The New York Times

Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min will miss his side’s Europa League second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt with a foot injury, head coach Ange Postecoglou has confirmed.

Son started the first leg against the Bundesliga team, a 1-1 draw at home on Thursday, but was left out of the squad for Tottenham’s 4-2 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers three days later.

The South Korean has featured heavily this season, appearing 43 times for Spurs in all competitions.

Postecoglou, who also confirmed that centre-back Kevin Danso has returned to training, said that Son had been dealing with the issue for multiple weeks and did not make the trip to Frankfurt.

“Sonny didn’t travel in the end,” said Postecoglou. “He is the only one who misses out. He has been battling with his foot problem for a few weeks now and has managed through it but it has got too painful in the last few days. He tried to train yesterday and it wasn’t right so we made the decision to leave him at home. He went home to recuperate.

“Everyone else is good. The only noticeable addition is Kevin (Danso) who trained and is available as well. So it’s only Sonny who misses out.

“It is a blow but it is consistent with everything else that has happened this year. It’s just another challenge for us to overcome. It’s unfortunate for him. He tried really hard. The reason we left him out on the weekend was to try to give him time to recover because he has been struggling with this foot thing for a few weeks now. But in the end he couldn’t make it. We have had these challenges all year and it’s just another one we need to overcome.

Son has scored 11 goals and provided 12 assists in all competitions this campaign, with three of his goals coming in the Europa League. He missed a handful of games earlier in the season with a hamstring injury.

‘Dilemma’ for Postecoglou

This is a huge blow for Spurs just before the biggest game of their season. Son has underperformed over the last year but he is still the team’s talisman. He is an elite finisher who possesses the quality to threaten any opponent. Son’s link-up with James Maddison and Destiny Udogie caused Frankfurt a few problems last week with the way they rotate positions to confuse their opponents. Frankfurt’s job just became a little bit easier now that the 32-year-old is unavailable.

Postecoglou now faces a dilemma about who to play on the left wing. Mathys Tel has scored in consecutive Premier League games but has struggled to impress since he arrived in February on loan from Bayern Munich with an option to buy. Wilson Odobert has not played in their last two matches as his fitness is carefully managed. Richarlison has come off the bench in the last two matches, after missing two months with a calf injury, and it is unlikely he would be ready to start a game of this intensity.

Timo Werner was not registered in the squad for the knockout stages of the Europa League which leaves 17-year-old Mikey Moore as the only other alternative option.

You could argue that Tel and Odobert offer more dynamism than Son but nobody can match his experience. Postecoglou needs his senior players to step up to keep Tottenham’s hopes of winning silverware alive but he will have to find a way to succeed without Son.

(Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

On November 4 last year, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou and chief football officer Scott Munn took to the stage of Australia House, the ornate hall in central London that has been the home of the Australian diplomatic mission to the UK since 1918. The event was billed as ‘An Evening with Ange’, opening with speeches from the Australian high commissioner, Stephen Smith, and the Greek ambassador, Yannis Tsaousis.

When Munn was on stage, he told a story. The previous week, Spurs had hosted Manchester City in the Carabao Cup and Aston Villa in the Premier League. Munn had previously worked for City Football Group, first at Melbourne City and then as the CEO for their Chinese operations. The technical director, Johan Lange, had joined Spurs from Aston Villa, where he had been sporting director from 2020 to 2023. So Munn had dubbed that week ‘the Scott Munn and Johan Lange Cup’. Postecoglou had assured him not to worry and that Spurs would win both games. And he was right: Spurs blew both City and Villa away with brave, intense, attacking football.

At the time, the week looked like another step in the right direction. In hindsight, it was the apex of what has become a disastrous season. But either way that evening — days before the dispiriting defeats to Galatasaray and Ipswich Town — was a moment of confidence, optimism and alignment. It felt as if the whole club was moving together in the right direction.

Just over five months on, Tottenham Hotspur does not feel like such a happy, settled place. Since that night, Spurs have played 22 league games and taken just 21 points. Their season hangs by a thread, and they will need to win away at Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday night to keep it alive. And the public sentiment, the adoration of the crowd that elevated Postecoglou in his first year, has now seemingly gone forever.

The failure of Tottenham’s season raises plenty of questions about the boardroom, the dugout and the playing staff. But at the heart of it is whether the football leadership team that was established in 2023 can survive into the next season.

The year 2023 was effectively Year Zero for this iteration of Tottenham Hotspur. It was the year when the managing director of football, Fabio Paratici, was banned from football activities for 30 months and then forced to resign in April when he failed to overturn the ban. It was the year when Antonio Conte refused to sign an extension to his 18-month contract and was then sacked with 10 games left after destroying his players in an infamous press conference on March 18.

With the old order collapsing, Tottenham embarked on one of their almost-annual relaunches. There had been an external review of the club’s footballing activities (“to ensure we apply our values of innovation, drive and excellence”, Daniel Levy wrote in 2023 on the club website). This led to the creation of a new role — chief football officer — to coordinate all football departments. Munn was appointed in this role in April, officially starting his work in September.

Postecoglou was the next big appointment, arriving at the end of the season. He shone in interviews and was identified as the best candidate to deliver the cultural change and football rebuild that the club needed. And then, in October 2023, Lange arrived from Villa into another newly created role as technical director, taking charge of recruitment.

But as we approach the end of the 2024-25 season, it looks as if the football hierarchy set up in 2023 is likely to change again. And not just because Postecoglou finds his own future in severe doubt after a season that Levy described last month as “highly challenging”. Postecoglou is the public face of the institution, the figurehead who speaks to the media every few days, having to answer for the club’s strategy in public. But even if he is replaced by the end of the season, that will not be the only big change at Spurs this summer.

Tottenham have already announced the first, the arrival of Vinai Venkatesham this summer, joining the club’s board as the new chief executive officer (CEO). This is part of a move from the club to strengthen their corporate structure, with Levy explaining last week that growth meant they had to “expand our executive management”. In practice, this will mean Venkatesham taking on some responsibilities from Levy and other board members in his new role.

But even the arrival of Venkatesham is unlikely to be the end of the changes to executive roles at Spurs this summer. Multiple sources have told The Athletic that Munn’s future as chief football officer is in severe doubt, too.

Since Munn came in two years ago, he has overseen significant changes behind the scenes, leading to overhauls of departments, including scouting and medical, that required substantial staff turnover. He has not been afraid to ruffle feathers, to put it mildly. Perhaps that is inevitable in a role that demands hiring and firing.

Assessing the success or otherwise of Munn’s overhauls remains difficult, even with on-pitch results as poor as they have been this season. Clearly the medical department has struggled this season amid an injury crisis of unprecedented scale and requires continued work. There is still a view at the club that the changes Munn has overseen were long overdue. This was not exactly a perfectly functioning football club — or medical department — when Munn arrived in 2023.

