Football365

The Mailbox reckons Leeds United are the most likely club to take 18th place in the Premier League as Tottenham will ‘wake up soon’.

Plus, we have an Antonin Kinsky case study after his nightmare against Atletico Madrid, why only three clubs are likely to win the Champions League and some are not happy with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney doing alternative commentary of Wrexham versus Swansea.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com…

Goalkeepers, Confidence, and the Kinsky Case Study

Watching Antonín Kinský against Atlético Madrid was a reminder of something that rarely gets discussed properly outside goalkeeping circles: confidence is not just helpful for a goalkeeper — it is the position’s operating system.

When a striker loses confidence, he might snatch at chances or hesitate in the box. When a defender loses confidence, he might drop a yard deeper or play it safe. But when a goalkeeper loses confidence, the entire defensive structure starts to wobble because the goalkeeper’s decisions affect everything: positioning, command of the area, communication, distribution, and even how brave the back line feels.

Kinský’s performance was a textbook example of that erosion happening in real time.

Early in the match, you could see the hesitation. Crosses that normally would be claimed were punched. Punches that should have been confident became half-measures. His starting positions looked uncertain — sometimes a step too deep, sometimes oddly aggressive. And the moment a goalkeeper starts second-guessing himself, the whole game speeds up around him.

Goalkeeping is the one position where doubt multiplies instantly. A striker can miss three chances and still score the fourth. A goalkeeper doesn’t get that luxury. One moment of uncertainty can spiral because the next decision arrives within seconds.

You could see it in the body language. The shoulders drop slightly. The set position becomes rigid instead of reactive. Instead of reading the game, the goalkeeper begins anticipating mistakes — his own.

And the cruel thing is that confidence for a goalkeeper is rarely rebuilt during a game. Once it slips, every action becomes heavier. A routine catch feels like a test. Every shot feels like an exam.

It reminded me of that famous line from Rocky Balboa: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” For goalkeepers, that resilience is everything. They live in a psychological environment where mistakes are public, immediate and often decisive.

The best goalkeepers — the Buffons, Neuers, van der Sars — have that almost irrational certainty about them. Even after mistakes, they still attack crosses, still command their area, still play with the same authority. Confidence for them isn’t just form; it’s identity.

What Kinský’s night showed is how fragile that identity can be when things start going wrong.

And it’s why goalkeeping might be the most psychological position in football. You’re the last line of defence, the first point of attack, and the only player on the pitch whose mistake usually ends up on the scoreboard.

When confidence goes, everything goes with it.

Gaptoothfreak, Man. Utd., New York (René Higuita was oozing confidence when he made that scorpion save back in ’95)

EPL is tougher, if not better

There/s a lot of noise implying Arsenal won’t be worthy winners of the Prem this year, if they manage to cross the line ahead of the rest. And, of course, this was given a boost with this week’s performances in Europe. Summarized as, the Prem is really shit, so that makes Arsenal, who may win the Prem pretty shit too.

The first ‘myth’ is that a league can only get stronger because the historic best teams are stronger – in this case, trashing teams in Europe – is just one perspective.

But what if it’s because the rest of the league—the other 14 teams—have improved dramatically? Making it much harder for the ‘best’ teams to dominate, to play the way they want to, and not force them to change style or find new ways to win.

At the same time, having to play tougher league games throughout the season takes its toll on those ‘best’ teams. It’s no coincidence that the English teams in the CL were winning easily and securing many of the top-8 positions in the CL first round while they were still relatively fresh. But the winter season is always tough in the Prem – something Klopp discovered.

If you watch any games from the other top 5 leagues in Europe, you can see how relatively uncompetitive these leagues are. The Premier League money gap is so huge that teams guaranteed relegation continue to fight all the way because the rewards are substantial, but the downside is a massive chasm. Relegated in Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, or Ligue 1? The gap isn’t so great. Maybe going down for one season isn’t so bad.

The reality is that any team that wins the Premier League deserves it. Being better than the rest over 38 games, playing everyone home and away, living with the same rules and yet still managing to top the league. And generally doing well across 4 fronts too.

The Premier League is definitely tougher. It makes it a slog for the teams vying for the top, especially with almost constant midweek football. Time to lay off Arsenal (not a fan.)

Paul McDevitt

Place your bets!

I was having a chat with friends about football over drinks (as you do), and the subject of predicting the Champions League winner for 2026 inevitably came up. I decided to do some digging which has thrown up some pretty interesting observations, the simplest of which was that in order to win, you most likely needed to have been at least semi-finalists the year before.

Here’s the run-down of the winners from the last 10 years, and their final positions the year prior to winning.

Only twice in the past 10 years has any team won without being at least semi-finalists the year before.

Even then, Bayern had form by being semi-finalists two years prior, while Chelsea were the only real dark-horses, having gone out in the Round of 16 both years prior to winning.

Of the teams remaining this year, 3 of them were in the semi-finals last year – Arsenal, Barcelona and eventual winners PSG.

If you’re a betting person, there’s an 80% chance your eventual winners will be one of these 3 teams (based on 8 of the last 10 winners being semi-finalists the year prior). There’s a 10% chance of it being Bayern who were quarter-finalists in 2025 and semi-finalists in 2024, slightly bettering their own form prior to winning in 2020. And there’s a 10% chance of it being Real Madrid due to the sheer weight of experience (quarters in 2025, winners in 2024, semi’s in 2023, winners in 2022, semi’s in 2021), not to mention being champions 5 times in the last 10 years.

