Planet Football

The Mauricio Pochettino era provided Tottenham fans with memories they’ll never forget, but it comes tinged with regret.

The Argentinian coach built what was comfortably the club’s best team of the modern era, finishing above Arsenal for six straight years, but they famously failed to lift any silverware.

Looking back, the board failing to back the manager and continue to build can be start of the start of a decline that now sees the club unthinkably battling relegation.

We’ve put together a full XI that Tottenham might have ended up with had they landed their major transfer targets in the Pochettino era.

GK: Hugo Lloris

Lloris had his critics, but there’s little to suggest that Pochettino wouldn’t have retained his faith in him had he remained at Tottenham.

He only left Spurs in 2024, outlasting his old boss by five years, eventually going to MLS after being frozen out by Ange Postecoglou.

Who knows the tack the club would’ve taken had Pochettino been around to oversee a wholesale rebuild.

We can easily have imagined him linking up with another World Cup winner, his compatriot Emiliano Martinez, but that’s purely speculation.

RB: Achraf Hakimi

Pochettino revealed that he’d tried to sign Hakimi, now widely regarded as the best right-back in world football, when he eventually got to work with the Morocco international at PSG.

“Achraf is a young player [I have] been following since [I was] at Tottenham,” Pochettino told reporters back in 2021.

“We were on the edge of signing him for Tottenham, but then he went to play for Dortmund.

“He has a great capacity to run, his physical potential is huge. He is young, he’s maturing at the defensive level, but he makes a lot of contributions in attack.”

CB: Malang Sarr

Bit of a weird one, this.

Sarr and Pochettino have had an awkward relationship during their time together at Chelsea. It’s said that the coach incensed the French defender after an Ancelotti-esque ‘Who?’ in a press conference.

“I felt like smashing everything up when he said that because I know what’s going on behind my back…” Sarr reflected on the incident, speaking on a podcast.

“He’s doing it on purpose. I know he knows me. It’s impossible he didn’t know me.”

Sarr went on to claim that Pochettino tried to sign him at Spurs back in the day:

“Look who’s here, we tried to sign him at Tottenham, and now we are working together here!” he alleged Pochettino told him when they linked up at Cobham. We’ll take his word for it.

The centre-back never settled at Chelsea, but he’s found his feet back in France, playing a key role in a Lens side full of ex-Premier League misfits who have surprisingly pushed PSG in the Ligue 1 title race this season.

CB: William Saliba

In fairness, you can’t say that Pochettino wasn’t listened to with this one.

Tottenham did move to try and hijack Arsenal’s deal to sign Saliba back in 2019, when he was a highly-rated teenager at Saint-Etienne.

At the time, Spurs could offer Champions League football and Arsenal could not. They’d finished a point ahead of their North London rivals to nab fourth place the season prior. But still the rising star chose the Gunners.

In hindsight, this can be seen as a key moment in the trajectories of both clubs ever since. How different might things have been had Spurs really pushed the boat out and mounted a serious enough offer for Saliba to have changed his mind?

LB: Ryan Sessegnon

We don’t need to speculate about the position of left-back. It was one of the few areas that the club actually invested in during Pochettino’s latter years.

But an early injury denied the highly-rated teenager a chance to work under the manager who signed him.

“He [Pochettino] was a big part of me coming to the club,” Sessegnon said at the time.

“I knew they had been watching me for a while and to finally come to the club and play under him was a dream come true. Then, for him to go suddenly after not working with him at all was disappointing. It’s part of the game and I’m just trying to work and improve under the new manager.”

After looking like a top prospect in the Championship, he never really kicked on or nailed down a place under Pochettino’s string of successors.

He’s now back at Fulham and proving himself a decent enough Premier League full-back, but in another life he stayed injury-free, developed under Pochettino and became a serious, top-level player.

DM: Youri Tielemans

“Tottenham are no longer recognisable as the team that Mauricio Pochettino built,” read a headline in The Telegraph, published shortly before Pochettino’s sacking in September 2019.

All the pressing and intensity that was a hallmark of Spurs at their best under the Argentinian had dissipated, while marquee signing Ndombele struggled to adapt to the structure and tactical demands.

Mousa Dembele hadn’t been adequately replaced, Victor Wanyama had dropped off a cliff, and the midfield looked the area most glaringly in need of restoration.

Scouring through the archives, it’s actually difficult to find Spurs linked with too many game-changing midfield signings that would’ve ushered them into a glorious new era.

Tielemans would’ve been an interesting one, though. Tottenham registered interest in the Belgian back in January 2019, but he moved to Leicester instead.

Might he have made a difference when things grew so stagnant in Poch’s final year?

CM: Donny van de Beek

Hey, we didn’t say all of Pochettino’s transfer targets were going to be hits, did we?

Given the midfielder’s struggles at Manchester United, and his completely forgettable loan stints at Everton and Eintracht Frankfurt, we can safely mark this one down under ‘bullet dodged’.

But you never know. Van de Beek was widely considered one of the most promising young midfielders in Europe after the starring role he played in Ajax’s unforgettable run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2018-19.

Had Pochettino got his hands on him, as he’d reportedly tried to in the summer of 2019, then perhaps his career would’ve gone on a completely different path.

We’ve seen countless players chewed up and spat out at Old Trafford. Maybe he’d have had better luck with injuries, although with Tottenham’s medical team that’s far from a given.