Some would even argue that the changes in how Spurs recruited players — which led to the departures of some long-standing scouts and a replacement with a modern approach — has led to an improvement in talent identification at the club. Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Wilson Odobert and Antonin Kinsky are all far-sighted purchases. No one would argue that the recruitment has been perfect or even sufficient for what Postecoglou needed. But its failures may owe more to strategy than to scouting.

And whatever happens to Munn, there is still the lingering figure of Paratici in the background. Munn has, to an extent, operated in the shadow of Paratici during his time at Spurs. Paratici has still been an external consultant to Levy over the last two years while he was banned from official work with clubs (that work, advising Levy on football matters, is consistent with the limited scope of Paratici’s ban). Some people at Spurs have said over the last two years that they missed Paratici in his old official role, given his charismatic personality and his winning CV from his time at Juventus.

In July, Paratici’s 30-month ban from official football work will be over. At that point, he would be able to work for clubs again. As it stands, a restoration at Tottenham is not on the cards. It is easy to be nostalgic about the Paratici period, but he brought plenty of drama to the club, as well as a few well-judged signings.

But whether Tottenham go back to an earlier organisational model this summer or forge ahead with a new one, they will start next season embarking on yet another brave new era, another relaunch, another attempt to get the balance right on and off the pitch.

(Top photo: Fred Lee/Premier League)

In January 2019, Mauricio Pochettino clarified his stance on what defines success for Tottenham Hotspur.

Three days after losing against Chelsea on penalties in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, his side were eliminated by Crystal Palace in the FA Cup fourth round. It was the second time in four years the south Londoners had knocked Spurs out of that tournament, leaving their chances of winning a trophy that season hanging by a golden Champions League thread, with Manchester City and Liverpool running away from the pack in the Premier League.

“We are going to create a debate that to win a trophy is going to help the club,” Pochettino said in a post-match press conference after that Palace defeat. “I don’t agree with that. That only builds your ego.

“In reality, the most important thing is being consistently in the top four and playing Champions League. That is going to help the club to achieve the last step. Today, the club is doing fantastically, it’s so successful. In the last four or five years, we’ve been fighting in different ways to achieve what the club needs, to be in the level of Chelsea, United, City or Arsenal or Liverpool.”

Without the same financial clout as some of his rival managers, Pochettino may have had to prioritise one or the other. After all, while his team competed in vain towards the top of the Premier League table without adding another trophy to the cabinet, the club also built the most impressive football stadium in the country.

Rarely is the qualification for the Champions League six times in the drought period referenced by neutrals in mitigation — that 2019 season, for what it’s worth, ended with defeat in the Champions League final. Before Spurs were at home with the big six, they were considered in a bracket alongside Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Everton. While Newcastle put their 56-year trophy wait behind them with their Carabao Cup success last month, they had to go down to the Championship first. Villa were also relegated in 2015-16.

While those sides struggled, Tottenham worked their way into contention. Jibes about the trophy wait, however, are the go-to method for poking fun at a club that has broadly overachieved over the past decade or so given their spending relative to many of their rivals.

Still, Spurs’ 17-year wait for a trophy is startling. There have been seven semi-final and four final defeats since Spurs beat Chelsea in the League Cup final in 2008. Over that time, their average league position was 4.94, basically fifth.

Since the resumption of competitive football after World War II, no club in England has had a higher average league position over a 16-year period than Tottenham’s between 2008-09 and 2023-24 and not lifted any kind of silverware. It’s an incredibly unlikely combination.

You only need look at Manchester United by way of comparison. Spurs have finished above United in six of the 11 full seasons since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, yet during that spell United have so far won five major trophies to Tottenham’s none.

Premier League

While the 2016-17 side was undoubtedly better equipped to compete for a title, Antonio Conte’s Chelsea were more consistent. Between October 1 and December 31, Chelsea won 13 straight Premier League matches, creating a 13-point gap between them and Tottenham, who were fifth at the time. Though Spurs went on a dominant run of their own, winning 13 of their final 15 league matches to finish with 86 points, Chelsea closed the season out strongly to win the title, finishing seven points ahead of their London rivals.

Had Tottenham replicated that total the previous season, they would have won the title by five points.

Though Spurs may not have been entirely ready to compete at the elite level, the 2015-16 season represents somewhat of a missed opportunity. Tottenham were slow to get out of the blocks, picking up three draws and a defeat in their opening four matches. Failure to turn draws into wins would be the defining feature of their season, picking up 13, the most of any side in the top six. Still, Spurs were young and inexperienced — Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli were all 23 or under at the start of the season — and were not expected to produce a title challenge.

Without any standout competitor, Leicester City lifted the league title as fairytale champions. Despite the pain, it should be remembered that Spurs had bettered all pre-season expectations by finishing as high as third.

Verdict: Spurs weren’t ready to compete for a league title in 2015-16 and came up against a slightly more consistent Chelsea side in 2016-17. When will they next get a better chance?

FA Cup

Spurs have reached the semi-final of the FA Cup four times since their last trophy and have not reached the final since 1991 — but they probably should have done so.

The standout example was in 2009-10, with Harry Redknapp’s side facing Portsmouth, who became the Premier League’s first club to enter administration. Not only were they in dire straits financially, but the south coast side were terrible on the pitch too, having been marooned at the bottom of the table since matchday two. To his credit, Redknapp did not overlook his former side, naming a full-strength squad for the Wembley occasion, but Spurs could not find a breakthrough in 90 minutes, and the tie went to extra time.

Portsmouth shocked Spurs, first through Frederic Piquionne, who capitalised on a Michael Dawson slip to put Avram Grant’s side ahead before former Spurs man Kevin-Prince Boateng punctuated Spurs’ most painful FA Cup defeat of the decade.

Spurs have been handily beaten twice by Chelsea in FA Cup semi-finals, but not without controversy.

Two years after the Portsmouth defeat, Chelsea beat Tottenham 5-1 at Wembley, but it may have turned out differently had goal-line technology been introduced by that point. With Chelsea 1-0 ahead, Juan Mata had a shot blocked by bodies on the line, but referee Martin Atkinson awarded a goal. Gareth Bale scored minutes later to make it 2-1, but the west Londoners ended the affair comfortable winners.

“I spoke to (Atkinson), and he said he feels worse than I do about it,” said Redknapp after the game. “I said, ‘I don’t think so’.”

In 2016-17, Spurs and Chelsea met as the two best teams in England, and Chelsea came out on top, winning 4-2. Losing to the best team in the country is excusable, but Pochettino’s decision to forgo the style that had brought Spurs into contention and match Conte’s system, starting Son at left wing-back, remains puzzling to this day.

Since Chelsea last won the league title (2016-17), the west Londoners have added four major trophies (FA Cup, Champions League, Club World Cup and the Europa League) to their cabinet. Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, they averaged 65 points a season. Spurs, for comparison, averaged 67.