Anyone else is going to be the longest shot underdogs simply due to their lack of experience in handling the pressure at the business end of the tournament.

Sanjit (would love a Bodø/Glimt underdog story though!) Randhawa, Kuala Lumpur.

The Case For Relegation

There are 4 teams in realistic danger of relegation, and so I wanted to make the case for each of them as I think it’s quite an intriguing battle down there. I find it really hard to make a convincing case that any of them will go down, though of course, one has to.

We can delve in to the underlying stats and tactics etc of each team, but those things should only be considered in things like Champions League two-legged ties, and top of the table conversations; the teams at the bottom aren’t deserving of those kind of discussions as relegation is a vibes-based thing.

West Ham: Currently 18th

The FA Cup 3rd Round weekend was a turning point — it was when Taty and Pablo came in, and enabled Summerville to start being good and let Nuno do what he wants to do with his front line. Plus Disasi being the no-nonsense antidote to the all-nonsense Kilman. Before that point, 14 points from 21 games. Since then 14 points from 8 games. That’s 1.75 points a game over a good sample size, translating to 66.5 points over a season. Only 2 losses away at Chelsea and Liverpool, scoring twice in each (though admittedly conceding 3 & 5). Everyone looking happy in a group photo in the dressing room post Brentford FA Cup win. Everyone seems to be pulling in the right direction. They’ve clicked, they’ll be fine, on that form could even bridge the gap up to 14th. Admittedly I’m a fan, but I know the patterns of our club, and this mirrors early days of Moyes Mk.2.

Forest: Currently 17th

Since Vitor has come in they’ve only picked up a single point from 3 games in the league. But I truly think they pass the eye test. Losing to Brighton isn’t ideal, but their performance in the Liverpool loss was actually excellent, and then to get a score draw away at the Etihad is really impressive. Plus that handsome Fenerbahce away win. I think that once their fixtures start to get a bit nicer that they’ve got enough to get themselves maybe 3 wins, taking them to 37pts, and maybe the odd draw might keep them safe. Of their remaining 9 games I’d only look at Chelsea and United away as being games that they can probably write off. The others (even Villa, Fulham and Bournemouth) are the kind of games that scrapping teams will consider winnable with backs against the wall.

Spurs: Currently 16th

Honestly, Spurs going down would bring me happier tears than when Leicester won the league. I’d even love to see Arsenal win the league to compound their misery, and for it all to happen on May Bank Holiday so fans of all other London clubs can gather for a celebratory drink at Seven Sisters station. They’re on their worst ever run of form in the Premier League Era, and their worst winless streak in 91 years. So it would seem to make them favourites. However…again, based on vibes and history, whenever I want something bad to happen to a Big 6 team, they all eventually find some muscle memory and turn it around quite quickly. After all, in 2019 they decreed that they were too good for the Champions League and tried to break away. So I’m expecting them to wake up soon and remember who they are; they could easily beat Brighton, Wolves and Leeds.

Leeds: Currently 15th

Leeds have been just about touching competent all season, not ever being bad, not ever particularly catching the eye for being great. They were heavily tipped to go back down due to A) Daniel Farke, and B) their own recent history. So this kind of quiet, steady competence is actually really promising for Leeds and their fans should be happy. But…it’s not been enough to get them in amongst that mid-table set; they’re 6 points away from the team above them, and one game week could see them in the drop zone albeit with a big GD swing. In a relegation run-in you need a bit of momentum, and their good and bad results have been spread too thinly all season, and I don’t know if they’ll find the fight to pull themselves fully clear. Plus they have to play 2 of the others, both of which are seeing Leeds as winnable.

Honourable Mention: Brighton, Currently 14th

They’re 9 points above it. But Hurzeler is a bit of a snivelling dweeb, and no one realistically knows or cares about them or any of their players; as far as I’m concerned, they’re simply a bunch of baristas who play midfield. Their results are always impossible to predict, and always have been, they’re basically just a CPU-controlled team that only exist to provide notable results against more popular teams (eg the odd battering of United, or letting Palace play themselves back in to form). Their remaining games are not easy. By their very nature, they could win/draw/lose any of them, and no one other than their fans will notice until GW37.

Final Verdict: While 4 of the teams are not easy to like, so will provide a lot of enjoyment for neutrals if they go down, it wouldn’t surprise me if Brighton, the team no one cares about, go down (see also Man City always winning and no one caring). BUT — it will ultimately be Leeds United who I’m putting my fiver on to go down. The others have momentum or muscle memory, and Brighton’s week-by-week random dice-roll results will see them through.

Sam

READ: Leicester collapse is the warning sign Spurs, West Ham and Forest all ignored

F*** the celebrity circus

I’ve just seen that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney will be doing an alternative commentary for the Wrexham vs Swansea game on Sky Sports.

Apparently the normal commentary will still exist on another channel, which is something at least, but the fact Sky are even doing this tells you exactly where football broadcasting is drifting. The Wrexham story has already become more about a television show than a football club, and this feels like the next step in turning actual matches into a ridiculous celebrity sideshow.

It’s already embarrassing enough that whenever Wrexham appear on television we have to endure the presenters rolling out the same tired lines about how “a touch of Hollywood has arrived in [insert town here] today.” The football almost feels like a supporting act to the narrative.

