at least a pre-season chance to stake claims for first-team squad places. Both occupy positions where Spurs will likely have room.

Incomings

This, really, is where Spurs’ summer will stand and fall and next season’s fate is settled. They cannot get this wrong, and everything else above feeds into it. But they are going to need some big new signings.

But maybe not quite as many as might first seem necessary. It would be foolish (and on brand) to rely on it entirely, but Spurs really could possess unprecedented levels of Like A New Signing energy next season.

Maddison, Kulusevski and Kudus all potentially qualify here, and all address the most glaring weakness in De Zerbi’s Spurs. De Zerbi saved Spurs’ season by making them far better at the back, allowing just 17 shots on target in his seven games compared to 41 in the previous seven.

But he could do almost nothing about Spurs’ moribund attack. He simply didn’t have the players to do what was necessary there. The guile of Maddison, the hard running and eye for goal of Kulusevski and Kudus’ dribbling all offer something vital that Spurs have missed terribly.

How many of that trio return at the level required, who knows, but it makes life far easier if they do.

There still need to be major incomings, though, and De Zerbi was at pains on Sunday night to outline his ‘dream’ that such players would be both a) ‘first level’ players and b) here in time for pre-season. The World Cup makes it impossible really to expect all business to be wrapped up with a bow on it before pre-season begins, but the more business is done early the better.

Spurs know they must also attract the right types of personality. That was a big part of Gallagher’s appeal, and explains the ongoing interest, revived from January, in securing the free-agent services of Andy Robertson. That feels like a no-brainer; he won’t play every week but in terms of what he brings in terms of experience and nous to the squad on and off the pitch he can operate as a kind of Gilded Ben Davies.

Marcos Senesi is another potentially quick incoming that Spurs might be able to pull off. They have first mover’s advantage there, and must now hope that’s enough to keep reported interest from Liverpool and Barcelona at bay.

Another goalkeeper must come in, whether that’s to be the clear number one or compete with Kinsky for the gloves. James Trafford has long been touted and remains an option, although he would want clear assurances about first-choice status, you’d imagine, after having his fingers burned at Man City.

But the glaring and hardest-to-fill holes in the squad will be in attack. Spurs will need at least one and very likely two new No. 9s this summer unless they think Will Lankshear is ready for a full squad role after an impressive season with Oxford.

We’re not really sure that’s how they should see it, and bringing in two new strikers to hit the ground running is far easier said than done, and who those players are and where and when and above all else if those players arrive is going to be key to the whole caper.

Further attacking options for the wide and 10 positions can be considered, but Spurs can for now at least look to run a leaner squad.

With no European football, they will be playing 40-odd games next season as opposed to this season’s 52.

But the main point about incomings is that Spurs really might not need as many as you’d initially think to turn a current 12-man squad into something genuinely competitive. But they will still need a lot, they will still need a good chunk of that business done early, and they will need a significant change in luck and direction with injuries.

It remains the tallest of orders for a regime with absolutely no room now for error.

James Maddison has called for Tottenham to launch an investigation into their “astronomical” injury woes this season, insisting they would not have been in relegation danger had he and three other stars not spent long spells on the sidelines.

Tottenham beat Everton 1-0 on the final day of the season to retain their Premier League status having been hit by a number of significant injuries to key players to hamper their progress this term.

Dejan Kulusevski was out for the whole campaign after knee surgery, Mohammed Kudus missed the second half of the season with a hamstring problem, Rodrigo Bentancur also suffered a hamstring injury and was out for 15 games, and Maddison himself only managed brief cameos in the final three games of the season after recovering from a torn ACL.

The Spurs playmaker insists it’s a problem worth investigation as although some of the injuries can simply be put down to bad luck, he insists it’s a “fact” that Tottenham would not have found themselves fighting relegation without so many long-term absentees.

“Our situation with the injuries has been worse than any other club,” Maddison told reporters following Tottenham’s win over Everton.