Chelsea’s anomalous 12th-placed finish in 2022-23 skews the results. Still, it indicates how Spurs have provided consistent competition with their so-called “Big Six” counterparts in the league but have fallen well short from a trophy perspective.

A similar analysis can be made against Manchester United, who beat Spurs, with Michel Vorm in goal instead of Hugo Lloris, in the semi-final in 2017-18. In the years post-Sir Alex Ferguson, Tottenham (68.6) averaged a marginally higher points tally than United (68.1). However, United have won five trophies (Europa League, two FA Cups and two League Cups).

Verdict: There’s no doubt Spurs should have beaten Portsmouth at Wembley in 2010, but defeats by Chelsea sting for different reasons. Honourable mentions include the FA fifth-round defeat against understrength Championship side Sheffield United in 2022-23, the fifth-round penalty shootout defeat by Norwich City in 2019-20, and the 2-1 fourth-round defeat by Championship Leeds United in 2012-13.

League Cup

Spurs have lost in the final of the League Cup three times in this period, but all against better teams: Manchester United in 2008-09, Chelsea in 2014-15 and Manchester City in 2020-21.

The City defeat is perhaps the most contentious, a final often remembered in relation to Jose Mourinho, despite not being in the dugout for Spurs that day. Days before, he was sacked and replaced by a 29-year-old rookie Ryan Mason. We won’t ever know whether it would have made much of a difference, given City won their fourth successive Carabao Cup with a 1-0 win, but the decision to replace a serial winner with experience of underdog triumphs continues to be contested. In Levy’s defence, Mourinho had presided over a Europa League collapse against Dinamo Zagreb the month before.

Still, Spurs have failed to capitalise on straightforward opportunities earlier in the tournament. Chief among the disappointments was the penalty shootout defeat by League Two Colchester United in 2019-20. Pochettino was sacked weeks later, the 17th and final time the Argentinian presided over a cup exit as Spurs boss.

Verdict: In the drought period, the League Cup has been Tottenham’s most consistent cup tournament. There should be no great shame in losing to better teams in the final but defeats against Colchester, Norwich in 2012-13 and West Ham United in 2017-18 (after leading by two goals) were missed opportunities to win their fifth League Cup.

European competition

While it’s impossible to look back on the 2019 Champions League final without a tinge of regret, Tottenham lost 13 games in the Premier League that season and were coming towards the end of their cycle under Pochettino.

Having reached the final for the first time in the club’s history with a half-fit Harry Kane leading the line against a Liverpool side that would be a fair match for almost any club side in history, the journey to Madrid — chiefly the second legs away at Manchester City and Ajax — represents cherished memories rather than a trophy opportunity squandered.

However, there remains a feeling the Champions League campaigns in 2016-17 and 2017-18 ended prematurely, given the strength of the Spurs side at the time.

Tottenham thrilled in the 2017-18 group stage, collecting five wins and a draw from their six matches to top the table. Spurs beat Borussia Dortmund home and away, but the highlight of the phase was a 3-1 home win over eventual winners Real Madrid.

Still, Juventus eliminated them in the first knockout phase — the tie remembered by Giorgio Chiellini’s, “It is the history of Tottenham” comments after the second leg. After clawing back a 2-0 deficit in Turin, taking two away goals back to London, Spurs lost 2-1 at Wembley after conceding two goals in the final 26 minutes.

The season before, Spurs failed to progress out of a group with Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow. It didn’t stop there, however, as Spurs were knocked out of the Europa League Round of 32 — which they qualified for by finishing third in that Champions League group — by Gent, who sat eighth in Belgium at the time. For context, Spurs finished on 86 points in the Premier League in 2016-17.

Perhaps their best chance of winning the Europa League came in 2012-13, when Gareth Bale helped fire them to a then-best Premier League points tally, but Andre Villas-Boas’ side couldn’t overcome Swiss outfit Basel (featuring a young Mohamed Salah) in the quarter-finals.

Verdict: In the pantheon of European underachievements since 2008, the Gent debacle ranks at the top of the list, given how good Spurs were at the time. Honourable mentions include finishing behind Rubin Kazan and PAOK in their Europa League group in 2011-12, the Mislav Orsic hat-trick in the second leg of the Europa League round of 16 in 2020-21, and losing 2-1 away at Slovenian side Mura in the 2021-22 Europa Conference League.

(Top photos of Gareth Bale and Son Heung-min; Getty Images)

Lucas Bergvall’s first appearance for Tottenham Hotspur nearly ended in disaster.

During the opening fixture of the season, Spurs were drawing 1-1 at Leicester City and the then-18-year-old midfielder came off the bench with 12 minutes remaining.

Towards the end of the game, Bergvall lost possession deep in his own half, leading to Guglielmo Vicario tipping Wilfred Ndidi’s header, which would have given Leicester a 2-1 lead, around the post. Vicario was incensed by Bergvall’s carelessness and charged up to him, screaming at the teenager.

Any Spurs fan watching could be forgiven for thinking it would be a while before their young summer signing would establish himself as a first-team regular.

Eight months later, Bergvall has become integral to Ange Postecoglou’s starting XI. He is technically gifted and superb at wriggling out of tight spaces, but he works hard off the ball, too. In last week’s 1-0 defeat by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, supporters booed Postecoglou’s decision to take him off in the 64th minute for Pape Matar Sarr.

After slowly settling into life in north London, Bergvall has been one of Spurs’ best players this season and will play a crucial role in the Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Tottenham technical director Johan Lange and chief scout Rob Mackenzie flew to Stockholm in January 2024 on a mission to persuade Bergvall to leave Swedish top-flight side Djurgarden.

Bergvall and his family were impressed by their presentation, which highlighted his strengths and weaknesses. A couple of weeks later, Bergvall travelled to London and was given a tour of the training ground, meeting Postecoglou and chairman Daniel Levy.

Other clubs, including Barcelona, Newcastle United and Thursday’s opponents Frankfurt, were interested in signing him too. Bergvall’s family visited Barcelona and listened to a pitch from their sporting director, former Barca and Portugal midfielder Deco.

“We were eating in the mountains with Deco, we looked outside and there were 150 people trying to get in,” Bergvall told The Athletic last May. “We got into a taxi, drove into the city and they were following us. We got into a garage and switched cars.

“It was a crazy day. I came home and needed to decide, but my gut feeling was always Tottenham. They play really good football and it’s fun to watch.”

Bergvall agreed to join Spurs from Djurgarden on a five-year contract in February 2024 but did not officially arrive until pre-season.

Encouraging pre-season performances from Bergvall and fellow 18-year-old summer signing Archie Gray softened the blow of Spurs missing out on more experienced midfield targets Conor Gallagher and Jacob Ramsey. The internal belief was that Bergvall and Gray were ready to be thrown into the Premier League straight away. They both made an appearance off the bench against Leicester in August but had to wait until December for their first starts in the competition.

