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Tottenham Hotspur’s destiny is out of their hands. With last week’s late draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, Spurs have to win every match they can and hope those above them fail to do the same. They’ve got a good opportunity to return to some winning ways against relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers.

There’s unfortunately a couple of things going against Spurs in their quest for their first Premier League win this year: Spurs’ record at Molineux is poor, with a three-match losing streak at the venue; and the football gods have opted to strike the club once more with their injury cudgel, with Pape Matar Sarr and Destiny Udogie the latest to hit the treatment table.

In some ways though, Spurs will be buoyed by their recent performances, even if they haven’t garnered the results for which many are hoping. Spurs are finally looking like something resembling a football team, and if that continues today, the Lilywhites are every chance of breaking their losing streak and staving off relegation… for now, at least.

COYS!

Lineups

Lineups will be posted closer to kick-off.

Live Blog

How to Watch

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, UK

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET, 3:00 p.m. UK

TV: USA Network, not televised in UK. Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: Unavailable

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

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Have fun, and COYS!

“Destiny has a problem. I think he can’t play tomorrow. I’m sorry because he played a great first-half, the second-half as well, but the first one was great (against Brighton). But we have Spence, Souza is available to come with us. It’s not a big problem. I hope Udogie can be available in the next week at Villa Park.

“It’s a muscular injury but not so important. He didn’t play for a long time and it can happen at the beginning when you start to feel something of this problem. I have a big opinion about Destiny and he’s a crucial player for us. We are lucky because we can play with Djed Spence, another important player. I think he’s playing very well this season. Another very good guy and that’s it.

“[Maddison] is not available yet, especially in this week. He felt pain but not so important problem. Tomorrow he will come with us on the bench because he is important if he plays or not it doesn’t matter. Better if he plays, for sure, but as a guy, as a leader, he is a positive guy. Inside of my dressing room I want to see nice people, positive people and this is important also for his team-mates.

“Pape Matar Sarr, the shoulder. He felt pain in his shoulder and this week he didn’t work. He has not worked with the group. He’s not available to play.”

“Can we play that game again or not? I think not.

“Yeah but it was clear but no problem. We have to move on and to prepare the next game in Wolverhampton is not an easy game for sure. The last three games at home they made a draw with Arsenal 2-2 and they won with Aston Villa and Liverpool. They are alive. It is a tough game because they have nothing to lose. It’s an important game for us for sure but we have to be able to play not too much pressure and my work from now until tomorrow is to prepare the game of my best. To prepare in the best way to play football because this players are very good players. They have important qualities and they play without too many problems in their head.”

“I am very happy. I am very happy to work here because the part of the staff I found when I came is special as a guy, as a professional and the players the same. They are following me and they are good guys. Sometimes when one team is losing too many games the rumours are not nice and behaviour and the people speak about not too much serious players, but no, it is not like this in this case. I found good players, good guys, serious players and they follow me. They believe in my words because I am able to recognise the eyes of the players. We are suffering, they are suffering because it is not easy play in Tottenham in this condition of the table, but I said they have to be stronger and they have to live to win a game. We have to live every part of the day waiting for a win and preparing for a win because I think with a win we can change this part of the season.”

We reported on a rumor last week about Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth central defender Marcos Senesi having a meet-cute and thinking coming together, and now we have corroboration coming out of Germany. Our good buddy Florian Plettenberg, writing for Sky Sports Germany, is now saying there’s an “agreement in principle” for Senesi, who will be a free agent in June after his Bournemouth contract expires, to join Spurs this summer.

Sounds pretty good to me! Y’know, except for that ONE caveat — it’s contingent on Roberto De Zerbi saving Tottenham Hotspur from relegation to the Football League Championship.

I quite like Senesi, actually. He’s a solid defender. His signing almost certainly means that at least one Spurs central defender will be moving on this summer, and the likeliest candidates are Radu Dragusin, Cuti Romero, and/or Micky van de Ven, who have all been linked with moves away from Spurs no matter what happens to them at the end of the season. Senesi would be a good person to come in, and while we yell at Spurs about seemingly only targeting free transfers this would actually be a good one. He can certainly slot in beside Kevin Danso, Luka Vuskovic, whoever, and do a job.

