Kyle Walker has explained how he and his former Tottenham Hotspur team-mates were left in tears after being beaten 5-0 by Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool back in December 2013.
Luis Suarez netted twice for Rodgers' side that day, with Jordan Henderson, Jon Flanagan and Raheem Sterling also contributing to a resounding victory in North London. Spurs ended the game with only 10 players after Paulinho was shown a red card just past the hour mark, with the scoreline already at 2-0.
And the defeat to Liverpool at White Hart Lane turned out to be the last straw for then Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas. While Liverpool climbed to second place in the Premier League table following the win, Tottenham languished in seventh, trailing leaders Arsenal by eight points. They were struggling to find their footing after selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.
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The loss marked the club's worst at White Hart Lane in 16 years. Despite Spurs being on a five-match unbeaten streak in all competitions before falling to the Reds, the pressure had been mounting on Villas-Boas, especially after a 6-0 away defeat to Man City just three weeks prior and having won only one of their last six home games, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Villas-Boas was dismissed by Tottenham on December 16, less than 24 hours after the final whistle at White Hart Lane. And his sacking clearly had an impact upon Walker and his team-mates. The England right-back revealed there were plenty of tears shed following Villas-Boas' sacking.
"He was just so, so nice. He was so nice and sometimes I think that probably killed him," he admitted on his BBC podcast, 'You'll Never Beat Kyle Walker'.
"He was too nice. I can remember when he left, and I will never forget it, I swear to you, I will never, ever forget it. We were sat in the auditorium and we got wind that he was going. [Daniel] Levy sacked him but he was still in the building and we were still ready to train. He came downstairs and started crying in front of us, he started crying in front of us.
"And I remember his assistant was telling him to pull it together. He started crying, I've got tears running down my eyes. A lot of the lads had tears, Michael Dawson is welling, he's just like he can't stop crying. He's emotionally crying, because that is how much he meant to the lads.
"Now we probably didn't do him justice on the pitch because that's why he got the sack, but for 10-12 men to be crying because the manager has gone, he has done something well in the dressing room. Football aside, he's emotionally connected with us as well. As a team, we probably let him down a bit."