Wrexham’s owners are actors, Swansea now has Snoop Dogg involved, and Sky are leaning straight into the spectacle because they know it pulls in viewers who might never normally watch a Championship game. From a marketing point of view I understand why they’re doing it. From a football point of view it’s embarrassing.

It’s easy to laugh this off as a novelty, but things like this have a habit of becoming normal once broadcasters realise it generates clicks and attention. Today it’s Reynolds and McElhenney commentating on their own club. Tomorrow it’ll be influencer watch-alongs, celebrity pundit panels, and whatever other gimmick someone in a production meeting thinks will play well on social media.

Football used to manage perfectly well with commentators who actually did the job professionally and broadcasts that focused on the game rather than whoever happens to have bought a small stake in a club. This sort of stunt just reinforces the feeling that the sport is slowly being repackaged as entertainment content rather than treated as a competition.

Perhaps I’m just old-fashioned, but it’s hard not to feel that this is only the beginning.

Ant MUFC (Awaiting the day Sky hand Avram Glazer and Jim Ratcliffe the microphones for a United game)

Yes and no

System over individuals you say? Last season two direct free kicks scored for the first time ever and none since by a 100mil midfielder?

When there is high intensity and physicality, there is no room for technical prowess. A little bit of slowness is needed sometimes. Especially this season, all teams in pl are playing in a similar way so your best game might be conditioned to something else. Similar to a top team in the French league. Sure, competition might be higher but it is on a different game.

Or maybe I’m wrong. It was indeed the system which made Rice punch two holes. Similar to the system which had Pitarch, Diaz making rare starts at home give us a win.

Of all the matchups, Arsenal were the most outplayed. Liverpool a close second.

Madrid fan

Transfer merry-go-round

As we already have the managerial merry-go round, I thought it an excellent suggestion by Mark for a managerial transfer window.

We could see Arse-ball binned in the January transfer window by say Don Carlo, to get them over the line.

Relegation is becoming more dangerous than ever. Leicester City’s collapse shows why. Just ten years after lifting the Premier League trophy, the club now face the possibility of dropping into League One following a six-point deduction.

Their demise is a real warning for West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham, who are currently split by just one point. Being Too Good To Go Down often means high wages and a squad unsustainable without Premier League wealth.

Leicester’s relegation to the Championship in 2022/23 was completely unexpected. Brendan Rodgers had led the team to eighth the year prior, following fifth and FA Cup glory in 2021. Having established themselves as a top-half team, there were clear intentions to build further.

Those investments amplified the sudden relegation. Leicester had a £107million wage bill – unprecedented in England’s second tier. Losing Premier League revenue soon pushed the club into breach of the profit and sustainability rules.

Much like Leicester in 2023, this season’s relegation rivals were all expected to fight for European positions. Tottenham are the reigning Europa League champions; Nottingham Forest finished seventh last season; West Ham are just three years removed from Europa Conference League glory. Yet they are operating with the 7th, 9th and 13th-highest wage bills in the league respectively. Whichever club goes down will need to cut those figures significantly.

Leicester were not the first club to suffer a relegation against the odds. West Ham were viewed as Too Good To Go Down in 2003. Yet they bounced back within two years and managed to avoid the detrimental effects Leicester are enduring.

The landscape changed dramatically between those relegations. The financial gulf between England’s top two divisions is now wider than ever. As a result, the likelihood of breaching the rules has never been higher.

One of Leicester’s reported mistakes was failing to insert relegation wage drop clauses. The perceived lack of relegation threat may have been a similar oversight among the current crop.

The revenue-generating Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and cost-effective lease of the London Stadium may protect their inhabitants. Forest, however, will likely find it harder to offset their wage bill. The negative effects on each club can only be limited by how much they have future-proofed for worst-case scenarios.

In the modern Premier League, relegation is no longer just a setback; it is a financial cliff edge. And the higher a club climbs before it falls, the harder the landing becomes. It is perhaps most damning of English football’s structure that a club like Leicester were effectively penalised for their ambition.

In this era, the weight of relegation is only compounded by past success.

Igor Tudor has revealed an injury crisis the likes of which he’s “never seen in his career” as the interim Tottenham boss braces himself for Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

Tudor oversaw his fourth defeat in four as Spurs boss on Tuesday as Atletico Madrid put them to the sword in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie to run out 5-2 winners.

Three consecutive defeats in the Premier League leaves them just one point above the relegation zone ahead of their trip to play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

Another loss will surely bring an end to Tudor’s brief and horrific tenure; it’s a surprise he’s still in the job given the Spurs players clearly haven’t responded to his tactics and – as Antonin Kinsky will advise – are some less than mediocre man-management skills.

The Croat admits he and the Spurs players face a “big challenge to change things” but says “you can cry or you can fight”. Probably cry then.

Tudor said: “It’s tough. For sure. Not just because of the last game but because of the period. Not easy situation, not easy moment. Big challenge to change things. Like everything in life, you can choose how to see the situation.

“You can cry or you can fight. You can be the victim or you can say I can change something and this is the message I want to start with and what I communicate with the players. Everyone speaks and everyone has opinions. The bottle is always half empty or half full. Here, there is nothing full, there are a lot of empty things but difficult moments don’t last.

“I believe the players will take this as a challenge, as an opportunity, to stand up with the courage to change things after this period.”