FWR: Son Heung-min

It’s approaching seven years since Daniel Levy made the controversial decision to sack Pochettino, just months after he led them to the Champions League final.

So in this counterfactual, it’s a bit tricky. Son is now 33 and enjoying a well-earned victory lap out in the California sunshine, having departed Spurs after captaining them to Europa League glory last season.

At the time, there was never really a question of signing a right-sided forward because upgrading on the South Korean was nigh-on unthinkable.

As with Lloris, we’re sure other potential successors would’ve been mooted as he began slowing down, but really – like Harry Kane – there’s a sense of frustration he didn’t play alongside players of a similar level in his peak years.

QUIZ: Can you name Mauricio Pochettino’s 25 most-used players in his career?

CAM: Bruno Fernandes

Here’s the big one.

“The first club that was close to signing me was Tottenham,” Fernandes revealed, speaking on Instagram Live back in 2020.

“With Pochettino…But I don’t know maybe they thought the amount Sporting wanted was too much so in that moment Sporting decide they don’t want to sell.

“Tottenham came in the summer but Manchester [United] was in January. Maybe Tottenham came again in January but when I knew Manchester was interested I just wanted to talk to Manchester.

“At that time [last summer] it was Tottenham that was closer to me. There was other teams from France, one team from the Spanish league but for me when I talked the first team was Manchester.”

That means the summer of 2019, Pochettino’s last transfer window when Tottenham were crying out for freshening up. They signed Tanguy Ndombele, Jack Clarke and Ryan Sessegnon.

Imagine Fernandes feeding Kane. Things could have been so different.

FWL: Jack Grealish

Grealish was said to be “disappointed and disillusioned” after Tottenham saw a reported £25million bid rebuffed by Aston Villa in the summer of 2018.

He was tearing up the Championship at the time and really coming into his own. He continued to be linked with a move to Spurs in the coming years as he inspired Villa to promotion and established himself as a Premier League superstar, eventually moving to Manchester City for £100million.

It’s easy to look at Grealish now and turn your nose up, but he was an important player in City’s 2022-23 treble.

You can imagine Pochettino being exactly the kind of arm-around-the-shoulder coach he needed to fulfil his potential and become the confident, dazzling world-beater that always looked in his destiny during his prime England and Villa days.

Pochettino has also mentioned Sadio Mane among the names that he tried and failed to sign while at Tottenham. Maybe not in 2026, but he’d have been incredible had Spurs beaten Liverpool to his signature a decade ago.

ST: Harry Kane

There’s a prevailing sentiment on social media that Kane, now chasing the Ballon d’Or as the main man in a truly elite team, will regret all the years he’d spent some way off that at Tottenham.

He was 30 when he signed for Bayern Munich and spent his entire twenties without silverware. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that he was once challenging for Premier League titles and reaching Champions League finals under Pochettino at Spurs.

Being his boyhood club’s all-time top goalscorer isn’t nothing, either – just ask Alan Shearer what that means.

The England captain is thriving and seems to be loving life in Munich, but you’d imagine his ideal scenario would have been having a team at that level at the club that made him.

It wasn’t to be, of course, and their post-Pochettino decline made his departure inevitable – but there’s an alternative reality in which they kept Pochettino, built this superteam, and he stayed to captain them to trophies.

READ NEXT: How Lionel Messi almost became an Espanyol legend, according to Mauricio Pochettino

Tottenham vs Lincoln and Leicester vs Bromley as actual league fixtures next season will take some getting used to.

It has felt like a particularly daft season throughout the English Football League, the consequence of which is some genuinely absurd fixtures in the pipeline for 2026/27.

Some have been possible by daft mismanagement, others by absurd overachievement and the rest through a potent combination of the two.

Tottenham v Lincoln

If challenged by some deeply troubled individual to sum up Tottenham’s 2025/26 campaign in one sentence, this should cover all bases: after a 5-2 Champions League knockout stage defeat to Atletico Madrid in which their keeper was substituted for tactical reasons in the 17th minute, Spurs fans sang in the concourse about travelling to Lincoln away the following season.

A 70,000-capacity European football cauldron makes for incongruous surroundings when it comes to gallows humour, but it captured the ongoing absurdity of the situation.

Sincil Bank holds roughly one-seventh of that number, and there will even be hilariously long-suffering Spurs supporters still around from their last visit to face the Imps in the league for a goalless draw in the 1948/49 Second Division.

The two clubs faced one another in the League Cup second round more than four decades ago, but have since existed on different stratospheres.

When Spurs finished as Premier League runners-up in 2017, Lincoln were being crowned National League champions. One month after Lincoln won League Two in 2019, Spurs were playing in the Champions League final.

That they might well be playing each other home and away next season is a testament to how brilliantly run, unified, community-led and fan-focused one club is, and how the other is so irrevocably Spurs.

West Ham v Stevenage

The banter option is fairly obviously for Spurs to be relegated, but West Ham do provide a solid back-up plan.

The Hammers did sink to the Championship in 2011, at which point their most incompatible opponent was probably Doncaster or Peterborough. And of course, they drew with the former at home while scraping past the latter through a Mark Noble penalty.

If Nuno Espirito Santo does prove incapable of halting the West Ham slide – and is probably then replaced as manager by Noble – then their schedule might well contain one fixture never seen before.

