Tottenham Hotspur won the Europa League last May. Less than 12 months later, they are fighting relegation, on their sixth permanent manager in seven years, and have just been torn apart 5-2 by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.

If you want to bet on sports online this spring, Spurs reaching the quarter-finals would not be where most people are putting their money, because the tie is already as good as dead. So, who is actually to blame for all of this? 

Thomas Frank was not the answer

Thomas Frank arrived from Brentford in June 2025 with a solid reputation, but left eight months later, having recorded the worst Premier League win rate of any Spurs manager in the top-flight era, just 26.9 per cent from 38 games, with only 13 wins from 38 matches to his name. Those are hardly the kind of numbers you’d want to plug into a bet calculator. 

He got his tactics wrong repeatedly, struggled to impose any kind of identity on the squad, and the players very visibly stopped responding to him as the season wore on. Eberechi Eze scored a hat-trick in the first north London derby in November and followed it up with a brace in the most recent meeting, which tells you everything you need to know about the standard of preparation under Frank, whose sacking was confirmed the morning after a 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle in February.

Igor Tudor has been no better

What followed was, if anything, worse. Tudor arrived on 13 February and lost his first four games in charge, conceding 14 goals, the worst ever start for a Tottenham manager. The night in Madrid encapsulated everything wrong with his short tenure. Tudor chose to start 22-year-old Antonin Kinsky in goal for his Champions League debut, dropping established number one Guglielmo Vicario. Kinsky gifted Atletico three goals inside 15 minutes and was hooked off in the 17th minute, with Tudor failing to even acknowledge him as he left the pitch.

Tudor was sacked, having taken just two points from his eight Premier League games in charge. The authority he held in the dressing room was near non-existent by the end, and Spurs find themselves worse off than when he arrived.

Roberto De Zerbi has not steadied the ship

Roberto De Zerbi was appointed as the third Tottenham manager of the season, arriving on a five-year deal as one of the highest paid managers in the division. The Italian built his reputation at Sassuolo and Brighton, where he guided the Seagulls to a sixth-place finish and European football for the first time in the club’s history.

His appointment has not come without controversy. A section of supporters have expressed strong opposition over comments De Zerbi made in defence of Mason Greenwood during their time together at Marseille. Off-pitch noise the club simply did not need at this point in the season.

On the pitch, the start has been no better than his predecessors managed. De Zerbi lost his first game in charge against Sunderland, and Spurs are now officially in the relegation zone, sitting two points below West Ham with only a handful of games remaining. His mid-season record at previous clubs is a concern. He went winless in his first five matches at Brighton and failed to keep Benevento up when parachuted in mid-season. The pattern is an uncomfortable one.

But the players are not without blame

Week after week in the Premier League, the body language has been alarming, with players who look like they would rather be anywhere else on the pitch than fighting for the shirt. There is no intensity, no pressing, no sense that any of them are willing to put their body on the line for the result.

The effort levels and general quality on display at times would not look out of place on a Sunday morning in the park, which is a damning indictment of a squad that contains internationals and players on significant wages.

Supporters inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have been visibly despairing all season, with some fans reportedly leaving before half-time during the Crystal Palace defeat in March, and it is hard to blame them when the players on the pitch are giving them so little to cheer about.

A club without an identity

Tottenham are now on their seventh head coach in less than seven years since Mauricio Pochettino left in 2019. The names have included Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Ange Postecoglou, Frank, and Tudor. None of it has stuck. That is as much a reflection of the squad culture as it is of the coaching carousel.

A group of players with genuine fight and belief would find a way to perform regardless of the manager. This group has not done that for anyone. The blame does not sit with one person. It sits with everyone involved.