Plenty of courage will be required from the Spurs player who remain available for selection after Tudor revealed both Joao Palhinha and Cristian Romero are now out following their clash of heads in Madrid, along with the suspended Micky van de Ven, while Conor Gallagher is also a doubt through illness.

He added: “No, no. They [Romero and Palhinha] are out. Micky [van de Ven] is also out. [Yves] Bissouma is out with a muscle [injury]. Conor [Gallagher] has some fever, but probably will be in.

“We have a lot of problems to make first eleven. This is how it is at this club. It happens all the time. We start to build something and then something happens like a red card in the last game or three or four injuries.

“It is very rare, I have never had this situation in my career where you have two players missing every game. It is very unusual but you have to accept this and try and change the things we can change. These things we cannot.”

Tudor was on the receiving end of significant backlash following his decision to substitute Kinsky after just 17 minutes in the defeat to Atletico Madrid, and revealed the 22-year-old has responded well to the slight.

On whether he has any hesitation about playing Kinsky in future, Tudor added: “He will play for sure. He came back the day after and was very good and positive in training. Nothing else. This is probably the first and last time that this happened in my life and the life of a lot of people.

“It is the same message that I had before. You can go out and be the victim – everyone was sending messages of help and ‘I am with you’ and this is nice also.

“But, sometimes, in 2025 in this social media life – it is more important what you say than what you do. But, as I said before, this is a mistake, he will be for sure in his career – make other mistakes – but I think he has the strength and quality in front of him to have a very good career.”

Asked if Guglielmo Vicario will come back in against Liverpool, Tudor confirmed: “He is good. He will be in the goal.”

On concerns over the mental health of his players, he said: “We are trying to help them and we provide everything we can from the club. This is the job we are paid for. It is part of the job, to be under stress and choose what you want to do.

“It is not easy but, all good things are not easy. Messages in training are the same. When we do difficult things, that is the message. The right and the best things are not easy.”

All good things are not easy? Someone’s never sat on the sofa in their pants watching Netflix and eating biscuits. Bet he wishes he was on Sunday afternoon.

Tottenham chief executive Vinai Venkatesham took clear shots at former chairman Daniel Levy’s running of the club during a meeting with the Fan Advisory Board.

Venkatesham, who moved to the white half of north London last April after 14 years at bitter rivals Arsenal, implied that under Levy’s stewardship the club had not prioritised on-field success and that, worringly, player sales may well have to be prioritised going forward.

The Tottenham supremo also admitted “significant change” was needed following an internal review of both the men’s and women’s teams.

Venkatesham’s criticism comes after Levy surprisingly left Spurs in September after nearly 25 years at the club, having combined the roles of chief executive and chairman.

Often painted as a controversial figure during his time in charge, Levy was accused of prioritising the business side of the club over on-pitch success, although he did finally deliver their first trophy since 2008 after success in the Europa League final last May.

However, after a bright start to Thomas Frank’s tenure, it’s been a disastrous campaign domestically for Spurs, who now sit just one point above the relegation zone with an interim manager in Igor Tudor who has lost all four of his games in charge to date.

READ: Klinsmann vows to make Tottenham ‘really ugly and nasty’ if he replaces Igor Tudor

The Fan Advisory Board highlighted a lack of trust from supporters regarding the club’s direction, while the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST) called for “emergency action” following the 5-2 Champions League hammering at Atletico Madrid in midweek.

But in a move to try and reassure supporters that the club are trying to build in the right direction, Venkatesham suggested that he has removed the club’s previous wage structure, adding that “there is now complete clarity across the club that on-pitch success is our number one priority and focus”.

The minutes, published by Tottenham, read: “VV [Venkatesham] explained that since joining the club in June 2025, there has been a comprehensive review of the organisation to determine the issues and actions required.

“He explained that whilst he had a perspective of the club from the outside, it is only after spending time inside the club you can fully understand strengths, areas to improve and remedial actions needed.

“While the club has made strong progress in areas such as the stadium, training facilities, commercial growth and stadium operations, several areas were identified as falling short of what is required to compete at the highest level.”

Among the issues highlighted by Venkatesham, wage structure and a player transaction approach that had impacted competitiveness in the transfer market were major acknowledgements.

Speaking about the club’s finances, he then added that Tottenham need to plan for ensuring that they do not fall foul of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, with accounts revealing four consecutive years when the club have recorded losses.

“VV noted that the club has been loss-making for a number of years, which means compliance with Financial Fair Play rules need to be actively monitored and planned for,” the minutes read.

“An increased emphasis will therefore be placed on player sales alongside continued revenue growth to ensure we have the regulatory headroom to invest.”

READ NEXT: Levy reveals who he would appoint to replace Tudor as ‘player revolt’ emerges

While clearly criticising Levy’s time in charge, Venkatesham and sporting director Lange also need to shoulder some, if not all, of the blame for the disastrous appointment of Tudor as interim coach.

Indeed, they continue to dither over replacing the Croatian, who has been completely unable to get a tune out of a Spurs side who are still to win a top-flight game in 2026 and are spiralling towards relegation.

Jurgen Klinsmann has thrown his hat in the ring for the Tottenham job, insisting he would “develop a really nasty, ugly, fighting spirit” in the players.

Igor Tudor oversaw his fourth defeat in four as Spurs boss on Tuesday as Atletico Madrid put them to the sword in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie to run out 5-2 winners.

