Tottenham Hotspur boss lays down the gauntlet in relegation battle: “There’s something wrong if you don’t understand”

Tottenham Hotspur find themselves in a situation that nobody could have predicted - unless you have any interest in football whatsoever and have taken even a cursory glance at the Premier League table over the past 18 months.

The north London club, for the second season in a row, are peering over the cliff edge of the Premier League to see what’s down below, yet this time their peers are not duly accepting gravity’s strength, but instead fighting to keep Spurs there with them.

Thomas Frank ghosted in, drank from an Arsenal cup and left, with nobody the wiser as to whether or not he actually did anything right or wrong apart from that while playing the role of Spurs boss, the squad so jumbled and mismatched an right-minded charity shop would reject the 2025/26 calendar for looking like a fake.

At the time of writing, just four points separate them from West Ham in 17th, perhaps the only club in the league least surprised than Spurs to be where they are. With just 10 games to go, however, West Ham come into the home straight with 3 wins from 7 in the league, including a victory over Spurs, and they are looking up.

In order to rouse the troops, Tottenham’s new manager, Igor Tudor, has issued a rallying call to his players, devoid of any confidence or mental strength, to pull up their trousers and get to work. Doctors decide people’s fates, he said, not footballers.

“Everyone understands the situation. There is something wrong if you don’t understand. My job is to put the pressure away but their job is to accept the pressure is there,” he said in his pre-match press conference ahead of Thursday’s game against Crystal Palace.

“I hope we have the players to stay up”

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“So the pressure is everywhere, but you need to love this job. There’s real pressure out there. People need to make money for their families or are working in jobs like doctors who are doing operations and they decide about life and death. That’s the real pressure."

“You need to be ready to accept this and stand up. Take responsibility. Have the courage to confront these things. This is the best way to do it, the only way to do it. I hope we have, and I’m sure because I saw in the training, the players to step up, take responsibility and make us start putting in, first of all good performances, and after also win points.”