Bergvall’s performances were mixed during the first half of the campaign. His first involvement after coming off the bench in September’s 3-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford was to whip in the corner from which Dominic Solanke scored the third goal. He started five out of Spurs’ eight league-phase games in the Europa League, but those early performances gave the impression he was not yet quite ready to compete regularly against the very best.

He has been booked eight times in 40 appearances this season and at times, it has felt like he could not cope with the speed and physicality of English football. He would confidently charge into tackles, expecting to win the ball, only to wipe out his opponent.

In November, a bruising defeat against Galatasaray in front of a raucous crowd in Istanbul felt like a Sliding Doors moment. Bergvall looked lost and was constantly shrugged off the ball by stronger, older players but Postecoglou insisted the experience would benefit his development. Stepping up from Sweden’s top flight was always going to be difficult in such a short time, and the entire team struggled that night against Galatasaray. Bergvall’s vast potential was clear but he was only showing flashes of it.

When Bergvall becomes frustrated or feels like he has a point to prove, he can be guilty of trying to do too much. The best example was in January’s 3-0 victory over Elfsborg. Postecoglou berated Bergvall on the touchline in the opening 10 minutes for attempting over-elaborate passes.

“He is 18 and he is such an exciting player,” Postecoglou said afterwards. “Like all young players, he made a couple of mistakes early on and wanted to atone for those mistakes. He dug himself a bit of a hole where he was trying to do things a little bit too complicated. I just gave him the message to settle down and keep the game simple. Get his rhythm back.

“Even when he is making those mistakes, he just works awfully hard and keeps running. It’s such a great asset to have. Probably in his mind it was a big game for him, playing against a club from his own country. That’s the reason we are exposing these guys.

“The more experiences they have like that, the better they will be able to deal with them further down the track.”

Bergvall made his first league start in a 5-0 victory at Southampton at the base of midfield. It is a role he had been groomed for in training and he took notes on how Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur approached the position. He took part in a special individual drill before kick-off with assistant coaches Mile Jedinak and Nick Montgomery to test his control under pressure.

Bergvall impressed against Southampton but he was still waiting for, and needed, a truly breakout moment. It arrived a few weeks later in controversial circumstances in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final tie against Liverpool. Bergvall produced an excellent performance for the first hour and nearly set up Pedro Porro when he chased Cody Gakpo’s backpass to Alisson and robbed Liverpool’s goalkeeper.

Then, the teenager’s inexperience took over. He was booked for a tackle on Luis Diaz and, a few minutes later, lunged at Ryan Gravenberch right on the touchline. Had Bergvall made contact with the Netherlands international, he would have surely been sent off.

He refused to learn his lesson and in the 84th minute, Bergvall wiped out Kostas Tsimikas when Liverpool counter-attacked but the referee played the advantage. Sixty seconds later, Solanke set up Bergvall to score the winner. Arne Slot and Virgil van Dijk went berserk while Liverpool’s assistant, Sipke Hulshoff, was booked for complaining. Bergvall darted past reporters after the game with his hood up, eager to avoid any awkward questions about whether he should have been on the pitch.

The Sweden international may not have been able to truly appreciate it at the time but there is no denying that it was a statement performance. Since then, he has started eight out of Tottenham’s 11 league games, replacing Bissouma at half-time on the three occasions he did not start. It was a switch that worked perfectly in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, as Bergvall assisted Sarr’s strike. He has usurped Bissouma, Mali’s captain, in Postecoglou’s pecking order and has been trusted more than Sarr recently. In total, he has played 1,072 minutes across 24 league appearances.

Tottenham’s domestic form has been awful and their season is drifting, which means Bergvall’s involvement in the Europa League is a better indicator of his importance. He started both legs of their 3-2 aggregate victory over AZ in the round of 16 and it would be a genuine shock if he did not start against Frankfurt. The lowest point in Bergvall’s debut season was the own goal he scored in the first leg against AZ when he tried to clear the ball from a corner but it bounced off his shin into the net. It speaks volumes about Bergvall’s character and mentality that, after that moment of poor fortune in the 18th minute, he was the only source of inspiration for Spurs in a miserable 1-0 loss.

While Dejan Kulusevski recovers from a foot injury, Postecoglou’s first-choice midfield appears to be Bergvall, Bentancur and James Maddison. When Kulusevski is fully fit, Maddison is more likely to drop out than Bergvall. Maddison and other senior players, including Solanke and Son Heung-min, can produce game-changing moments but the only player who has matched Bergvall’s consistency in 2025 is full-back Djed Spence.

Bergvall’s ability to quickly drive Spurs up the pitch is crucial. He is fifth for take-ons attempted per 90 minutes (4.7), out of all central midfielders who have played at least 900 minutes in the Premier League this season, and has the fourth-highest average carry distance (six yards). The calibre of the players above him in the latter metric — Kulusevski (7.6), Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva (6.5) and Arsenal’s £105million ($134m at current rates) club-record signing Declan Rice (6.2) — is another indicator of his quality.

Bergvall suffered from a virus during the March international break that forced him to miss both of Sweden’s fixtures and it is why Postecoglou took him off early against Chelsea. Postecoglou believed Bergvall “didn’t look himself physically” and lacked “running power”, but it did not prevent the midfielder from embarking on a couple of runs where he slalomed in between Chelsea players.

Bergvall is second in the league among central midfielders, behind Bentancur, for interceptions per 1,000 opposition touches, highlighting his all-round ability. But Bergvall’s evolution into a No 6 presents Postecoglou with an awkward dilemma. Gray has played the majority of his minutes this season at centre-back or full-back but covets a role in midfield. The England Under-21 international earned his first start in that position in the 2-0 defeat by Fulham. Gray displayed good defensive awareness but was, understandably, conservative in possession, which should change with more exposure to the role. Gray and Bergvall only played together in midfield for around 15 minutes at the start of the second half until the former dropped into defence. The goal must be to have them start together and interchange positions when required.

Unsurprisingly, Bergvall’s closest friend at Spurs is his international team-mate Kulusevski. They grew up in the Swedish capital and started their careers at Brommapojkarna along with Spurs Women centre-back Amanda Nilden. Bergvall was close friends with Nilden’s younger brother, Charlie, when they were in Brommapojkarna’s academy together. Kulusevski has become a mentor for Bergvall and they are rarely spotted without each other.

The first time they met was when Bergvall visited Juventus’ training ground during Kulusevski’s three-year spell with the Italian side. Kulusevski looked after Bergvall and invited him to his apartment afterwards. They remained in touch and Bergvall spoke to Kulusevski before he committed to Spurs. They spend time with each other away from the training ground and on international duty, play the role-playing game Mafia, which is sometimes called Werewolf and partially inspired the hit BBC television show The Traitors, with their team-mates.

“He’s doing great,” Kulusevski said in January before Spurs faced Elfsborg. “It’s fantastic for him at that age to play so much. He’s had great performances, especially against Liverpool. I’m very proud of him and I’m trying to teach him. He’s learning and developing every day.”