This is where the League One play-off picture comes in. The Jussi Jaasekelainen derby against Bolton is old hat, and meeting Bradford would evoke memories of that 5-4 Carling classic in 2000. West Ham have even played Stockport a few times, most recently in the FA Cup five years ago.

But Stevenage? Three points clear of Luton with two games remaining? That would be a deeply humbling first-time match-up to cap the Boro’s debut season in the second tier.

Leicester v Bromley

It could be reasonably argued that the most ludicrous league game of all to be played next season has already been confirmed.

Leicester, Premier League champions in 2016, Champions League quarter-finalists in 2017, FA Cup winners in 2021 and Europa Conference League semi-finalists in 2022, versus a Bromley side which has only existed above the sixth step of the English football pyramid for ten seasons, and spent 132 of their 134 years as a non-league club.

In this, Bromley’s first campaign in the Football League, they have already earned automatic promotion and might yet hold off the challenge of MK Dons and Cambridge to win the title.

And they will have done it with one of the lowest wage bills in League Two – one of many stark contrasts with the crippling improvidence of Leicester.

“Just to give you one sort of comparison to us and Leicester,” said Bromley manager Andy Woodman, “we have one astroturf pitch that we train on; I mean, their training ground is unbelievable. And then when you’ve just listed all the people and all the staff, I mean that is massive mismanagement, let’s be honest. I don’t know who’s to blame, where the blame is. And it strikes me from the outside that there’s been one or two liberties taken really with the sort of naiveness of the owner on that.”

Woodman might not be expecting a call to take over in the summer, and nor should he entertain taking that step down right now.

Manchester United v Wrexham

It remains the least favourable choice for a neutral because of the circus it would attract, but ultimately Wrexham earning promotion would also be the biggest novelty in terms of potential fixtures.

There could be a wonderful freshness about all three promoted clubs. Coventry are different enough to the standard yo-yo teams, with Millwall an intriguing possible Premier League debutant.

But Wrexham would undoubtedly make the most headlines if they prosper in the play-offs, having only shared a division with one member of the Big Six for a single season: Manchester City in the 1997-98 Second Division.

While Wrexham have never faced Manchester United in the league, their five previous meetings include a two-legged European Cup Winners’ Cup tie en route to the Red Devils’ 1990 crowning.

There can’t have been many times that opponents have played each other in a European game before a league one.

Rotherham v Boreham Wood

Not the most ridiculous pairing, granted, but Boreham Wood’s highest league finish ever is fourth in the National League – their current position – in 2018, while Rotherham were playing in the Championship two years ago.

Boreham Wood would have to navigate through the play-offs and past whichever poor sod out of York or Rochdale racks up more than 100 points without getting automatic promotion.

But if they can manage it, the Millers will be waiting.

READ NEXT: Championship wage bill ranking highlights how Leicester City face financial oblivion

It is a dreadful shame that Evangelos Marinakis is not, at least publicly, active on social media. Although if he was, the absurd Greek billionaire might have tweeted something far less printable than simply calling Morgan Gibbs-White a ‘magician’.

That was the noun John W. Henry felt most apt for Luis Suarez after one particularly daft Liverpool performance in October 2013.

While just three months earlier he was pondering what substance Arsenal had collectively been inhaling after bidding £40,000,001 for the forward’s services that summer, Henry was moved by a smoking Suarez against West Brom.

It was the second goal in his first hat-trick since returning from a suspension for innocently tasting Branislav Ivanovic, which came to mind when watching the latest leg of Gibbs-White’s personal rescue mission at Nottingham Forest.

There was a spiritual similarity in the quality and execution of the headers, even if Gibbs-White’s expert redirection of a Ryan Yates cross was shamefully adjacent to the penalty spot rather than from the edge of the area.

That’s where Suarez inexplicably turned an aimless and very possibly deflected Aly Cissokho delivery into a pinpoint, Roberto Carlos-esque homing missile.

Much like Yates’ ball in against Burnley on Sunday, it made what would ordinarily be a sub-optimal and unorthodox choice of shot from that position and distance a straightforward attempt on goal, albeit only for those playing with supreme confidence and ability.

Both those ludicrous headers coming in 4-1 home wins against relegation-battling teams only added to the air of familiarity.

So, too, the transfer sagas that had engulfed both players before the start of the season. Suarez’s Arsenal dalliance is of oft-told Barclays legend, as will one day be the story of Gibbs-White’s blocked Forest exit.

Many felt Mr. Marinakis had taken Gibbs-White prisoner with that record contract and mildly preposterous announcement when the Forest owner was so affronted by a Champions League club triggering a stipulated release clause in a player’s deal that he stepped in – much like Henry and Liverpool did with Suarez over a decade prior – to basically say it didn’t count because ner ner ner ner ner.

Suarez went on to deliver one of the finest individual seasons in Premier League history after Arsenal were made to look foolish. This has naturally and understandably not been quite as phenomenal from Gibbs-White, but he has helped save Forest and made Spurs look even dafter in the process of mimicking El Pistolero.

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Upon joining 14th-placed Leeds United in January 2023, Georginio Rutter expressed a desire to score the goals which might propel his new club up the Premier League table.

More than three years later, that ambition is finally being realised with the Whites in 15th.

Rutter was not close to what Leeds needed then; Sam Allardyce was acerbically accurate in his assessment that the Frenchman “wasn’t good enough” because “coming in and playing in a struggling side in the Premier League that young was a lot to ask”.