“People try and say, ‘Oh, but we’ve got this and that’. But ours is astronomical and we need to look at why that is.

“Sometimes it can just be unlucky, sometimes it can be a coincidence, like me doing my ACL or (Dejan) Kulusevski getting a horrendous knock off [Marc] Guehi.

“That’s not the medical team, that’s not the pitch or all the theories that you see, sometimes that’s rubbish.

“We’ve been a bit unlucky. But like I said, the big names that we’ve missed, it does affect you and you can’t just deny that.

“If we had had myself, Kulusevski and [Mohammed] Kudus, and [Rodrigo] Bentancur missed three months and whatnot. If you had had them for the whole season, we wouldn’t have been in this situation, I strongly believe.

“That’s just not me being naive, that’s just a fact. But it is the situation we find ourselves in, and I am just proud of the lads to dig deep today.”

Tottenham Hotspur boss Roberto De Zerbi has revealed how many of his players are “good enough to stay” heading into next season.

De Zerbi arrived at Spurs last month and was tasked with guiding the Premier League strugglers to safety, and they got over the line on the final day of the season.

The north London side needed a draw from their last game of the season against Everton to survive and they earned a deserved 1-0 win, which was needed as 18th-placed West Ham did their job by beating Leeds United 3-0.

But De Zerbi did not take too much time to celebrate his side’s survival, with the head coach quickly turning his attention to rebuilding Spurs ahead of next season.

Speaking after Tottenham‘s win against Everton, De Zerbi revealed how many players are “good enough to stay” and suggested his “dream” outcome this summer.

“From tonight, we have to start to organise and to build a new team,” De Zerbi told reporters.

READ: 16 Conclusions from the Premier League final day: Spurs survive, West Ham down, Euro fighters

“I think we have now to change too many players. We have 10, 11, 12 players good enough to stay. Good enough. Like players. Especially like people. And then we have to complete the squad with the first level of players.”

He added: “First level of players because we suffered too much.

“I suffered a lot but I think the fans, the club, the board, the players, they suffered too much. We are Tottenham and we can’t suffer like this until the last second of the last game to stay up. And I will be stronger. I will be stronger.”

De Zerbi has also revealed when he wants his “dream” squad to be completed. He continued: “I don’t want to decide alone because football is a group – sporting director, scouting, CEO – but my target now is finished to stay up.

“My target is to start the pre-season with the team I have in my dream.”

“That’s one guy that I think they have to keep…”

Former Spurs defender Alan Hutton, meanwhile, has explained why he thinks Micky van de Ven is the one player they “have to keep” this summer.

“That’s one guy that I think they have to keep, in my opinion,” Hutton told GOAL.

“If they want to build and be stronger for next season, he’s your captain in waiting because I think [Cristian] Romero will probably be off. So they need to keep these kind of guys to build around.

“If you did cash in on him and he goes to another Premier League team or whatever, you have to replace that guy and that’s not going to be easy.

“So it’s a difficult situation because these guys want to play at the highest level possible and it’s going to probably take a number of windows, I feel, for Spurs to get back to that sort of level, but they have to keep the likes of Van de Ven if they want to do that.”

No doubt where the main focus of the final day was, but the squabble over the final relegation place never really came to life with Spurs taking care of business in uncharacteristic fashion that at times veered dangerously close to competence.

Their curiously bloodless 1-0 win over Everton left West Ham’s thumping of Leeds moot, but away from the relegation fight there was a spectacular game of mid-table musical chairs that resulted in a very pleasing collection of qualifiers for the Thursday night European competitions next season.

And, of course, some significant farewells. It’s going to be a very different Premier League next season.

Spurs fans can and will celebrate their team clearing this lowest of bars, but those in charge should still be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

This has been a wretched, careless, hubristic and error-strewn season when one different result for themselves or West Ham would have seen it end in utter catastrophe.

The attention must now swiftly turn to what happens next at a club who have now finished 17th in successive Premier League seasons with 79 points from their last 76 games.