Except for the whole “contingent on Spurs staying up” part. I’ve said again we haven’t heard what the plan is if Spurs don’t manage to stay up and get relegated from the Premier League for the first time in their history. That’s maybe a good thing. I have to think that Spurs do have a plan for that, though considering Johan Lange is involved it’s probably not a very good one.

Instead, I’d suggest we just stay in the Premier League and try to rebuild that way. We’ll still be run by idiots, but at least we’ll be run by idiots in the top division and not in the second division. That seems like at least a marginally better outcome.

Wanna get mad? OK, I mean even madder than you already are with Tottenham facing relegation, employing a sexual assault apologist, and Johan Lange still employed. Well I have something for you! Remember that incident where Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey, already on a yellow card, shoved Cuti Romero into Antonin Kinsky, injuring both Spurs players and leading to Cuti being out for the rest of the season? And remember how match official Rob Jones declined to send Brobbey off because of… uh, reasons? Remember that? Huh? Remember? That was (not) awesome.

Well the Premier League Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel just ruled that Jones, as 100% of Spurs fans could tell you at the time, screwed the pooch.

The KMI panel voted 3:2 that the decision by Jones was a mistake, with the majority view being that “there is a two-handed push which is an unnecessarily reckless action”.

Tottenham, who lost the game 1-0, would have played the final 30 minutes against 10 men if Brobbey had been dismissed.

Yeah. Another example of the officials screwing over Tottenham Hotspur and then just issuing a “oops, sorry, our bad” statement. And it gets worse — Rob Jones is apparently the match official with the worst record of making major mistakes with regards to second yellow cards in Premier League matches.

KMI panel statistics show that Jones has been responsible for five of the 12 errors this season regarding second yellow cards not being shown. All of his mistakes should have resulted in red cards.

The other cases listed to involve Jones are Malick Thiaw (Newcastle at Bournemouth), Ruben Dias (Manchester City at Nottingham Forest), Rodri (Manchester City at Tottenham) and Cole Palmer (Chelsea v Leeds United).

Jones has the joint-most errors on second bookings in the past two individual seasons, with three recorded in 2024-25 and two in 2023-24.

Of 42 cases regarded as mistakes across the three campaigns, Jones has made 10 of them.

You know, when someone is bad at their job, usually the answer is to either fire them or move them to a different position that might suit their skills better. While we don’t yet know the outcome from this report, apparently Rob Jones has been given a number of second chances already, because most people don’t make mistakes in 5/12 incidents in their job and expect to stay in that particular job. But that’s the PGMOL for you.

We have no idea whether Brobbey being sent off would’ve meant a different result than the 1-0 loss to Sunderland. But we DO know it would’ve changed the tenor of the rest of the match, considering Spurs would’ve played the last 30 minutes up a player, and who knows what might have happened? Maybe Spurs get a scoreless draw instead of a loss. That’d still have kept Tottenham in 18th place, just one point behind West Ham instead of two. But as we know, in a relegation battle every point is critical and sacred. Rob Jones screwed Spurs out of at least one point with that ridiculous non-decision, and I’m still mad about it.

This feels like the one. Tottenham Hotspur likely needs three wins in the final five to stave off the once unthinkable, and Saturday is unquestionably the one that looks best on paper. A win would provide some much needed hope, and could even land get Spurs back to 17th should West Ham not beat Everton. Failing to earn three points would eliminate all margin for error over the next four matches.

Even having this conversation regarding the already relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers is depressing in itself. As terrible as Spurs have been, Wolves are far worse, yet absolutely no one is expecting straightforward outing. After all, this side is 2-3-3 over the last eight (must be nice!) and have been significantly better at Molineux this season, unbeaten in the past three home fixtures. Nevertheless, Tottenham has no choice but to win.