While Rutter did assist what remains the final goal of Allardyce’s coaching career in the one substitute cameo the forward had afforded to him across the manager’s four Project Hail Gravy games, it was fair to say that Leeds had made a club-record signing for a top-flight future before accidentally succumbing to relegation in the present.

That did grant Rutter the time and patience to acclimatise to English football in a more forgiving context; the Championship was not built to combat his brand of electric dribbling, sublime close control, flair and first touch, as seven goals and 15 assists in his only full season for Leeds attests.

“He can be some player one day,” Daniel Farke said after one exceptional performance in a thrashing of Huddersfield. “There’s always space for improvement. He’s a young player and if he would be perfect in all areas, we would have to accept that Real Madrid would buy him for £150million. Thank God it’s not the case and he can grow and develop. But his potential is outstanding.”

It was a delightful mix of Allardyce’s thoughts on Rutter and Allardyce’s thoughts on his own Real Madrid-adjacent alter ego.

Yet Rutter’s best season for Leeds might well be unfolding in front of our eyes almost two years after he left Elland Road for Brighton. It happens to be his best season for a Nottingham Forest side he has never played for, too.

His three goals this campaign have come against West Ham, Burnley and Spurs, including equalisers in the 91st and 95th minutes and an opener in the 29th. Few players have had such a direct impact on the relegation battle without actually partaking in it.

Rutter’s strike to break Spurs hearts was uncharacteristically marksmanlike, a glorious finish from a player scoring his first goal in over three months. It was his third straight appearance off the bench, having been an unused substitute in four of five games before that.

There is nothing wrong with an apprenticeship served under Danny Welbeck, but actual managerial child Fabian Hurzeler’s post-match point that “we should never forget he is still a young player” was a reminder that at 24 and with 66 Premier League appearances to his name, Rutter’s £150m Real Madrid move requires a little more work.

If it never comes to fruition, he will always have a home at Leeds, whose love for the fleeting Frenchman has been reinforced in their first full season together – but also entirely apart – in the Premier League. As former team-mate Stuart Dallas said after Rutter’s Spurs goal: “Absolutely marvellous.”

READ NEXT: Who has the easiest run-in of Tottenham, West Ham, Nottm Forest & Leeds?

Several members of the Tottenham squad won’t be hanging around if they get relegated to the Championship, but who’ll be taking them away?

Whether Spurs’ potential relegation presents an opportunity for other clubs to poach their supposedly better players or should be viewed as a warning sign is up for debate.

If Spurs become a Championship club, some of their players could become available for a cheaper price than expected.

But interested parties might have fresh doubts over whether potential targets have the ability – and more importantly, attitude – to make signing them worthwhile.

Either way, there are some Spurs players we just can’t imagine sticking with them if they fall out of the Premier League.

Here’s where we think these seven stars could end up.

Micky van de Ven

One of the fastest centre-backs in the business, Van de Ven would be an ideal fit for Barcelona‘s high line.

Barca have struggled to afford some players of the level they desire in recent years, so the prospect of Tottenham being relegated (reducing the value of their players) could play into their hands.

Hansi Flick’s squad is currently short of a left-footed centre-back too, which Van de Ven could rectify.

He could have suitors elsewhere in English football, but he would tick a few boxes for Barcelona.

Cristian Romero

Romero feels like an Atletico Madrid-coded player if ever there was one.

His combative, card-inviting approach to centre-back duties are easily imaginable in his compatriot Diego Simeone’s system.

Robin Le Normand, Clement Lenglet and Jose Maria Gimenez represent an ageing pool of centre-back options in the current Atleti squad.

Romero is about to turn 28, so wouldn’t be a long-term replacement but has enough years ahead of him to make an impact in Spain.

Xavi Simons

Simons is only one year into his Spurs career after his move from RB Leipzig last summer, and while he hasn’t been as good as they would have hoped, he remains one of their more valuable players.

His stock has fallen, which makes it harder to predict who might come in for him, but someone might take the bait for a player of his age and background.

Could, for example, Chelsea rekindle their interest in the Dutchman as they continue stockpiling the talents of tomorrow?

Pedro Porro

Porro is approaching the final two years of his Spurs contract after making almost 150 appearances since his 2023 arrival from Sporting CP, which provided him with a second chance in English football after never getting a chance with Manchester City.

Interestingly, Manchester City have been tipped to make a move to re-sign Porro as they look for a more natural and long-term solution at right-back.

The 26-year-old is now a more established prospect than he was when he was on their books before.

Archie Gray

Former Leeds midfielder Gray is among the members of the Spurs squad who have considerable experience of playing in the Championship before.

It was thanks to his breakout season in the second tier that he started catching the attention of top-tier clubs like Manchester City, but it was Spurs who won the race for him.

Still only 20, Gray could stay with Spurs in the Championship, but the application and dedication he has shown in multiple positions will have kept him on the radar of some big clubs who can see his long-term potential.

One of the more intriguing links for Gray recently has been over a potential move to Borussia Dortmund, a club that have backed English midfield talent in recent years.

While he should have plenty of options to remain in England – see links with Chelsea, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool – Gray feels like the kind of player who could be willing to test himself overseas, potentially with a Premier League return in the future.

Lucas Bergvall

Spurs signed Bergvall when he was just 18 after spotting his talent at Djurgarden. Around this time last year, they tied him down to a contract until 2031.

They will have envisioned a long-term future in which Bergvall flourishes with them, but the 20-year-old could have plenty of clubs queuing up for him.