Three consecutive defeats in the Premier League leaves them just one point above the relegation zone ahead of their trip to play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

Another loss will surely bring an end to Tudor’s brief and horrific tenure; it’s a surprise he’s still in the job given the Spurs players clearly haven’t responded to his tactics and – as Antonin Kinsky will advise – are some less than mediocre man-management skills.

Wayne Rooney insists there’s “no way” Robbie Keane should leave Ferencváros for Tottenham in their current state and with Sean Dyche and Ryan Mason tipped for an interim stint until the end of the season, former Spurs striker Jurgen Klinsmann insists he would be open to the challenge.

Klinsmann is currently available having been sacked by South Korea in February 2024 after their defeat in the semi-final of the Asia Cup.

He told ESPN: “Who wouldn’t want the job? It is Tottenham.

“Whoever you choose, you need a person who can connect to everyone emotionally, that knows the club, that feels the club, that feels the people.

“Because, to get out of this mess, they need to develop a fighting spirit, a really nasty, ugly, fighting spirit and that goes only over the emotions.

“So you don’t need to have to bring in the mastermind of tactical stuff or whatever, you need to have somebody who gets everybody onboard and go and get these games done in a positive way and get everybody behind the fact that they are in danger of going down to the Championship.

“So no matter who you put in charge now, it goes only over the emotions, the willingness to suffer and fight and maybe take the ball away from some ballboys on the sidelines.”

Klinsmann was referencing the clash between Pedro Neto and a PSG ballboy in Chelsea’s 5-2 defeat on Wednesday and then also reflected on Tudor’s decision to take Spurs goalkeeper Kinsky off just 17 minutes into their defeat to Atletico Madrid.

Tudor has been on the end of stinging criticism, firstly for starting Kinsky ahead of Guglielmo Vicario and secondly for hooking him so early in the game.

Klinsmann added: “I think if you ask him [Tudor] today and he reflects about the decision making before the game to play him and then during the game, obviously to sub him out after 17 minutes, he would re-think their whole situation.

“Obviously, it is a killer for the kid, it is the worst thing a goalkeeper can go through, I feel for the kid because my own son is a goalkeeper and I hope he never gets a moment like that.

“He will obviously make mistakes and he will make similar mistakes like Kinsky did there but obviously to then get pulled off after 17 minutes in a game in front of a sold-out crowd in Madrid, because you have these two blackouts is simply brutal.

“So I think we all felt for the boy and obviously you are on the ground, you get back up and you get going but this is a massive shocker for a young player like him.

“He threw him in the cold water and in that moment, the water was too cold.

“He made those two huge mistakes and then the other story to discuss certainly is how do you react to it, just drag it out until half-time.

“Maybe then you can talk to him and then you explain to him that you will sub him off and bring back Vicario in that moment.

“He decided to do it after 17 minutes and that is a huge punishment for a young kid like him.”

Wayne Rooney has told Robbie Keane to steer clear of Tottenham after branding the players an “absolute disgrace” and tipped an alternative to come in and ultimately fail to save them from the drop.

Igor Tudor oversaw his fourth defeat in four as Spurs boss on Tuesday as Atletico Madrid put them to the sword in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie to run out 5-2 winners.

Three consecutive defeats in the Premier League leaves them just one point above the relegation zone ahead of their trip to play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

Another loss will surely bring an end to Tudor’s brief and horrific tenure; it’s a surprise he’s still in the job given the Spurs players clearly haven’t responded to his tactics and – as Antonin Kinsky will advise – are some less than mediocre man-management skills.

But Rooney believes sacking Tudor will be too little too late as the Manchester United legend predicted Spurs and “disgraceful” players will be relegated from the Premier League no matter what.

“The players need to look at themselves because I think they’ve been an absolute disgrace,” Rooney said on Stick to Football.

“The performances, the attitude, the lack of desire, the lack of fight and there’s a lack of everything in them.

“Last week I didn’t but after seeing what’s happened in the last couple of games I think they will go down.”

Gary Neville added: “I don’t think they will go down. I think if you’re going to make another change that, for me, probably needs to be today or tomorrow because you don’t wait.

“My view is they will make a change and stay up just. That’s what I think will happen.

Former striker and current Ferencváros boss Robbie Keane is among the favourites to take over from Tudor, while Sean Dyche and former interim boss Ryan Mason are also in the frame.

And Rooney insists there’s “no way” Keane should take on the role, instead tipping former boss Tim Sherwood for the caretaker role.

Rooney added: “I think they’ll go down.

“That’s what I’m saying, if I’m Robbie Keane I wouldn’t leave a job to go into Tottenham now.

“If it was Sherwood or whoever who is out of a job I’d go in, but if I’m Robbie Keane there’s no way I’d leave a job to go into Tottenham.”

Neville then said: “I don’t think that group of players will buy into the idea of bringing someone in who’s not been a coach for a long time just because they used to play for the club. They’ll just see right through that. It’ll have to be someone who’s been coaching recently.

“Sean Dyche would take that job now, 100 per cent. To be in the game and have a chance to manage a top-six team, I know they’re not at the moment, I know it’s ridiculous saying that, but they are a massive club.

“Tudor’s tried to go in a bit harder, be a bit more regimented and disciplined. It’s not working, they’re 100 per cent rejecting him. They will need someone to go in who’s got more of a man-management ability.”