‘Never again’ will be the cry but that was already the case at the end of last season, when Ange Postecoglou paid with his job because delivering the miracle of actual for-real silverware wasn’t enough when combined with finishing above only the relegated trio.

When the Sky Sports cameras panned to CEO Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange grinning in injury time, you’d forgive Spurs fans if they started throwing things at their televisions despite the day going their way.

The idea of that pair getting away with their abysmal efforts this season is the fly in the Spurs ointment. Both should still be swiftly removed and replaced if Spurs are to have meaningful hope of something significantly better than this next time around.

You can already almost picture a smug Johan Lange reflecting on the summer transfer window and insisting that the lack of new arrivals is absolutely fine because the Like A New Signing energy is off the charts with a fully fit James Maddison, Mohammad Kudus and who knows maybe even Dejan Kulusevski available again a mere 15 months after he suffered a ‘knock’ in defeat to Crystal Palace.

What Roberto De Zerbi has achieved here since the defeat at Sunderland is little short of extraordinary. In that first game he lost Cristian Romero to a season-ending injury. Kudus never reappeared after a setback in his recovery. Two players De Zerbi specifically pinpointed as crucial when he took over. Then Xavi Simons did a cruciate to leave Spurs almost entirely bereft of attacking craft.

De Zerbi inherited a squad whose confidence was on the floor, who hadn’t won a league game in months and months and who, already missing a whole bunch of key players, would continue to lose more and key players. To collect 11 points from the last six games of the season under those conditions was a remarkable feat of management. He deserves great praise and to have every single one of whatever wild promises a desperate club made to convince him to come in before the summer honoured.

De Zerbi made those wishes plainly known in his post-match press conference:

“Next season we have to build a top, top, top team. We don’t have to change too many players in our squad but we have to bring in some first level players.”

We won’t hold our breath.

Spurs were always likely to stay up today, of course, but it also felt inevitable that it would be deeply unpleasant.

Instead, they started and ended the day with a two-goal cushion – with it needing both an Everton goal and a West Ham goal at that point – and ended the day with a two-goal cushion (this time two Everton goals) having never once seen that reduce to the potential panic-inducing one-goal jeopardy.

Spurs played really quite well against an admittedly wretched and half-arsed Everton side who only really began to even try and test Spurs’ nerves in the closing minutes.

He scored in the 2-0 win at Man City back in August that now feels like it was about three centuries ago. He scored an injury-time equaliser against Wolves and the late winner against the same opposition earlier this month just as Spurs looked like they were going to slip four points behind West Ham and almost beyond salvation.

And then today’s scruffy, second-attempt goal, the most beautiful ugly goal Spurs have scored in a stadium that has brought them almost nothing but pain this season.

It’s an extraordinary home record, in the end. A home win on the opening day of the season. A home win on the final day of the season. And in between, just a single, solitary success almost slap bang in the middle in December.

Even with this closing win – a victory that absurdly means De Zerbi in three games has been responsible for precisely one-third of all Spurs’ home points this season – they remain 18th in the home table, five points adrift of the next worst and with the same number of wins as Wolves.

It’s not hard to see where the most obvious improvement must come next season.

There have been glimpses and flashes of something good, something certainly better than what went before, but their attack has remained a clear point of weakness.

What De Zerbi has done is make Spurs a much better team on the ball and by extension far better defensively.

Actual good players Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro have once again looked like actual good players having been largely cack all season.

But a Spurs team that had conceded at least one xGA in every game since the first week of January finished the season with five games out of six under that benchmark. Only against Leeds did they give up more than 1 xGA, and most of that was the penalty. Today, Everton’s xG was 0.19. Spurs were and are far from perfect, but for once in their life they managed not to be even slightly Spursy on a day that had the potential for Spursiness absolutely all over it.

We suppose the collection of Arsenal fans, frauds and nepo babies running the show at Spurs do deserve the tiniest shred of credit for eventually pulling out all the stops to get a proper manager in. Sure, they could have saved everyone a lot of stress and upset by making that move much earlier when it was very obviously necessary, but still.