Chelsea have been linked with Bergvall, but it was Aston Villa who made contact for the Sweden international in January.

On an upwards trajectory that could take them into the Champions League next season, Villa are still interested in Bergvall and could finally get revenge on Spurs for beating them to the signing of Conor Gallagher.

Luka Vuskovic

We’ll conclude with a player who hasn’t even made his Spurs debut yet, but has been turning heads while out on loan.

Teenage centre-back Vuskovic has impressed with Hamburg this season. As a 19-year-old, some expect him to be the kind of player who could grow with a rebuilding Spurs in the Championship.

But that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Vuskovic has been linked with Bayern Munich. Would Spurs really be able to resist an offer from a club of their might?

Depending on the size of the offer, it might be harder than they think.

Tottenham Hotspur are six games away from an unthinkable Premier League relegation and their first season outside of the top flight since the 1970s.

An awful season on the pitch and several years of bad-decisions off it have left Spurs floundering far below their usual European-challenging habitat.

Despite everything, Spurs firmly belong in the category of ‘too good to go down’ – but that hasn’t saved several other big clubs from the drop in years gone by.

Middlesbrough (1996-97)

Middlesbrough aren’t exactly one of English football’s glamour clubs, but they’ve been in the top flight more seasons than they’ve been out of it in their proud history.

The 1996-97 campaign was only their second successive back in the top flight, but they’d built a quite ridiculous squad that featured Fabrizio Ravanelli and Juninho under player-manager Bryan Robson.

Ravanelli scored 31 goals in all competitions that year, 15 of which came in the FA Cup and League Cup – where Boro finished runners-up in each.

The club were also docked three points for postponing a fixture against Blackburn Rovers at short notice without FA approval amid an injury and illness crisis – which proved pivotal in them finishing 19th on 39 points.

Boro came straight back up, but the lightening-in-a-bottle feeling a talented, cosmopolitan squad gave Teesiders has never quite been emulated since.

Blackburn (1998-99)

Blackburn went from Premier League champions to Division One in the space of just four years, and they finished as high as sixth 12 months before they dropped.

The evergreen Roy Hodgson was sacked in November and Brian Kidd failed to turn Rovers’ form around.

The days of Alan Shearer banging in the goals were long gone, while his former strike partner Chris Sutton’s form fell off a cliff. Kevin Gallacher and Ashley Ward finished as Blackburn’s top scorers with just five goals apiece.

Blackburn mustered just 38 goals in 38 games; Shearer managed 34 when they won the title in 1994-95. A miserable fall from grace.

West Ham (2002-03)

Only one side in Premier League history has been relegated with more than 40 points – the West Ham side of 2002-03.

The Hammers squad that season boasted David James, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Trevor Sinclair, Frederic Kanoute, Jermain Defoe and Paolo Di Canio. No team has ever been more ‘too good to go down’.

It was a particularly gut-wrenching way to get relegated, given they looked doomed for the drop during a miserable winter before coming miraculously close to achieving the greatest of great escapes.

Glenn Roeder’s side picked up just 20 points and four wins from the first 27 games of the season.

They then picked up 22 points from their final 11 games, winning six and losing just one – away at 17th placed Bolton Wanderers.

The Hammers had lined up Didier Drogba for the summer window, alongside rebuilding the fourth stand at Upton Park. What might’ve been.

Leeds (2003-04)

Even now, the phrase ‘doing a Leeds’ is a synonym for “falling into the abyss” in football terminology. The term even has its own Wikipedia page.

From Champions League semi-finalists to humilated basketcase in the space of three years. Leeds flew close to the sun and got themselves burnt.

Newcastle (2008-09)

Newcastle weren’t one of the clubs in the Premier League when it was rebranded in 1992, but they provided the competition with some of its earliest iconic moments.

They’d fallen since those lofty heights by the mid-noughties, but come 2008 there was renewed hope that Keegan was to bring the good times back.

King Kev steadied the ship and led the Magpies to a strong finish in 2007-08, and, eventually, a respectable 12th-place finish – a placing it was hoped could be built upon.

But few foresaw what kind of owner Mike Ashley would turn out to be. Keegan resigned a few weeks into the campaign after a major falling out with the board.

Then came Joe Kinnear. Then came Shearer in his first and only job as manager – and the legendary striker was unable to save them from the drop.

To make things worse, Sunderland survived at their expense. It feels very similar to the season Tottenham are currently going through.

Leicester (2022-23)

Following their historic title win in 2016, Leicester solidified in the top third of the Premier League under Brendan Rodgers.

The Foxes finished fifth in 2020 and 2021, the latter year also marked by winning the first FA Cup in the club’s history.

But Leicester were beginning to strain financially and sold legendary goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in the summer of 2022.

Rodgers’ team began the 2022-23 campaign dreadfully, before picking up form around the World Cup break.

Results spiralled again in the New Year and the manager was sacked at the start of April with Leicester staring down the barrel.

Dean Smith took over and won nine points from the final eight games, not enough to prevent Everton from overhauling them.

A squad containing James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, Youri Tielemans and Jamie Vardy slipped into the Championship. Three years on and Leicester are facing relegation to League One.

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Tottenham Hotspur dropped into the Premier League relegation zone on Friday night for the first time since January 2009.

After 6,281 days outside the bottom three, West Ham’s 4-0 win over Wolves saw Spurs slide into the drop zone before they go to Sunderland on Sunday under new management.