An absolutely bumper weekend of Barclays, this. And the revolution will be televised.

Eight of the ten fixtures are broadcast live across this weekend. While Burnley, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Brighton might ask what they’ve done to offend anybody, the rest of us can sit back and enjoy a pure feast of football.

There are massive six-pointers in the Champions League race. Huge games for the title challengers. Chances for the relegation battlers to nudge ever closer to survival and to top it off an absolute guarantee of nonsense in the headline Super Sunday slot.

Liverpool v Tottenham is about as close as you can get to certain ridiculousness and ritual humiliation in the Premier League, and that held true in times when Spurs have been relatively competent. We genuinely cannot wait to see what they’ve got in store for us at a time when relatively competent feels like an absurd pipe dream.

Game to watch: Liverpool v Tottenham

I fear to watch, yet I cannot turn away. Lord alone knows what happens in here. We’ve given up thinking that Spurs have hit rock bottom because every time we say it they find new, previously undiscovered rockier bottoms.

But if their trip to Anfield contains something worse than having to sub off a distraught keeper after 17 minutes because he’s been directly responsible for two of the three goals already conceded then, well, it’s going to be quite the spectacle.

Thing is, if you were going to pick one ground for Spurs in their current tailspin to somehow conjure up the worst thing yet, Anfield is the one you’d go for.

Spurs’ last four visits here have ended 5-1, 4-0, 4-2 and 4-3. And those atrocious bare numbers tell barely half the story anyway. There’s a very strong argument that the 4-3, nominally the closest and least embarrassing of those defeats, was in fact the worst.

Spurs were three down inside 15 minutes that day – a week after they’d been five down in 21 minutes at Newcastle – but battled back to 3-3 in stoppage time before chaotically handing Liverpool a winner after one of Richarlison’s most cursed celebrations ever.

In the 4-2, Spurs were 4-0 down inside an hour. The 4-0 was in last season’s Carabao after Spurs had taken a 1-0 lead to Anfield on the back of an inspired Antonin Kinsky debut in the first leg. The 5-1 was Liverpool’s title party, in which an early anomalous Spurs lead was swiftly turned into a 3-1 half-time advantage for the hosts.

The point here is that all the hits Spurs have been playing under Igor Tudor’s watchful eye over the last few weeks are precisely the sort of things they’ve been routinely doing at Anfield for years anyway.

The last time Spurs actually won here, their goalscorers were Luka Modric and Rafa van der Vaart.

Which all does kind of explain the otherwise inexplicable decision to keep Tudor on. He is now just a sacrificial lamb, served up on the Anfield altar for ritual humiliation so that at least it isn’t the next new guy facing it.

Spurs have left themselves with no option other than a series of desperate gambles.

Spurs are betting everything on the idea it will end up being worth throwing this game away – despite then having only eight games in which to save themselves from themselves – in the hope that allowing the new manager a free swing in a dead rubber against Atletico Madrid and then hoping against hope for a bounce in the gigantic pre-interlull six-pointer against Nottingham Forest is a better Hail Mary than trying anything at all at Anfield, where misery has been all but guaranteed for season after season anyway.

The counterpoint to that, of course, is that this is itself an unusually vulnerable and fragile Liverpool team. Among Spurs’ current direct rivals, Forest have won here while both Leeds and Burnley have left with a point.

When you think about it, the new rock-bottom Spurs might actually manage to find this weekend could be that they accidentally draw this game and the sacrificial manager survives.

Team to watch: Man United

Because they’re quite interesting to watch at the moment anyway, but also because it’s just a very rare opportunity. After Sunday’s Champions League qualification six-pointer against Aston Villa, United play Bournemouth on Friday night and then… nothing until they face Leeds on April 13.

Now there are exaggerating elements at play here. The shuffling of fixtures for TV has served to make the gap as large as it can possibly be, with a Friday night fixture before the international break and a Monday night game when they belatedly make their post-FA Cup quarter-final weekend return after it.

But still. It remains an extraordinary thing, especially when this is Manchester United Football Club We’re Talking About, to be looking at a 24-day chasm between fixtures in what is traditionally considered the busiest part of the season.

It really has been a mad campaign of Big Sixery. You’ve got two clubs still, in theory, chasing the quadruple. One apparently barely even trying to fight what is now, dizzyingly, the likelihood of relegation, and another casually sauntering through the shortest possible season any top-flight team can have and with what now appears to be a laser focus on winning as many games as possible but never enough of them in a row to knock that haircut grifter off his f*ckin’ perch.

Not like Chelsea and Liverpool have been going around having entirely normal seasons either, is it?

Anyway, Man United. Big game this one for both teams, obviously. Villa at least will come into it with the confidence of being England’s only winners in the first leg of the various European last-16 games this week, but that in itself only highlights the curious unintended and unwanted advantage this lightly-raced United side have fashioned for themselves in this season’s four-into-three battle for Champions League places.

They may have only two matches to play in the next entire month, but they’re also coming into this one on the back of a 10-day rest since Newcastle and Carrick’s first defeat.

Manager to watch: Pep Guardiola

He’s done it again, hasn’t he? He’s gone into a massive Champions League match and instead of just backing his normal team to be normally good enough in a normal way playing normally against an elite but wounded opponent, he has overthought it and paid the price.