A similarly tiny quantity of grudging kudos for not in the end loaning Antonin Kinsky to West Ham in January.

Spurs would be a Championship club now if they’d taken the stupid route on either occasion, and this is a club that simply adores stupid routes.

But they were always reliant on Everton doing the same, and the Toffees just never really did.

The Hammers can in one way consider themselves unfortunate for racking up 39 points and it not being enough. It’s half as much again as would have been required for safety in either of the last two seasons, and a total that hasn’t cost a team their Premier League place in 15 years. Only three teams have ever gone down with more than 39 points, and one of those was already West Ham.

Yet they have messed this season up in the grand manner and cannot really complain. Across the season they were the third-worst team in the division, and for large parts of it the outright worst.

But there were two key periods of this season where they let themselves down. First, and most obviously, in that 10-game winless run around the new year.

The real frustration there is that it came right after Nuno Espirito Santo appeared to have landed on something. Seven points from three games against Newcastle, Burnley and Bournemouth looked like a turning point. But that was followed by a desperately meek non-performance in defeat to Liverpool that set West Ham down a dark path for months.

The other, of course, was the three-match losing run this month. Having reeled Spurs in and got matters into their own hands, the last-minute winner against Everton felt like a huge moment but instead became the end of the journey. West Ham had put so much into getting out of the bottom three they had nothing left to keep themselves out of it when faced with a newly-competent Spurs at last picking up points of their own.

But with Sunderland also the league’s only S thanks to the ongoing absence of your Southamptons, Stokes and the Swanseas of this world, next season will also start with Nottingham Forest in the bottom three and that’s just plain nutty.

There has been a sense for most of the season that anyone between seventh and 14th could wind up pretty much anywhere, but from a neutral standpoint we’ve been left with an enormously satisfying final table when the music stopped.

Sunderland’s win over Chelsea – for whom there must be a degree of grudging respect for the fact they have turned up for precisely one Premier League game in the last two months and that was to try and relegate Spurs because that’s elite hating – saw them the big final-day movers, leaping through the mid-table pack from tenth to seventh and with it European football.

They will be joined in the Europa League by Bournemouth, while for Brighton there’s a Conference League spot despite slumping to a heavy final-day defeat against Manchester United.

Crystal Palace may yet get their belated Europa League spot too if they can win this week’s Conference final. It’s a sensational collection of Thursday night warriors, and the evidence of the last couple of years tells you that all of them have a spectacular chance for some of the very greatest moments in their histories in those competitions.

A less mischievous person would note that Chelsea have played 121 games of competitive football in the last 21 months, with not one single blank month among them, and that this is surely at least worth some consideration when looking at their miserable end to this season.

Newcastle and even, heaven help us all, Spurs could also potentially benefit from the reduced playing schedule next season. There is already a pattern for Newcastle under Eddie Howe of alternating seasons where Europe is secured with seasons where that workload causes them to stumble domestically.

The one-game-a-week schedule has surely also played a significant part in Man United’s significant improvement under Michael Carrick in the second half of this season.

It will be a huge factor next campaign.

It remains one of the season’s most ludicrous mysteries as to quite why Unai Emery’s name was absent from the manager of the year shortlist.

What Villa have done this season – and, it’s worth remembering – from a troubled and deeply unconvincing start – is sensational.

Winning the Europa League was always a rock-solid target this season but managing to combine that success with sustained excellence in the league makes it all the more impressive. They have done what neither Tottenham nor Man United could do last season and combined a deep European run with maintained league form.

West Ham fans might still be upset about that much-changed team against Spurs, but we’re pretty sure Villa aren’t particularly upset by how they finished the season after that game. It’s almost like they got it absolutely spot on, in a way.

The reason we all suddenly had to have an opinion on this was because Bruno Fernandes had equalled and now on the final day bettered the all-time Premier League record.