Given the talent in Roberto De Zerbi’s squad, it’s a shameful position for Spurs to be in.

But we would fancy the last Tottenham team to be in the bottom three to turn over the current one.

The XI that faced Portsmouth on January 17, 2009 had no business being bottom of the league. Hence why Juande Ramos was sacked in late October and replaced by Harry Redknapp.

Redknapp doesn’t like to talk about it, but he took over with Spurs rock-bottom on two points and winless after eight games.

The manager, lured from Portsmouth, sparked an immediate improvement to win three of their next four and embark on a run that got them out of the drop zone. But they were back there – and bottom – when they welcomed Pompey to White Hart Lane in mid-January.

A 1-1 draw was enough to get them back above the line, on the way to an eighth-placed finish. Which is certainly closer to where this team ought to have been…

GK: Heurelho Gomes

Gomes was new to Spurs at the start of 2008-09, a £7.8million signing from PSV, and he suffered as much as anyone before Redknapp arrived.

A series of errors led to the sacking of his goalkeeper coach three months into the season, but from there it got better for the 11-cap Brazilian. He remained No.1 for three seasons which saw Spurs go from bottom of the Premier League to the Champions League quarter-finals.

READ: Heurelho Gomes: ‘I became a keeper at 17 as I’d promised mum a house’

RB: Vedran Corluka

Corluka’s Spurs story reads much the same as Gomes’: new to Tottenham at the start of 2008-09; a regular for three seasons; then loaned to Germany.

The Croatia full-back, capped 103 times, enjoyed a positive spell at Spurs, even if he begged Redknapp to let him leave in 2013 after losing his place to Kyle Walker.

CB: Jonathan Woodgate

Sadly, this was the ex-Real Madrid defender’s last season as a Premier League force.

A groin injury at the start of 2009-10 led to only three league appearances in his final two seasons at Spurs.

Still, while he might not have reached 50 league appearances, he did score the winner in a cup final for Spurs, something only Brennan Johnson can claim to have done since.

CB: Ledley King

Anyone might look at Tottenham today and wonder how a side with Cristian Romero and Micky van der Ven is in the bottom three.

But that is nothing compared to the befuddlement still prompted by a team featuring Woodgate and the classy King as their centre-backs being bottom of the table.

Even with both barely half fit – as was too often the case – they were too good to be flirting with the Championship.

Even when King had to be replaced just before the break versus Pompey, in his place came Michael Dawson, who was no mug either.

LB: Gareth Bale

Bale was still very much jinxed at this point of his Tottenham career and remained eight months away from his first win as a Spurs player.

Once that curse was lifted, the Welshmen did alright for himself, we suppose.

RM: Aaron Lennon

There was underperformance aplenty at Spurs in 2008-09 but few fingers could be pointed at the England winger.

Lennon finished the season as the Spurs supporters’ Player of the Season, the club’s Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season, and received a third successive nomination for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

CM: Didier Zokora

Spurs was the 123-cap Ivorian’s only Premier League club, which surprises us for reasons we’re not sure of. Feels like he might’ve played for Wigan, Swansea, someone or other.

Zokora played 134 times in three years at Tottenham between joining from St Etienne and leaving for Sevilla when Wilson Palacios showed up at Spurs.

CM: Luka Modric

Modric was a £16.5million signing the summer before and he was very much still finding his feet in the Premier League. Many doubted if he ever would.

The Guardian had already labelled him a ‘misfit’ and Arsene Wenger, apparently, reckoned he was too lightweight. They were wrong.

And so was everyone who voted for Modric as La Liga’s worst signing when he moved to Real Madrid.

LM: Jamie O’Hara

The winter of 2009 was an odd time for the Spurs academy graduate. O’Hara had made the breakthrough the season before under Juande Ramos but Redknapp never seemed convinced.

The following season, he was sent on loan to Portsmouth, a spell during which he admitted he wanted Spurs to lose in the FA Cup so he could play at Wembley for Pompey. Understandable sentiment though it was, probably one best kept to yourself.

CF: Jermain Defoe

Defoe was a central figure against Pompey since it was there he left 10 days prior to re-join Spurs for £15million.

The visiting fans weren’t best pleased to see him; even less so when he scored the equaliser to get Spurs off the bottom.

CF: Darren Bent

Spurs would have climbed even higher had £16.5million striker Bent not missed a late sitter that prompted Redknapp to say:

“You will never get a better chance to win a match than that. My missus could have scored that one.”

READ NEXT: Not just Tottenham – 5 big European clubs at risk of relegation this season

Tottenham are still looking over their shoulders at the prospect of an unthinkable relegation from the Premier League – but they aren’t the only club at risk of a rare drop from the top flight.

Spurs finished one place above the relegation zone last season, but the points gap with the bottom three meant they were never really in danger. It’s different this time around, though, with Roberto De Zerbi facing the daunting task of guiding them away from unprecedented danger.

Regarded as one of the ‘big six’ in the Premier League, Tottenham dropping down to the Championship would be a shocking story.

However, while this may bring no comfort to their fans, they aren’t the only big club facing a similar narrative this season.

We’ve looked across the European leagues to pick out some clubs you might be surprised to see in relegation battles.

Sevilla

Like Spurs, the rut Sevilla have got stuck in has been coming for a while. A hat trick of fourth-place finishes between 2019-20 and 2021-22 has been followed by a steady deterioration.