Three wingers this time. Three wingers in the Bernabeu, leaving a threadbare midfield that was all too easily played through and over by Real Madrid. We’re not even sure peak Rodri would have been able to do what Guardiola demanded of him in what did look at times more like a 4-1-1-4 than anything else in that costly first half.

Fair to say those quadruple hopes now look quite unlikely, but the Premier League title hopes are not yet forlorn.

They do have almost no margin for error, though. City are likely to find themselves 10 points adrift of Arsenal by the time they take to the field against West Ham on Saturday night. Even with games in hand, that is not a gap that can be allowed to remain at this stage.

They must win against a West Ham team who are in decent nick and will quite rightly view this game as something of a free hit in a relegation battle they do currently appear to be winning.

It feels like a dangerous moment for Guardiola and his team, a trappy fixture they ought to win but against a dangerous, confident opponent and sandwiched between two Champions League games against Real Madrid that have already sent Pep’s galaxy brain to Mars.

Player to watch: Kai Havertz

It is inevitably and understandably tough to predict quite how Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is going to set about keeping all his plates spinning from one match to the next at the moment, with the Gunners shuffling their depleted pack to keep all four trophies in sight and cause all manner of metaphors to be excruciatingly mixed.

But one side-effect of injury problems and competing on multiple fronts can be that the return of a long-term injured player provides a welcome freshness. Kai Havertz feels like that man for Arsenal right now.

He stepped off the bench to get them back on level terms at Leverkusen this week and you wonder if now’s the time for him to get just a third Premier League start of the season. With Martin Odegaard still absent and Eberechi Eze still unpredictable against anyone other than Spurs, Havertz might just be the man to help Arsenal recover their open-play mojo and unlock what is sure to be stubborn opposition in Everton.

David Moyes’ side are unbeaten in six away from home and will not make life easy for whoever gets the nod from Arteta on Saturday evening.

Football League game to watch: Coventry v Southampton

It’s turning into a victory lap for Coventry, whose lead at the top of the Championship is already eight points and could stretch out to 11 before the 3pm games even begin this weekend.

Second-placed Middlesbrough are also in Saturday lunchtime televised action against Bristol City, who have once again secured mid-table anonymity and no more than that.

Southampton, for their part, still have play-off aspirations. They sit three points outside the top six and can’t really afford to see that gap stretch out at this stage.

European game to watch: Atletico Madrid v Getafe

If only to see whether Getafe have brought the right boots with them, and how long their keeper lasts if not.

Women’s Super League game to watch: Aston Villa v Man City

It’s been a month since the last WSL action, which might be just as well for Aston Villa given how each of these teams got on in their last game all the way back in the mists of time. Well, mid-February anyway.

Champions-elect City sauntered to a 6-0 win over Leicester on that occasion. For Villa, it was a wild 7-3 defeat to Spurs.

Now Spurs have been impressive in this season’s WSL and look set for a top-five finish, but before the trip to Villa had scored 19 goals in 15 games. City have scored 47. Six of those came in the reverse fixture against Villa, who a week before the Spurs embarrassment had lost 4-1 to a Liverpool side who’d only picked up one win all season until then.

However big the gap between games, we’re really not sure you want to come up against this Man City side on the back of conceding 11 goals in your last two games against significantly weaker ones.

Nottingham Forest find themselves in the tricky predicament of juggling a Premier League relegation battle with a Europa League run.

Their fourth permanent manager of the season, Vitor Pereira, insisted before Forest‘s Europa League round of 16 first leg against FC Midtjylland that he is keen for them to be “competitive in both” competitions, but this is difficult to pull off in their current situation, and his team selection on Thursday night underlined where his true priorities lie.

Pereira protected regular Premier League starters Ibrahim Sangare, Neco Williams and Nikola Milenkovic by benching them, but there was still enough quality on the pitch to right the wrong of the 3-2 loss to Midtjylland under Ange Postecoglou in October.

And after the morale-boosting draw against Manchester City, it proved to be one step forward and two steps back as their same old problem held them back against Midtjylland.

In October, Midtjylland edged out an end-to-end match, in which the Danish outfit and Forest had a near-exact xG, but their second meeting of the 2025/26 campaign at the City Ground was very different.

READ: Ranking all 31(!) Premier League managers this season: Mikel Arteta off top spot

This time, it was Forest on the front foot for the vast majority of the match, and were it not for their glaring Achilles heel, they would likely already be out of sight in this tie.

Their ten shots in the first half only included three on target, with each of these efforts being from range as Omari Hutchinson, Elliot Anderson and Ola Aina forced saves.

Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected shot that went narrowly wide was the only notable attempt they carved in Midtjylland’s penalty area in the opening half, but more openings came their way after the break.

Whether their own players got in the way or they tried to walk the ball into the net, Forest continued to be perturbed by a severe lack of a killer instinct in the final third, while Gibbs-White is usually their sole creative spark.

And this has been the story of Forest’s season, with Wolves (22) the only side to score fewer goals than Pereira’s side (28) in the Premier League. The 17th-placed side are also underperforming their xG by five goals, with the absence since October of Chris Wood, who scored 20 goals last year and has three in nine games this term, sorely felt.

His replacement, Igor Jesus, has only two goals in the Premier League but seven in the Europa League, with Gibbs-White sitting as their top scorer in the league with eight.