The biggest influence Kulusevski has had on Bergvall is in the gym. When Tottenham’s squad work out before training, Kulusevski is always the last person to leave as he runs through extra sets. Bergvall was lean and lithe when he arrived at Spurs last summer but he looks stockier now.

“I don’t think he’s left (Kulusevski’s) side since he’s been here and Deki (Kulusevski) is in the gym all the time,” Postecoglou said last month. “He’s a great role model for him and if nothing else, Deki has forced him to get in there and work hard on his game.

“He’s also an outstanding technical player. His technical proficiency is still his greatest asset. He’s growing, you’ve got to remember he’s only just turned 19. He’s still a very young man and if he keeps building up physically as well, to the standard you need in the Premier League, particularly in that midfield position, if you have that physical ability and that technical proficiency, then you’ve got a decent player on your hands.”

It is this physical transformation that led to Maddison describing him as a “lump”.

“Lucas is a fantastic talent and you can sometimes forget how young is he,” Maddison said in an interview for Tottenham’s website after the second leg against AZ. “I misinterpreted him as a player. I thought he was more of a between-the-lines, technical player but he is actually a bit of a lump.

“He gets about. He is a big boy. He is powerful. He is technically very good. The (deeper) No 6 role suits him because he can drive forward and he is learning the discipline under this gaffer of what it takes to be a No 6. He is getting better game by game.”

When The Athletic watched Bergvall play for Djurgarden against Elfsborg last year, his father, Andreas, suggested his son may need an extended adaptation period. “It’s a five-year contract but we talked about this as a two-year project,” Andreas said. “He has to be patient, listen and adapt. I don’t think he expects to play right away but he will do everything in his power to do that.”

Bergvall still has a long way to go to fulfil his potential but the progress he has made over the last 12 months has been remarkable.

Additional reporting: Conor O’Neill

(Top photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Ange Postecoglou has accused people of putting a negative spin on Tottenham Hotspur’s achievements and “turning gold into c***”.

In second-half stoppage time of Sunday’s 3-1 win over Southampton, Brennan Johnson, who had scored Spurs’ opening two goals, earned a penalty, which Mathys Tel converted. Johnson looked disappointed on the pitch and had to be consoled by Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro and Archie Gray. The Wales international admitted afterwards that he wanted to take the penalty to complete his hat-trick.

Postecoglou was asked about the incident before the first leg of Spurs’ Europa League quarter-final tie against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday and said “we’re in that position that the good stuff we may do is going to be turned into a glass half full rhetoric”

“It’s incredible, it’s just literally turning gold into c*** when it’s Tottenham,” the Australian added. “If we’re 2-1 up tomorrow night and get a penalty in the last minute, I want the best penalty taker to take it.

“I mean the one slight against this club is apparently it hasn’t been a winner. Well the winner’s mentality in the last minute of the game is to score a goal. We scored a goal and yet somehow, in this ultimate universe where everything Tottenham does is wrong, that’s come out as a negative.

“From my point of view, I was delighted because as I said if that’s tomorrow night and we get a penalty in the last minute and get a third goal which could be really decisive, I’m really pleased with the way the players handled it.”

Johnson was also asked about the penalty during Wednesday’s press conference and said as an attacking player he naturally wanted to take it, but once the decision was made he backed Tel to score.

“All of us attacking players, if there’s a chance to score from 12 yards without it being contested, all of us would want to take it,” Johnson said. “Once the decision had been made it’s not really my nature to argue or have a fight about who takes a penalty.

“I’ve been in that situation before, where people are really reluctant to let someone else have a penalty and it can put you off. So once the ball was with Mathys I just wanted to get on the edge of the box and support him. He put it away and he’s a quality player as well so it’s not like I’m doubting his quality. As soon as the ball was put in his hands I backed him to score.”

Spurs have struggled in the Premier League this season and have lost more than half of their games, leaving them 14th in the Premier League.

Postecoglou was in a fiery mood in his press conference on Wednesday. He directly referenced an article published by tabloid newspaper the Mirror about his future and said that “the general sentiment of people” is that “even if we win (the Europa League), I’m gone anyway.”

The 59-year-old then said that he remains focused on delivering success to Spurs “irrespective of whatever noise there is or what there may or may not be in the future.”

“I don’t see that that should diminish my burning ambition, my desire and my determination to make that happen,” Postecoglou said. “Anything you achieve in life usually comes with a struggle. Certainly everything I have achieved in my life has come with a struggle from a professional perspective. This is just another struggle, but never through this struggle have I lost the will to fight for what I think is the right thing to do and I’ll continue to do that.”

Spurs reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but were knocked out by Liverpool after being beaten 4-0 in the second leg at Anfield. They were eliminated by Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup which means their only chance of winning silverware this season, and qualifying for the Champions League, is by winning the Europa League.

They face Eintracht Frankfurt at home in the first leg before a trip to Germany next Thursday (April 17). In between the two European fixtures, Postecoglou’s side play Wolverhampton Wanderers in the league.

(Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

The premise of hit TV series Severance is that a corporation can insert a chip into employees’ brains which means that when they step into the workplace, they instantly forget everything that they knew in the outside world.

Over the course of the show, it becomes clear that you are not merely ‘severed’ from your memories by this process, but from your original self. You become an entirely different person with a different personality. Your ‘outtie’ in the real world and your ‘innie’ in the office may have very little in common. Other than that, they share the same physical body.

The question, as we approach the quarter-finals of the Europa League this week, is whether the same thing can be true for Tottenham Hotspur. Is it possible for one team to be so bad in the Premier League but to step into the Europa League and suddenly become a completely different side? Can a fanbase forget everything they knew about the season so far and come into this week with the optimism of not knowing?

And is there any reason, outside of the world of science fiction, to be hopeful about Eintracht Frankfurt over two legs?

Thursday night could be the biggest game of Spurs’ season, and arguably their biggest game of this decade. The only trophy they have come close to in recent years is the Carabao Cup, reaching the 2021 final and twice losing a semi-final since then. But they have done nothing in the FA Cup of late and nothing in Europe since the 2019 Champions League final.

This campaign is a chance to change that. If they can just get past Frankfurt, their season will at the least be kept alive into May. It will be Lazio or Bodo/Glimt in the semis. They will be so close to the final in Bilbao they will be able to smell the pintxos.

Under normal circumstances, you might expect a sense of feverish anticipation heading into Thursday. But this has not been a normal Tottenham season. In fact, it has been their worst league season for decades. With seven games left, they are 14th in the league table. The last time they finished lower than that was 1993-94. They have lost 16 from 31 league games.

The last time they lost more than half of their league game was 1934-35, when they finished bottom, were relegated, and did not return to the top flight until 1950. Daniel Levy was being gentle last week when he called this season “highly challenging”.