Twenty-one assists in a team that conspicuously lacks a truly elite goalscorer – they had no player in the top 10 goalscorers for the season, their joint leading scorers each managing as many goals as Richarlison and Zian Flemming – is a remarkable effort and we’re not really sure acknowledging this should be seen as in any way a controversial or daft thing to note.

It’s a real shame that it’s all been somewhat tainted over the last weeks of his Liverpool career, but as more time passes that disappointing finish will fade into the background and the enormity of his achievements will take over. He’s won it all with Liverpool and ends with an astonishing 193 goals (fourth all-time) and 94 assists (sixth all-time) in 328 Premier League games.

An undisputed great, as is the now ex-Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. We desperately hope Andoni Iraola is at least staying in the Premier League even if we know it won’t be with Bournemouth, while Oliver Glasner has one last hurrah on the agenda with Palace this week.

Arsenal won it, nobody much cared, and then came the main business of the day: a trophy lift as a reward for all those who sat through what had become the most low-key game of the season.

The undoubted highlight? David Raya opening a whole new front in Full Kit W*nkery by bringing his gloves to put on for the celebration despite not being in the matchday squad. Huge, huge fan of it. We have but one note: they should have been golden.

Micky van de Ven and Roberto De Zerbi had contrasting opinions on Tottenham escaping relegation on the final day of the Premier League season.

Tottenham manager De Zerbi was parachuted in to save a woeful season. Predecessor Igor Tudor drew one and lost four of his five games, before the Italian boss replaced him and won three times and drew twice in his seven games at the back end of the season.

The fight against relegation went down to the final day, with Spurs beginning the day two points ahead of West Ham, who occupied the only remaining relegation place.

The Hammers beat Leeds 3-0, but it didn’t matter in the end, as Tottenham grabbed a 1-0 victory over Everton, through a Joao Palhinha goal – the midfielder has cropped up with some key moments this season.

After Tottenham secured their place in next season’s Premier League, captain Micky van de Ven and manager Roberto De Zerbi spoke.

READ: West Ham dominate top of the Premier League’s ‘best’ relegated teams list

Van de Ven said: “This club has some unbelievable players. It was embarrassing to let it come to the final day but we did it and that is what is important.

“To be honest I was more emotional at the end of the final whistle, it has been a tough season for me personally as well. I played almost every game and I have suffered a lot, the emotions are really happy and we must not let it happen again.”

Van de Ven has been linked with a move away from the club, but whether or not that changes with avoiding relegation remains to be seen.

De Zerbi hails best game at Tottenham

Spurs boss De Zerbi said on Sky Sports: “I’m lucky because I have a lot of big players. You can see the game today and you can understand the big pleasure.

READ: Neville slams Tottenham as ‘everyone knows’ what Romero plan was after Argentina return

“They played a fantastic game with the ball, not just to fight, but to play with the ball. Maybe they played the best game in my time [here].

“If they played the best game in my time, you can imagine the value of my players.

“Incredible game, but they deserve everything the football gave today. It’s nice because if you give your best, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, after tomorrow, next month, the football gave you back everything.”

Gary Neville urged Tottenham to apologise to their fans “en masse” after they were a “disgrace” for the past few months but managed to survive for another Premier League season.

For two seasons in a row, Spurs have finished 17th in the Premier League. The two seasons have differed, though, as they slipped down late on last season, while they were staring down the barrel of relegation for a while this term.

Indeed, they dropped into the relegation places a few weeks ago, but Roberto De Zerbi has pulled them out.

The boss was hired for the final seven games of the season, and won three games and drew two. On the final day of the season, Tottenham beat Everton 1-0 through a scrappy Joao Palhinha goal.

Though West Ham also won, that the gap was already two points meant that Tottenham maintained 17th spot and the Hammers were resigned to Championship football next season.