Forest does have the bonus of being the best defensive unit of the Premier League’s bottom five based on goals conceded, but this means nothing if they cannot convert their defensive work into wins, and their downfall against Midtjylland gives encouragement to their relegation rivals.

Just as Forest were losing momentum and hope in attack, they were punished for their wastefulness as Gue-sung Cho brushed off a weak challenge from Aina to head home Ousmane Diao’s cross to give his side the lead with ten minutes remaining.

Once this goal went in, it felt inevitable that Midtjylland would seal their second away win vs Forest of the season and they are now firm favourites to progress in the competition with their unbeaten home record in 2025/26.

Forest do have more pressing concerns in the Premier League, and with Pereira struggling to fix their long-term issues in the final third, they could easily give Spurs an undeserved reprieve in the relegation fight as West Ham comfortably looks the most accomplished of the three teams.

According to reports, Sean Dyche has set a condition as his ‘stance’ on replacing Igor Tudor at Tottenham Hotspur has emerged.

The former Nottingham Forest, Everton and Burnley boss has become the betting favourite to replace Tudor at Spurs, and he may soon get a call to get the Premier League strugglers out of the sh*t.

Tudor is proving a disastrous appointment as he has lost his first four games in charge, with Tottenham’s performance worse under him than under Thomas Frank.

Under Tudor, Tottenham‘s relegation fears have increased and he has looked out of his depth as they only sit one point clear of the relegation zone with nine Premier League games remaining.

Spurs would have been justified if they opted to sack Tudor after their embarrassing 5-2 loss to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night, but he will remain in charge for Sunday’s game against Liverpool at least.

READ: Spurs acceptance of humiliating relegation is final stage of grief

Still, Fabrizio Romano has warned Tudor that he can be “sacked at any moment” if he does not quickly inspire improvement.

“Tottenham are in a very difficult moment after the defeat against Atletico Madrid,” Romano said.

“It is four games under Igor Tudor and four defeats, which is the first time in Tottenham’s history with a new manager. It is also the first time Tottenham have lost six consecutive matches.

“At the moment Tottenham have confirmed that Tudor will take the press conference ahead of the Liverpool game, but he remains at serious risk of being sacked at any moment. The situation is very fluid in the short term.

“For the long term the plan has always been clear, because Tudor signed a short contract and in the summer Tottenham want a new manager.

“The two names still very high on the shortlist are Roberto De Zerbi and Mauricio Pochettino.”

De Zerbi and Pochettino are options for if Spurs avoid relegation, with a manager in the ilk of Dyche to be their next boss if they opt to make another change this season.

And a report from talkSPORT claims Dyche’s ‘stance’ on joining Spurs is that he ‘would be reluctant to take over on a short-term deal’. They have also named two alternative options for the north London side.

The report claims:

‘The former Burnley and Everton boss would seek a commitment beyond the end of the season, just as he did when appointed by Spurs’ relegation rivals Nottingham Forest.

‘Other potential options are re-hiring two-time former interim Ryan Mason or club legend Robbie Keane, currently in charge of Hungarian champions Ferencvaros.’

Our pals at TEAMtalk have extensively broken down why the managerial situation is only the tip of the iceberg for Spurs, with ENIC grappling with multi-layered issues as they ultimately look to avoid relegation.

Former Tottenham Hotspur chief Daniel Levy has informed Harry Redknapp that he would appoint the 79-year-old to replace Igor Tudor.

Tudor is only four games into his tenure at Spurs, but it already feels that he is fortunate to still be in a job.

Under Tudor, Spurs have lost their last three Premier League games and are now on the brink of elimination from the Champions League following Tuesday night’s embarrassing 5-2 loss against Atletico Madrid.

Since this defeat, Fabrizio Romano has reported that Tudor could be sacked “at any moment” and has named two potential replacements, with his exit potentially to come if/when Spurs lose to Liverpool at the weekend.

And a report from talkSPORT claims Tudor has already ‘alienated many’ of the squad members at Spurs as he faces a ‘player revolt’.

READ: Spurs acceptance of humiliating relegation is final stage of grief

The same report claims Tudor is ‘unlikely’ to last beyond March’s international break, while Robbie Keane and Ryan Mason have been ‘sounded out’ as possible replacements.

CEO Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange have also faced heavy criticism for their role in Tottenham’s dramatic downfall, with the club significantly worse off, from a footballing standpoint, than they were under Levy.

And Levy has now had his say on who should replace Tudor, with the former Spurs chief said to have recommended Redknapp.

“I got a phone call last week from Daniel [Levy], funnily enough,” Redknapp said on talkSPORT Breakfast.

“I think I spoke to him once since I left all that time ago, and I was in the car last week and suddenly the phone goes, it’s Daniel Levy.

“I thought ‘that’s strange’ and I was on the phone to him for about half hour, chatting to him and he was explaining what happened to him, and how he got marched out of there, which was really strange.”

He added: “And he did say to me, ‘If I was there now, and I’m not just saying it, I would bring you back in until the end of the season, Harry’ – so it would have been interesting.”

Redknapp has also revealed what he thinks Spurs need to change to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

“It’s such a short-term job for someone,” Redknapp continued.

“Someone needs to go in there and just give the place a lift, that’s the key.

“It ain’t going to be what you’re going to do on the training ground, you’re playing Saturday, midweek, you’re not going to be out there putting on some super coaching training session.

“It’s going to be about the spirit around the place.”