So if Spurs show up on Thursday and simply play like they have done in the Premier League, it is difficult to imagine how they might be able to beat Frankfurt. Dino Toppmoller’s team are currently third in the Bundesliga and well on course for Champions League qualification for next season. They are an efficient counter-attacking side, perfectly calibrated to take advantage of the flaws in Tottenham’s game.

If you have watched Spurs in recent months, you will be familiar with those issues. They struggle to control and manage the game. They give the ball away cheaply when they have too many players committed upfield. The midfield offers little resistance to opposition counter-attacks. They lack cohesion without the ball and confidence with it.

Of course, most of these problems are downstream from the brutal injury crisis they suffered, and the issues it exposed with the squad. But they were glaringly evident in the recent league defeats by Chelsea, Fulham and Manchester City, and in the first hour against Bournemouth. The only league games Spurs have won in the last two months were against Southampton, Ipswich Town and Manchester United. Even the performance level they showed against the now relegated Southampton on Sunday will not be enough against Frankfurt.

But what if the Spurs team that emerged out of the tunnel on Thursday night was somehow transformed from the one that we have seen recently? What if the same physical bodies can somehow become a different team?

This is not an unprecedented phenomenon in European football. There are plenty of examples of teams who were unremarkable in domestic competition, but who became something else when they stepped out to play in Europe.

Like Liverpool winning the 2005 Champions League despite finishing fifth in the Premier League, separated from Bolton Wanderers by only goal difference. Or Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea, sixth in the Premier League in 2011-12 but unrecognisable in Europe, knocking out Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in the semis and then beating Jupp Heynckes’ Bayern Munich in the final at the Allianz Arena itself.

There is another example even closer to home. By the halfway point of the 2018-19 season, it was clear that Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham cycle was nearing its end. After failing to move on established players or bring in anyone new in summer 2018, the team had gone stale. They could not summon the old energy. They did not win an away league game after January.

But when the Champions League anthem played, Spurs were separated from their domestic selves and now capable of remarkable feats. They nicked a point in the Nou Camp to qualify from the group, they demolished Borussia Dortmund, they beat a peak-era Manchester City on away goals and then they produced one of the greatest comebacks in history to beat Ajax. And they had to play the second leg against City and both legs against Ajax without Harry Kane. They needed big contributions from Fernando Llorente, Moussa Sissoko and a hobbling Victor Wanyama to get them to Madrid.

It was all so thrillingly unlikely that you might as well ascribe it to science fiction, the tiring domestic team turning into the heroic European side who never knew when they were beaten.

And if the Tottenham team of six years ago could become different on European nights, then why can’t this one? All season, this group has been consistent in its desperation to make history and win a trophy for Spurs. They have saved most of their best performances for the cups, forgetting their miserable league form, knocking both Manchester teams out of the Carabao Cup, and beating Liverpool in the first leg of the semi-final. They finished an impressive fourth out of 36 in the Europa League league phase.

And while Spurs were indeed awful in the last-16 first leg against AZ, the only time in recent months they have played anything even remotely resembling ‘Angeball’ was the second leg. With their season on the line, they found the physical level to power past AZ and into the quarters.

On Thursday, Spurs have to do the same thing again: step out of the tunnel, wait for the Europa League anthem to play and become a different team. The side we see most weeks in the Premier League barely has a chance against Eintracht Frankfurt. But if Tottenham can sever themselves from that losing side, leave those bad memories and bad habits behind, and become something else, then maybe that version can finish this season well after all.

(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

It was a pass an ordinary Premier League centre-back would not attempt.

Having received the ball on the edge of his area, Cristian Romero had two conservative options: a square knock to Rodrigo Bentancur, or a 10-yard ball upfield to Lucas Bergvall.

But, for better or worse, nothing about Romero’s game is conservative. Rather than either of the above, he fired a 20-yard pass to James Maddison, who controlled the pass with his left foot before spreading it out with his right to Son Heung-min. The South Korean delayed and played Djed Spence in on the overlap, who cut a cross back into Brennan Johnson to drill a shot into the top corner. It was a shining example of the football Tottenham Hotspur have been capable of under Ange Postecoglou, but have not delivered on enough this season.

“It was a goal we’ve done a number of times, but we haven’t done consistently,” Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference after Spurs beat Southampton 3-1 on Sunday. “In the first half, I think we had many of those moments. With Cristian back there and Ben (Davies) and when Micky (van de Ven) plays, we’ve got centre-backs who are comfortable on the ball, can find the right pass and give us some really good solutions.

“It’s about making sure the guys further up find the right spaces. I thought in the first half, we did that a lot. It was an excellent team goal from start to finish.”

Romero is one half of a foundational centre-back partnership, the bedrock that determines whether Spurs flourish or flounder. Van de Ven’s pace allows Tottenham to be aggressive in planting their flag in the opposition half. Equally, without Romero, they do not have the incisive passing quality from defence to break lines and use their territory effectively. In the absence of that alchemy, “the guys further up the pitch” have often looked lost.

As it turned out, Postecoglou did not need the Dutch half of the duo, with Southampton offering little attacking threat. After all, they are in danger of becoming the worst Premier League side in history, and Sunday’s defeat confirmed their relegation to the Championship in record time. Spurs have not piled misery on many of the league’s bottom dwellers — losing to strong relegation candidates Ipswich Town and Leicester City at home — but they have scored eight against Southampton, with just one in response.

Which is precisely why any positive from this game cannot be drawn without a caveat.

Romero’s pass was excellent, and it’s an encouraging sign that the first link in the attacking chain is coming together before the Europa League quarter-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday. Against Bournemouth, his first start in the league after missing three months with a hamstring injury, he attempted that kind of game-breaking pass in the first minute, and it almost immediately led to an opposition goal. In this case, it led to one of Spurs’ best goals of the season.

It was against little resistance from Southampton, but the trio of Maddison, Bergvall and Bentancur produced arguably Tottenham’s best midfield performance of the year in the league at a critical juncture of the season, particularly in the first half. After being substituted against Chelsea, with Postecoglou describing his performance at Stamford Bridge as “leggy”, Bergvall was a dominant physical force out of possession and cultured and comfortable with the ball.

Maddison played a vital role in both goals, assisting the second, and Bentancur was accomplished in possession, completing 26 of his 28 passes (93 per cent), though the opposition did not make it difficult (again, that caveat). Spurs’ performance faded in the second half, with Postecoglou suggesting the team became “way too passive without the ball” and “really sloppy” with it. Still, it is a step in the right direction for the creativity hub ahead of Frankfurt.

While Dominic Solanke was denied a long-awaited goal by Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who made several excellent saves, Mathys Tel opened his Premier League account from the penalty spot in injury time — kindly gifted to him by the penalty-winner Johnson, who was on a hat-trick. The explosion of emotion after the ball hit the back of the net demonstrated how much he needed it.