Match Details

Date: Saturday, April 25

Time: 10:00 am ET, 5:00 pm UK

Location: Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton

TV: USA Network (US)

Table: Spurs (18th, 31 pts), Wolves (20th, 17 pts)

This has not been a kind fixture for Spurs. They are winless in the past six contests, including a 4-2 demolition at this venue last April that also featured two clubs in the bottom five of the table. The reverse fixture this campaign came back in September, when the home side needed a late equalizer from Joao Palhinha just to rescue a point; Thomas Frank’s side generated only 0.87 xG that day.

Two Things to Watch

Youth or experience?

It felt like Roberto De Zerbi made a statement with his lineup against Brighton, particularly with the midfield trio of Yves Bissouma, Conor Gallagher, and Rodrigo Bentancur. When times are tough, it makes sense to lean on experienced veterans, and for the most part they lived up to the challenge. On the road in a desperate situation, it would be no surprise to see the new manager make the same sort of choices again.

However, it would be unfair to suggest younger options like Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray are unreliable or not up for the task, and perhaps it is their very youthful exuberance that would be their strength. Wolves are dead last in goals (by a wide margin) and are not exactly known for possession, so loading up the midfield with defensive-minded destroyers is not necessarily the requirement like last weekend.

Still, I would expect De Zerbi to lean on those he trusts the most in the center of the park and perhaps bring that youthful energy up front with Xavi Simons and Mathys Tel. Everything is still new for him, but time has almost expired, so there is just not much space left for tinkering with different starting XIs. Having multiple available options has not always been the case this year, though, so perhaps the manager should feel fortunate to even be in this situation.

Moral victories

There have been enough false dawns already. The draw against Liverpool, the second leg against Atleti, the effort last weekend — these were all positive outings, but ultimately have done very little to change the club’s survival prospects. With just one month remaining in the season, there is no time to accept good performances that do not result in three points. Any win will do, regardless of how ugly it may be!

Perhaps the biggest benefit for Spurs is that Wolves might also be well beyond moral victories. Last weekend confirmed the club’s return to the Championship and it is difficult to expect a ton of motivation throughout the run in, and especially so in their first match as an officially relegated side. If any club could bungle this it would be Tottenham, but as far as circumstances go, this is pretty perfect.

So yea, this is it. Maybe fewer than 40 points will be enough to escape relegation, but the pressure will be unbearable if Spurs fall short in this one. I just struggle to believe this team will be capable of suddenly locking in over the last four if it fails to take advantage of its easiest fixture remaining. If this contest is not considered “must win” it could hardly be any closer.

I’ve been doing my best this week to catch up on some regular hoddle features I haven’t been able to get round to lately because of travel, work, etc.

Earlier this week we did a nice rundown of the EFL Championship, brought back Fitzie’s Film and TV Reviews and even did that video game hoddle that you all requested at the start of the season. I’m doing my best to tick off the boxes one by one. I need to update the Track of the Day playlist too.

(Don’t expect any hoddles in the near future on Where are they now? where hoddle HQ looks at past Spurs players - because I just don’t have the time)

But one I always like to revisit is What are you reading right now? where hoddle HQ checks in with you all on some of the books you’re currently reading.

I’m steadily making my way through A Year In the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago, a novel about the final year of Ricardo Reis, one of the dozens of heteronyms (And one of the most famous) created by legendary Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa.

I’m only about a quarter of the way through the book so far but it is turning out to be a remarkable read. It features those beautiful, long-running sentences that Saramago is known for. The only problem is I haven’t had time in the last two weeks to pick it up.

That needs to change, and it will be a significant part of my weekend plans. I hope the next time we check in I’ll be nearly done (if not finished) with the book.

Anyways - do share some of the texts you’re reading!