READ: Hoddle reveals bold Tottenham claim with Man Utd, Newcastle comparison – ‘it can happen very quickly’

Commentating on Sky Sports, Neville urged Spurs’ players to take a lap of appreciation for the fans for continuing to turn up during a woeful few months for the club.

He said: “De Zerbi gets his team over the line. If I was those Tottenham players, who have been an absolute disgrace this last three months, they should be heading round this stadium to those Tottenham fans and apologising en masse.

“They come here every single week, those fans, 60-odd thousand of them come to this great ground and this great club, and they’ve been underserved.

READ: Roberto De Zerbi reveals decision on his future if Tottenham suffer relegation – ‘I confirm everything’

“At least they can reset in the summer. Decide who they want on the bus, who they want off the bus, knowing that they at least have Premier League football, and those fans can go home and rest easy tonight.”

Indeed, De Zerbi’s job seems to have been hard over the past month or so, having to engineer Premier League survival, but now he will have to build a squad capable of ensuring this doesn’t happen again.

There’ll be big decisions on players already at the club as well as potential incomings.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi reiterated his commitment to the relegation-threatened Premier League club, saying he would stay on even if they were to drop into the second tier of English football.

Tottenham are two points above West Ham United in the final relegation spot, and a home draw with Everton on Sunday in their final league game of the season would almost certainly be enough to ensure their survival, as the North London club have a superior goal difference.

However, if they lose to Everton and West Ham beat Leeds United, Tottenham could be relegated from the top flight for the first time since 1977.

In April, De Zerbi said he would remain in charge of the club next season regardless of results. When asked on Friday if he would stick to his word, the Italian told reporters: “Yeah, I confirm everything.

READ: Tottenham v Everton: Prediction, team news, lineups and odds

“It’s still an honour to be a coach for Tottenham, even if on Sunday we play for the relegation fight, it’s not a problem. I consider football something more than the (league) table…

“We are fighting for something very important for everyone. It is football. But we have enough quality. To attack the pressure, you have to find the valour inside of yourself, to understand the situation and force yourself to give your best.”

Roberto De Zerbi issues verdict on Cristian Romero as he U-turns on missing final game

De Zerbi has also issued a response to Spurs captain Cristian Romero, who is currently out of action with an injury, initially opting miss his side’s final game against Everton, instead opting to travel to watch boyhood club Belgrano’s title decider against River Plate.

“Sometimes, not all the leaders are the same. Ben Davies spoke with me and asked to stay today to work with us. Tomorrow, we sleep in the hotel.

“He wanted to stay with the team and team-mates. Romero is preparing for the World Cup with an injury. For me, nothing changed.

“Then we have to think, everything is for the best future of Tottenham.”

However, it emerged on Sunday morning that Romero has performed a U-turn and is now back in London ready to watch Tottenham’s match against Everton.

Glenn Hoddle has backed Tottenham Hotspur to follow Manchester United and Newcastle United after reaching their “lowest crossroads”.

Spurs have been a shambles on and off the field this season, with the north London giants declining further after last term’s 17th-place finish in the Premier League.

Current boss Roberto De Zerbi is their third manager this season and they could suffer relegation from the Premier League on the final day of this campaign.

Spurs only need a point from their home match against Everton to avoid the drop, but they will go down if they lose and 18th-placed West Ham beat Leeds United.

And club legend Hoddle believes wholesale changes are required at Spurs even if they avoid relegation on Sunday afternoon.

“The Europa League triumph really papered over the cracks. There’s been a crack there for quite some time,” Hoddle told The Metro.

READ: Tottenham v Everton: Prediction, team news, lineups and odds

“The system is clearly not working at the moment, and needs to be revised. If this were any business, that’s what they’d be doing. They’d be stripping it down and saying, this ain’t working, let’s get a new CEO or new board and go from there.

“What I’m hoping is that we stay up and the fear of going down, the fear of actually thinking about it and getting so close to dropping, actually ignites something in the club from above the playing staff, above the coaching staff, that this can’t happen again. That’s got to be a crossroads, which is the lowest crossroads. That’s got to be the lowest one.”