Yet, these positive lights only pierce the grey cloud looming over the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Before the game, a crowd marched towards the stadium, protesting against chairman Daniel Levy and ENIC Group, an investment company owned by the family trust of Joe Lewis, which owns a controlling stake in the club. Messages of “Time for change” and “Built a business, killed a football club” and chants directed at the chairman inside the stadium reflect a bubbling frustration that might be tempered only by the Europa League trophy.

For Postecoglou, it’s a reflection on his state of limbo at Tottenham that a comfortable 3-1 win comes with caveats. Spurs avoided the ignominy of becoming the only club to lose to all three set-to-be-relegated sides at home.

There is little glory in beating a side whose open ambition is to avoid becoming the worst team in the league’s history. But, before the meeting with Frankfurt on Thursday, it’s what was needed.

(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

With pressure mounting on Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham Hotspur head coach will have been relieved with three points over Southampton, a result that relegated the visiting side.

There was a risk that facing the Premier League’s bottom side, who only have 10 points this season, could have caused an embarrassing afternoon for Spurs, as Leicester City did when they won here in January. And while two goals from Brennan Johnson and a first Premier League goal for Mathys Tel sealed victory, conceding late and struggling to kill the game off in the second half will have done little to appease those disappointed with Postecoglou’s side.

There was a pre-match protest outside the ground against the ownership, as well as chants within the stadium, as anger at how the club is run continues. Following the defeat to Chelsea and this victory, Spurs can now plan for Frankfurt in the Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday with Lucas Bergvall and Johnson performing well.

Here, Elias Burke and George Caulkin break down the action from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

How did Spurs fans react to Levy and Postecoglou?

Tottenham remain a club at unease with itself.

Barely 20 seconds had passed before the South Stand began a chant of “We want (Daniel) Levy out.” Not for the first time this season, there had been a demonstration by hundreds of supporters down the Seven Sisters Road where a banner was held up which read, “Built a business, killed a football club.” It was also displayed inside the stadium before kick-off and again at half-time.

With Postecoglou denying suggestions he had goaded fans who had sung, “You don’t know what you’re doing” at him during Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea — he had cupped an ear with his hand — the feeling remains that Spurs are teetering on a precipice. Whether they topple or pull back will probably be determined by their Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

In that context, victory over Southampton — who have only won once in the Premier League since early November — proved very little. Against hapless opponents, whose relegation was confirmed, they were far too strong, but at least it provides them with some precious momentum.

No dissent was aimed at Postecoglou and there was none in return. Why would there be? When the first goal went in, the head coach called over James Maddison to give him instructions. The second brought smiles and high-fives with his coaching staff.

George Caulkin

A five-minute VAR check?

Lucas Bergvall thought he had scored his first Premier League goal in the first half… before VAR intervened.

Not that Postecoglou needed any more convincing that VAR is negatively affecting the flow of football matches, but a five-minute-and-25-second wait, according to Opta, between Bergvall volleying into the back of the net and referee Michael Salisbury restarting the game won’t help in easing his frustration.

During the wait, Postecoglou strolled around his technical area and signalled to his coaching staff, making fun of the delay. While Spurs and Southampton fans collaborated in a rendition of “f*** VAR” and boos rang around the stadium, the 59-year-old shrugged his shoulders and pretended to play rock, paper, scissors, suggesting a randomness to the procedure.

Postecoglou spoke against VAR in the post-match conference after the Chelsea defeat, where that night’s video assistant referee, Jarred Gillet, recommended referee Craig Pawson check the pitchside monitor before disallowing Pape Matar Sarr’s second-half goal after a lengthy check.

In this case, the goal was chalked off as Cristian Romero was found to be offside before heading the ball down to Bergvall in the box.

Elias Burke

What did Spurs learn before Frankfurt tie?

As European quarter-final tune-ups go, this was about as straightforward as it gets for Tottenham.

Postecoglou made three changes from the side that were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea on Thursday, with building momentum for the season-defining tie against Frankfurt a key consideration. Johnson, who came in for Wilson Odobert, has struggled to make an impact since scoring twice against Ipswich Town in February but made a strong case for selection on Thursday. He scored his 10th and 11th league goals of the season in the first half, the first after a sweeping “Ange-ball” style passage started by an incisive pass from Romero.

Postecoglou will also be encouraged by the performance of Bergvall, who was taken off at the hour mark against Chelsea, with the head coach citing a lack of physicality after leaving international duty early with illness.

Against Southampton, the Swede was dominant, driving through the midfield and reacting quickly to loose balls.

While Southampton offered little resistance, there was a creativity in midfield that has often been absent in recent weeks. Maddison, who was poor in the first leg against AZ before propelling Spurs to victory with a goal in the second, was instrumental in both goals today.

It’s unlikely Frankfurt will roll over as easily, but if a lack of confidence was an issue ahead of that match, this should at least be a welcome boost on that front.

Elias Burke

What did Postecoglou say?

Speaking after the match, Postecoglou said: “I was really happy with the first half. I thought first half we were really disciplined, well organised, we limited them to one chance. I thought every time we went forward we looked dangerous. We were threatening, probably as threatening as we’ve looked for quite a while — really fluent. Obviously scored two goals, one got disallowed. Aaron (Ramsdale) pulled off two good saves. Really pleased.

“Second half, not so much. I thought we became way too passive without the ball. We allowed Southampton to get a little bit of a rhythm, and then really sloppy with the ball. The substitutions that we made didn’t really make the impact I wanted to. That allows them to get a goal. So that was disappointing, something we need to improve on. But overall, I think the important thing is that we got the win and three goals. Everyone got through unscathed and ready for a big night on Thursday.”

What next for Spurs?

Thursday, April 10: Eintracht Frankfurt (Home), Europa League quarter-final first leg, 8pm UK, 3pm ET

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(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 loss against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Thursday didn’t surprise many, but it added to a miserable season for Ange Postecoglou’s side.

They sit 14th in the Premier League table, 10 points off the top half and 17 points behind Manchester City in fifth. For much of the season, Tottenham’s injury crisis was used to justify their poor league form, but even with many key players back, Postecoglou has still struggled to get a tune out of his side.

On the latest episode of The View From The Lane, Danny Kelly, Jay Harris and Jack Pitt-Brooke discussed whether Tottenham are simply just a below-par team this season.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on The View from the Lane feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Danny: Jack, let me pull the pin out of the hand grenade and pass it over to you. There are statistics you can produce here, or you can talk about the eye test. Are we just deluding ourselves? Are we just watching a rotten football team?

Jack: This is just a bad team that has occasionally had good days. It doesn’t hold water anymore to say they’re a good but flawed team. Good but flawed teams don’t lose 16 out of 30 league games. They’re a bad side who are capable of having very good days.