Fitzie’s track of the day: Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave, by Dave Mason

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “The lessons Tottenham Hotspur can learn from the Premier League’s Great Escapes”

Alasdair Gold: “Tottenham fined and warned by UEFA over ‘improper conduct’ and two other incidents”

The Independent: “How Rochdale and York stole the Premier League’s thunder with a title decider for the ages”

The Telegraph: “BBC axes Football Focus after 52 years”

It should probably go without saying that the transfer rumor vultures are circulating around the injured body of Tottenham Hotspur, so we should expect a lot of reports that other clubs are wanting to pick off any number of Spurs players this summer. Like this one! According to The Athletic’s Manchester United beat writer Laurie Whitwell, United are in the market for a new central defender and Micky van de Ven is one of the options they’re considering.

The gist is that United have two young defenders — Leny Yoro and Ayden Heaven — that they want to develop and turn into first team regulars, but they’re also considering an experienced central defender as a stop-gap and to bolster their Champions League roster. Van de Ven is considered one potential option for them, and the thought is he might consider a Spurs exit whether or not Tottenham save themselves from relegation in what remains of the season.

A name being considered is Micky Van de Ven. The 25-year-old, who spoke to Gary Neville on The Overlap podcast in December, is expected to attract interest, whatever division Tottenham Hotspur end up in. His contract runs to 2029, so his value is protected. There is the irony that if Spurs are relegated, it would ease the exit path for some of their best players.

— Laurie Whitwell, The Athletic

That’s not exactly a surprise, though if Spurs do stay up it would require Spurs to consent to selling Micky (not a given). If they go down, then I’d expect Micky would not be the only first team player to push through the exit door. Whitwell mentions Liverpool is another club keeping an eye on Micky’s status, along with “other major clubs in Europe.” No surprises there.

The other bit of rumor-mongering to mention today is the status of Destiny Udogie. According to The Sun’s Tom Barclay (a good reporter at a very bad newspaper), Udogie could potentially miss Saturday’s away match at already-relegated Wolves due to an undisclosed injury. I will not link to the report because it is the Sun; I’m sure you can find your way to that article if you really want to. But suffice it to say that this is only the first paper reporting this, and because it’s Barclay I’m inclined to think it’s possible.

It’s another blow for Spurs, and for Udogie who has missed significant parts of the season with injury. In fact, he had only recently come back from a hamstring injury that caused him to miss about a month. Udogie is a good player but at this point he appears to be made of glass, and him potentially missing more time shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

I assume that one of either Djed Spence or Souza would come in as Destiny’s replacement against Wolves, with Pedro Porro remaining on the left under Robert De Zerbi, but who knows what RDZ will do — it’s not like we have a corpus of matches for us to draw upon.

Wolves are a terrible team, but for whatever reason Spurs have been pretty dogshit against them the past three seasons. Spurs haven’t beaten Wolves at all since August 2022, and you have to go back to August 2021 — under Nuno Espirito Santo — to find a the last time Spurs beat Wolves at the Molineux. That’s not to say Spurs won’t win on Saturday, but don’t expect it to be a given. These Wolves have teeth when they’re up against chicken clubs.

It’s been a good while since we’ve last done a video game hoddle, and I know you all love your video games.

(Anyone here still playing Candyland?)

I’m not playing any video games right now but I did come across this movie poster for Hungry, the unofficial movie based off the game Hungry Hungry Hippos. It looks really exciting:

Also some MIT students played a game of Tetris on a building. That’s pretty dang cool, right?

I gotta say I’ve played Tetris a few times thinking it’ll be fun. It never is, it’s always extraordinarily stressful.

So I wonder what was more fun for those students: Developing a way to play tetris on a building, or playing the game.

Anyways, that’s your video game hoddle. Do share some of the RPGs, MMGs, RSVPs and MSRPs you’re up to these days.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Turned Out I Was Everyone, by Sasami

And now for your links:

Jay Harris ($$): “Tottenham’s Kevin Danso is a fantastic defender but he is so much more than that”

In 2021, Borussia Dortmund hired Sebastian Kehl to serve as their Sporting Director, succeeding Michael Zorc, a massively successful figure who won several titles while in charge of the Bundesliga club. Four years later, Dortmund and Kehl made a mutual decision to part ways with Dortmund floundering under a catastrophically built and aging squad, and despite Dortmund having plenty of financial capital.