Hoddle added: “I think the owners have got to look at it as a football club first and foremost.

“Everything’s got to revolve around that and aimed at that, rather than being an asset.

“We have a great stadium, and it’s bringing in great income, but if the income comes in, spend it on the club, spend it on the football club. The history of Tottenham is a football club. It’s not anything else and never will be.”

However, Hoddle does feel that his former club could soon be back near the top of the Premier League in a repeat of Man Utd and Newcastle’s recent success if they make necessary changes.

“You’ve got everything there,” Hoddle claimed.

“It can happen very quickly…”

“The infrastructure’s there, the training ground, the stadium. A lot of clubs do it the other way around, but everything’s there.

“They’ve now got to focus on getting this quality. That doesn’t mean you have to spend millions and millions and millions. There are quality players around Europe and in Britain, and it’s the recruitment that has to be really looked at.

“But football’s a funny business as we know. You could say it could take seven, eight years, like Arsenal, but you could turn around very quickly. Look at Manchester United within one season, it can happen very quickly like that.

“Look at Eddie Howe when he went to Newcastle when they were second from bottom. They were in the relegation zone and look what happened. He got them a trophy and they played in the Champions League. It can happen very quickly with good management and good players.”

Tottenham’s Premier League status is on the line when they host Everton in their final game of the 2025-26 season.

Spurs are currently two points above 18th-placed West Ham and need one more point, but a defeat against the Toffees would leave their top-flight fate out of their hands.

Everton sit 12th in the table and can still finish as high as ninth, which may lead to European qualification if Crystal Palace win the Conference League.

Tottenham v Everton kick-off time

Tottenham v Everton kicks off at 4pm BST on Sunday, May 24 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Tottenham v Everton how to watch

The game will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports Action. Coverage begins at 3pm.

Tottenham team news

Having missed the last three games with a hamstring injury, Dominic Solanke will be available for selection against Everton.

First-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is also available but had to make do with a place on the bench in the 2-1 loss to Chelsea, with Roberto De Zerbi deciding to stick with Antonin Kinsky in goal.

Since returning from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, James Maddison has stepped off the bench for 16 and 28-minute stints and will now be pushing for a start.

Despite suffering a broken jaw during the defeat to Chelsea, Djed Spence is fit to play and has also been named in England’s World Cup squad.

Club captain Cristian Romero is still out with a knee injury, and he has enraged Spurs fans by travelling back to his native Argentina instead of watching the team in person.

Xavi Simons, Wilson Odobert, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus and Ben Davies also remain sidelined.

Everton team news

Idrissa Gana Gueye has missed Everton’s last three games through injury, but has resumed individual training at Finch Farm, with David Moyes suggesting the midfielder has a “50-50” chance of being involved against Spurs.

Jarrad Branthwaite and Jack Grealish are the two confirmed absentees for the Toffees.

Tottenham v Everton odds

Despite their poor form at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Spurs are 10/11 favourites to win their final home game of the season.

Everton – who are led by former West Ham boss David Moyes – are 10/3 to do the Hammers a favour and take all three points, while the draw is 14/5.

In the relegation betting, West Ham are 1/8 for the drop, while Tottenham can be backed at 5/1.

Tottenham v Everton prediction

Tottenham won 3-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in the reverse fixture between these two sides earlier in the season, but home form has been a glaring issue for the club.

They have taken a measly 12 points from 18 games on their own patch this season, and their last home league win came against Brentford in December 2025.

Spurs are also coming up against a side that have done their best work away from home. Only Arsenal and Manchester City have picked up more Premier League away points than Everton this season.

But Tottenham are improving under De Zerbi, and we’re backing them to secure the point they need to stay in the Premier League. A draw and both teams to score is available at 15/4.

Richarlison has hit a bit of form at just the right time, netting four goals in his last nine Premier League appearances. The striker is 8/5 to score anytime against his former club.