They finished 12th in 2022-23 (whilst inevitably winning the Europa League), 14th in 2023-24 and 17th in 2024-25, when they ended up just one point above the bottom three.

Once again, they are hovering just above the relegation zone at the moment. Fears over their position caused the sacking of head coach Matias Almeyda in March, to be replaced by Luis Garcia (not the former Liverpool player, but a 53-year-old who was most recently in charge of Alaves).

Sevilla have only won one of their past nine games and their next opponents are Atletico Madrid, so it could easily become one in 10. Real Madrid on the penultimate matchday could be a decisively tricky tie, too.

All three of the teams below Sevilla have won more recently than them. 19th-placed Levante, who are five points behind, are another of their remaining opponents.

The 2000-01 season was the last time Sevilla weren’t in the Spanish top flight. They’ve had seven top-four finishes since then, but have been flirting with danger a few too many times in recent years.

Not even signing Neal Maupay has helped them much. Could it finally catch up with them?

Fiorentina

Despite coming sixth in Serie A last season, it took Fiorentina until their 16th game this season to claim their first league win. Head coach Stefano Pioli paid the price along the way.

No Serie A side has ever survived after failing to win any of their first 14 games in a season, but a respectable turnaround in fortunes under Paolo Vanoli has given La Viola a chance of becoming the first.

Top-flight material since 2004, they lifted themselves out of the bottom three with a win over Bologna in January to cap off a four-game unbeaten run, and although they slid back into the drop zone briefly, they have been out of it since their last game of February.

Mathematically, though, Fiorentina are not out of the woods just yet. With seven games left, they are five points above 18th.

Realistically, the bottom two in Serie A – Verona and Pisa – already look like goners, meaning there’s just one relegation spot left to avoid. Lecce, Cremonese and Cagliari are all beneath Fiorentina at the moment, but the former could still take points off La Viola when they meet in April.

Fiorentina also still have games against European hopefuls Roma, Juventus and Atalanta on their schedule for the run-in.

They have put together another four-game unbeaten run at present, but things might yet get nervy again. Perhaps they should lure Rui Costa out of retirement.

Nice

One of the other clubs in Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos empire, Nice have suffered a steep decline in fortunes this season.

Only two teams are relegated automatically from Ligue 1 and Nice appear clear enough of that danger zone.

However, the team that finishes third from bottom goes into a play-off to preserve their top-flight status – and that’s a trap Nice could conceivably fall into.

With six games left, they are four points above Auxerre – who they are due to meet in what could be a tantalising penultimate game of the season. Moreover, they have three of the current top four to play before then.

They have been in Ligue 1 since 2002, but will have to fight for that status over the coming weeks.

Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg have been a Bundesliga outfit without interruption since 1997, but face an uphill battle to preserve that status into a 30th year.

They fell into the bottom two at the start of March with a 4-0 loss to Stuttgart. A week later, they changed their coach for the second time this season.

Now with six games left, Wolfsburg are four points adrift of even the relegation play-off spot in the Bundesliga (and a further two away from a 15th-place standing that would save them automatically).

They have the joint-worst defence in the German top flight this season, having conceded more than 60 goals. Remarkably, they are yet to win over the second half of the season, last tasting victory in January against St. Pauli.

Legia Warsaw

Legia Warsaw are Poland’s most successful club and the only to never have been relegated from the top flight since the Second World War. But they find themselves in a potentially perilous position with seven games left this season.

Although they began the campaign playing in the Europa League qualifiers, Legia have found wins few and far between domestically. They are currently outside the bottom three only via goal difference.

It’s an incredibly tight table, though. Legia are eight points above the bottom of the table and the same distance away from fourth place in the opposite direction. It could all turn out to be just fine.

But the sight of such a powerhouse of Polish football being so close to the relegation zone is certainly intriguing as the business end of the season arrives.

When the sheer horror and despair of 2026 sends you seeking comfort in lovely Dele goals from the good old days, the obvious first port of call will always be his Crystal Palace masterpiece.

It remains a flawless example of the essence of Dele. Of the impish and impudent brilliance that made him, for a short but dazzling period, among the most exciting young footballers on the planet.

There’s a balletic quality as in three touches but one fluid rotational movement controls the ball, flicks it over his head and then sticks it in the bottom corner.

Lovely, soothing, comforting stuff.

But for me it will only ever be good enough for second place. There is another goal. An even better goal in a bigger London derby.

Eight years ago (sob) today, Dele scored twice in a 3-1 Spurs win at Chelsea. Beating Chelsea is not something Spurs generally do a lot of. And especially not at Stamford Bridge.

Dele, though, was a man who could make things possible. Chelsea were among his favourite opponents and all five of his Premier League goals against them for Spurs came in victories. There was another famous brace at White Hart Lane a year before that brought the long unbeaten run of the eventual champions to an end.

The Chelsea of the following season were… not that Chelsea. Antonio Conte was in the process of his destroy and exit – albeit one that would deliver FA Cup success at the end of a season riddled with huffing and acrimony.

They were long out of the title picture by the time Spurs rocked up on Easter weekend. So was everyone else, to be fair, for this was the start of the Premier League’s Guardiola Years. His City side were on their way to a hundred points and over a hundred goals and an eventual title-winning margin of 19 points.