Does that sound familiar? Because it should. Tottenham Hotspur are also looking for a new Director of Football after the departure of former co-Sporting Director Fabio Paratici, who bolted for Italy to rebuild Fiorentina after just two months in charge. Previous reporting had suggested that Sebastian Kehl was one of several options to serve in the role along with former Crystal Palace DoF Dougie Freedman. Nobody was particularly excited about the idea of hiring Kehl at the time.

Well, I have bad news for you, courtesy of Florian Plettenberg and Sky Sports Germany.

Wow. It takes a special kind of football executive to look at the tenure at someone like Kehl who served at a club that’s more or less equivalent to that of Tottenham Hotspur, look at their current squad, the past few seasons’ results, and the way he left the club, and say “I want some of that!” I also want to call attention to one particular sub-phrase in Plettenberg’s tweet — “alongside Johan Lange,” which strongly implies that not only is Lange NOT going to be fired out of a cannon into the nearest star, but instead like he could be given the opportunity to continue at the club, alongside a DoF who screwed up Dortmund in much the same way Tottenham are screwed up.

It should be noted that further reporting suggests an appointment is pretty far away at the moment, but it also suggests that Dougie Freedman, currently DoF for a Saudi League club that I’m not going to bother to identify, took a look at 18th-placed Spurs and said “Yeah, hard pass.” That same reporting suggests an appointment is still pretty far away and Kehl is not necessarily a done deal, which if you’re the hopeful type you should grab onto with both hands.

In theory, Kehl could be better at his job than what he showed at Dortmund, but why in the world would you trust anyone in Tottenham’s current leadership to look at Kehl’s tenure and make that determination, given what we can see with our own lying eyes? And to make that determination and keep Johan Lange in his current job just screams ignorance and incompetence by the Lewis kids (and the Swamp Wambsgans former Florida placekicker currently in charge).

I can’t even. If this is accurate, this is not a serious club and we should not expect serious and systemic change to a system that has already broken enough that there’s a real chance Tottenham Hotspur will be playing in the Championship next season.

good morning and welcome to another edition of Fitzie’s Film and TV Reviews, where your hoddler-in-chief takes a look at some of the things he’s seen on screens both big and small.

I’ve only got a couple listed for you today - that’s because I haven’t finished Is This Thing On? yet. Early feedback though is overwhelmingly positive.

Project Hail Mary: This is the film everyone’s talking about lately. And how could they not? It’s a beautiful buddy film set in space between a human male and his alien friend, Rocky. The film itself is gorgeous to look at, and it’s a tonne of fun to watch once you understand what it’s actually about. My one minor critique is that it’s too much Ryan Gosling, but some might say that’s a good thing.

If you ask me, the puppeteer for Rocky should win the “best supporting actor” in the awards shows.

Bad Mistakes: Dan Levy’s latest series after Schitt’s Creek follows a pastor and his sister’s entrapment in a criminal enterprise - uh oh! It’s a dark comedy that also features Laurie Metcalf. There are some really good moments. But my major gripe is there is way too much bickering to the point where it feels quite shrill and, frankly, unpleasant to listen to. I think it redeemed itself in the final episode and I’m looking forward to a tighter second series.

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair: The revival show to the 90s-era sitcom that starred Frankie Munoz and Seinfeld star Bryan Cranston, the latter who would later go on to write A Life In Parts. This film brings back almost the entire original cast, who are at their dysfunctional best. It’s only four episodes, but that feels like enough for what seems like typical Malcolm hijinks.

Fitzie’s track of the day: With This Tear, by Prince

And now for your links:

Jack P-B ($$): “Rodrigo Bentancur’s return is the comeback Spurs didn’t know they needed”

ESPN: “Leicester relegated to League One 10 years after Premier League title”