A lot of what we saw against Chelsea, we saw away to Fulham, we saw in the first half against Bournemouth, we saw away to AZ, and also in the home game against Man City. They’ve lost a lot of their intensity without the ball. They didn’t make things difficult at all for Chelsea. It was incredible how many times Chelsea could knock the ball forward, then, all of a sudden, Cole Palmer or Nicolas Jackson would have a ridiculous amount of space to run straight through the middle of the pitch. There was no resistance at all from Tottenham.

It was so easy for Jadon Sancho to get one-on-one against Djed Spence, who was having to backpedal all the time just to stay afloat. Then, when Spurs got the ball, they had no idea what to do with it. There were no patterns. They didn’t use Dominic Solanke properly. They never released Son Heung-min or Wilson Odobert into good positions. Occasionally, Destiny Udogie or Spence would run forward with the ball, but then it would all stop and they would knock the ball out of play. It felt like it took about 40 minutes for James Maddison or Son to touch the ball.

It was really bad. And bad in a way that was generally familiar with what we’ve seen this season. This is not a team that’s going anywhere.

Danny: Jay, I thought your head was going to fall off you were nodding so vigorously there…

Jay: There are a couple of things I wanted to highlight.

Like Jack said, this is just not a particularly good football team. The injury crisis became a convenient excuse for a team already playing quite badly. But you hoped to be proven wrong and that when players came back, we would see the shoots of progress.

Looking at the last month or so, when those players have been back, nothing’s really changed. They’re still performing just as miserably as they were before.

The other element is that the team did lose a bit of their composure and discipline against Chelsea. Sergio Romero getting booked for going up to Levi Colwill is just so silly. All because he and Colwill were tussling with each other at a corner 20 minutes before. You don’t need to get involved. All that does is whip up the crowd at Stamford Bridge even more and adds to the intensity. That’s when you need Son, Guglielmo Vicario, Maddison and the other leaders to calm the team down, remain composed, and ignore all that nonsense.

They just allowed themselves to get wound up. Even Pedro Porro, when he screamed at the linesman, it was so unnecessary. You could really see signs of the tension that these players are feeling.

You can listen to full episodes of The View from the Lane free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

In the wake of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Thursday, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp did not hold back in his assessment of his former club and their head coach.

“If they weren’t still in Europe, I don’t think he’d still be the manager,” Redknapp said on Sky Sports’ post-match broadcast. “They’ve been that poor. He knows the price of the ticket. You don’t lose 16 games at a club like Tottenham. Yes, they’ve had injuries, but that’s not good enough.

“He’s got to win the (Europa League). If they win the cup, they’re creating history. If they don’t win it, they will be history. It’s all or nothing for Ange Postecoglou. They are capable because they’ve got the players to do it, but they need the spirit.”

That sentiment was echoed by fellow former Spurs player Jamie O’Hara, who said, “There’s no men, there are no leaders, it’s just they’re out there, they’re playing for themselves, and the manager looks lost on the sideline,” in reaction to the result and performance. Incidentally, it was in response to a jibe by Chelsea fan Jason Cundy, his co-host on TalkSport’s The Sports Bar radio show, who made 28 league appearances for Spurs in the 1990s.

Chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from the travelling support after Postecoglou replaced Lucas Bergvall with Pape Matar Sarr reflect the frustration bubbling around the club, with very little relief for a head coach who is presiding over a historically poor Premier League season.

Still, the 59-year-old suggests he should have more help in calming the hostility.

“I think a lot of it is how the club is viewed externally,” Postecoglou said in his pre-match press conference on Friday. “It seems like every fight, like I said, ends up being an internal fight for this club. There’s never any defending of the club or the club defending itself, it seems to me, which makes it even more difficult. Because whenever the club goes through tough moments, it’s how you react to them.

“(The club could defend itself) by being more vocal. I think you hear enough from me. You probably hear too much from me, to be honest. I think it doesn’t have to be just from people at the club. I hear plenty of people talking and defending other clubs, but it seems like with Tottenham, wherever there’s a sore, there’s a little pile-on to stick a finger in that sore. Then we kind of accept our fate.“

Postecoglou may have a point. Certainly, among the most prominent broadcasters in the United Kingdom, there aren’t many pundits who have played for Spurs or hold friendly sentiments towards the club.

It wouldn’t take long to reel off a list of Manchester United, Arsenal, or Liverpool legends who are frequently featured on British television screens, often reflecting on trophies won and success at those clubs. The Spurs angle, however, is often thrown to ex-players better known for spells elsewhere, such as Redknapp or less recognisable faces.

The issue runs deep. Boyhood fan Roy Keane’s most famous Spurs-related quote was remembering former United manager Alex Ferguson dismissing the club ahead of a match, saying, “Lads, it’s Tottenham.”

Finding those Spurs voices is part of the problem. Many players who enjoyed success at White Hart Lane under Mauricio Pochettino are still playing, and those who have retired, such as Mousa Dembele, are unlikely to become regular pundits on British television. Excluding Gareth Bale, the likes of Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, and Robbie Keane are the most high-profile players of Harry Redknapp’s era who fit the bill. Currently, Keane is the head coach of Ferencvaros in Hungary, Defoe is pursuing a career in coaching, and Crouch is more closely associated with Liverpool, with whom he reached the Champions League final.

Still, the central reason ex-Spurs players do not seem to dominate the British media discourse is simple: they didn’t win enough. Take the Sky Sports Overlap crew, for instance. Keane won 12 major trophies at Old Trafford, Gary Neville lifted 17. Ian Wright won the Premier League. Jamie Carragher won the Champions League. In addition to their skill and experience in front of a camera, they are respected for what they have won as players.

Outside of those three clubs, there’s a general underrepresentation across the league. Newcastle are fortunate that Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s record goalscorer and former England captain, just so happens to be a boyhood fan and club legend. Now Frank Lampard is back in management, the most active Chelsea-affiliated pundit is… Joe Cole? Even four-time defending league champions Manchester City lack comparative representation to Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, who dominate the discourse.

It’s not their job to defend the club, either. The strong United cohort, almost entirely comprised of dominant sides under Ferguson, has not shied away from criticising the club, players and managers when results have been poor. Even with Liverpool running away with the league title, Carragher has been forthright with his opinions on how Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold have dealt with their contract discussions, prompting criticism from supporters and creating awkward moments with the players on broadcasts. Had Liverpool lost 16 league matches this season, Carragher would inevitably come down hard on Arne Slot, too. It is no surprise, then, that Glenn Hoddle, one of Spurs’ greatest-ever players, is occasionally critical of his former club on commentary.

Rewind to the start of last season and Postecoglou was fast becoming a darling of the British media. His direct and succinct communication style endeared him to Premier League fans, bringing fresh air to how managers interacted with media members. The football was great, too, with fans and pundits praising his attacking philosophy after Antonio Conte and Nuno Espirito Santo.

Crucially, though, Spurs were winning. Now, they’re 14th after 30 games, level on points with Everton and Wolves in 15th and 16th, having lost more than half of their games. Regardless of who is in the studio or the gantry, that form is difficult to defend.

(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)