Spurs and Chelsea and the rest were reduced to battling it out for Champions League places. Alvaro Morata headed Chelsea into a 30th-minute lead after some Hugo Lloris flapping, but those who only know what Spurs are like now might be shocked to learn that there was a time when that falling a goal behind didn’t mean they would automatically go on to lose heavily and have to sack another manager.

No, back then Spurs were very capable of bouncing back. And bounce they did. Christian Eriksen bamboozled Willy Caballero with a knuckleball that dipped and fizzed and found its way into the middle of the goal with the keeper reduced to the status of a hologram. Level at the break.

The second half belonged to Dele. His second, points-clinching goal was a scruffy affair – albeit one that still featured his trademark quick feet and quicker thinking to manufacture and exploit a tiny oasis of space and calm in a penalty box of chaos.

But his first goal? Ah, now that was a thing. One of the striking things about that Palace goal is the fluidity of Dele’s movements throughout the mechanics of it, but this goal is really an even better example. Because this one came not from perfectly fluid motion in one spot but combined it with running at full tilt.

His two touches without breaking stride as he ran between Chelsea’s centre-halves to first bring down Eric Dier’s long pass from defence and then clip it past Caballero and in off the post were flawless. Both were vastly more complicated and difficult than Dele made them look.

Like the Palace goal, that apparent ease was deceptive. We know now just how much Dele struggled for his art. But art it was to watch him in those times, and in those moments where nothing else mattered and he turned Premier League matches into his own personal kickabout.

Ah, Spurs fans, do you remember when football could just be fun? Wasn’t it great.

But it doesn’t end there. The artistry of Dele’s goal is one thing, that of the celebration quite another. Just look at it. It’s like a renaissance painting. Dele, mischievous grin on his face like he’s just mugged off a couple of mates in the weekly five-a-side down at Power League, cupping his ear as the Chelsea fans turn every shade of fury in the background.

We can see the various hand gestures with which they congratulate Dele on his goal and celebrate their good fortune at being able to witness such splendour in person, but alas we can only imagine what words of wisdom accompanied them.

It was Tottenham’s first win at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League era. And, since they’d achieved all of their goals in one game, there has been no need for a second.

READ NEXT: Who will stay or go if Spurs are actually relegated to the Championship?

Roberto De Zerbi has replaced Igor Tudor as Tottenham Hotspur head coach, signing a long-term contract with the club in danger of being relegated from the Premier League.

According to reports, De Zerbi’s contract includes no relegation clause, meaning if Tottenham go down, he’s going down with them.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would be the best – and most out-of-place – stadium in Championship history if that does happen, while the club’s wage bill, international experience and many other factors would likely set records in the second tier.

But would De Zerbi be the most out-of-place manager in Championship history? He would certainly find himself on this list of the finest coach to manage in the division. The best? One man is very difficult to top…

Marcelo Bielsa (Leeds United)

And that man is Bielsa, who brought Leeds back to the Premier League in 2020, ending a 16-year hiatus.

The Argentine legend failed to earn promotion in his first year at Elland Road, but Leeds’ improvement was astronomical. It was clear to see why so many incredible managers looked up to him, and it also became clear to those unaware that Leeds United are a pretty big club.

But Bielsa managing in the Championship was just absolutely mental.

As alluded to, Bielsa was idolised by world-class coaches such as Pep Guardiola, Diego Simeone and Mauricio Pochettino. He is one of the most influential managers of all time and had no right spending two years in the Championship. Leeds fans will be forever grateful that he did.

Rafael Benitez (Newcastle)

Champions League-winning manager Benitez was unable to keep Newcastle in the Premier League in 2015/16, but he surely would have managed it had Steve McClaren left sooner. They were a different team in those final months of the season, but the ex-Liverpool and Real Madrid manager simply didn’t have enough time to steer a sinking ship to safety.

Some expected Rafa to leave St James’ Park following the club’s relegation, but he stayed to become a cult hero, and Newcastle returned to the top flight at the first time of asking.

In 2016, Benitez had managed both Real Madrid and Newcastle in the second tier of English football. This sport is wild.

Vincent Kompany (Burnley)

In terms of managers who looked out of place in the Championship, there isn’t much competition for Bielsa, Benitez and De Zerbi, if he fails to keep Spurs in the Premier League. Bielsa’s arrival in West Yorkshire sent shockwaves around the world of football, whereas our next examples only look a bit mental with the benefit of hindsight.

Kompany used the managerial and coaching knowledge he gained from playing under Guardiola and then managing Anderlecht to guide Burnley to promotion in 2022/23.

Burnley’s possession-based football saw the Clarets finish 10 points clear of second and 21 clear of third, with an impressive total of 101.

As a rookie head coach with no major achievements in management, Kompany wasn’t exactly out of place at Burnley or in the Championship, but he is now manager of Bayern Munich, which is quite the gig.

Burnley were relegated with Kompany at the helm in 2023/24, but he still earned the Bayern job after sticking to his principles throughout the season. Despite being a former world-class defender, his team plays some of the best attacking football in Europe, helped by having Harry Kane and Michael Olise.

Enzo Maresca (Leicester City)

In the same boat as Kompany, Maresca was Leicester City manager in the Championship after graduating from the Guardiola school of football.

The Foxes finished top in a very competitive Championship season, and their 97-point haul was enough for Chelsea to appoint the Italian.

A year after managing Leicester against Rotherham and Plymouth Argyle, Maresca’s Chelsea were smashing Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final. Incredible.