The New York Times

If there is one lesson that Tottenham Hotspur have had to learn over the course of this miserable, painful, increasingly worrying season, it is that no one is coming to save them.

Not the Lewis family, who sacked Daniel Levy last September, promising a fresh start for the club, one that has so far left more questions than answers.

Not Fabio Paratici, who returned as a sporting director last October but then agreed a move to Fiorentina in January.

Not the January transfer window arrivals, with Conor Gallagher working hard but struggling to make an impact, and Souza yet to start a game.

Not the injured midfielders, with neither James Maddison nor Dejan Kulusevski playing one competitive minute yet this season following major surgeries last summer.

And not Igor Tudor, or at least not yet, with the acting head coach having overseen two bad defeats from his two games in charge. After the Fulham defeat on Sunday, he already sounded exasperated by the issues his team faces on the pitch. He was at least in a more positive mood on Wednesday, but there is only so much a short-term appointment can do.

The only protagonists left, the only ones with any real remaining agency over Tottenham’s perilous situation, are the players themselves. If the good ship Tottenham Hotspur is going to be repaired and steered to safer waters — after West Ham United’s win on Wednesday, Spurs are just one point clear of the bottom three — then the players must do it. No one else is going to do it for them.

Even by Tottenham standards, this has been an exhausting, draining season that has left the whole Tottenham ecosystem anxious and on edge. That is largely because the results and the football have been so bad, save for a few good nights in the Champions League. But it has also been a season of unprecedented change away from the pitch.

There is no point now rehashing everything that has happened since the Super Cup in Udine seven months ago. But the reality is that so much of the conversation since then has been about Levy, the Lewis family, Peter Charrington, Vinai Venkatesham, Fabio Paratici, Johan Lange and, of course, Thomas Frank and Tudor himself.

But the more we all talk about all those individuals beyond the white lines — in the dugout, in the boardroom and beyond — the less we talk about the football itself. There is only so much time, so much oxygen, to go around. And of course, the media in general, and this reporter in particular, have a responsibility here. It has not exactly been difficult to turn your attention away from the pitch. Maybe some of us have done it too much.

But what if these two points are connected? What if all the focus on the club’s constant staffing churn and boardroom politics has effectively shielded the players from criticism, shielded the players from true responsibility? The reality of this season’s Tottenham discourse is that at almost every turn, from one painful defeat to the next, there has been someone or something to blame other than the players themselves. Frank’s obvious struggles in the job, the failure of recruitment in recent years, the lack of spending on player wages, neverending injury crises, the absence of a clear football strategy, the teething pains of the post-Levy “new era”. All of these have been held up as explanations for why things are the way they are.

The point is not that these broader theories are wrong. All of those issues are real and important. The players do have a right to expect better. No one could seriously argue that the club has been run brilliantly over recent years. But maybe the fact of talking about these issues, of having them bear explanatory weight, of holding them up to the light, has effectively given the players something to hide behind.

Because the players must have always known deep down that, no matter how badly they perform, there are plenty of other people who will get the blame first. And the reality of football dynamics is that players are not usually slow to take the first excuse offered to them. When the captain himself is turning the heat up on the hierarchy, he is also cleverly deflecting attention away from him and his team.

Maybe it is the correct analysis to say that the problems are so profound that the players should be off the hook. But correct analysis will not save Tottenham in the relegation fight. It will not dig out a win against Crystal Palace, or Liverpool, or Nottingham Forest, or any of the nervy games after the international break. The only thing that will do that is players coming together, sticking their necks out and risking everything in an attempt to fix this.

Anyone could easily list the problems with this squad right now, especially the lack of creativity in midfield, something that Spurs have struggled with all season. But there are still plenty of experienced high-quality players there, full internationals, players who have the ability to turn this around. These players are nowhere near as bad as they looked, for example, at Craven Cottage on Sunday. They just need to rediscover the “forces inside”, as Tudor himself put it afterwards.

The challenge, like in any human activity, is to listen to the right psychological impulse. The one that exposes you to risk. The one that exposes you to blame. Because on one level, it might be comforting to think that your bosses will always be held responsible for a crisis. And maybe there is a subconscious temptation to look too far over the horizon, towards the summer, towards the World Cup, and hope that the next two months will be somebody else’s problem. But nothing would be more damaging or dangerous than that.

Because the reality is that if the worst happens over the last 10 league games, it will mark the reputations of this group forever. The only people who can stop that from happening are the players. The only way they can do that is if they realise the gravity of the situation and take responsibility for trying to fix it. No one else is going to do it for them. No one can save Spurs but themselves.

The story of Tottenham Hotspur’s 2025-26 season has not only been one of struggles on the pitch. It has also been one of unprecedented senior staff churn.

It would take all day to list everything that has changed over the last year, the chain of events that started with Peter Charrington joining the board in March and then Vinai Venkatesham agreeing to join as the club’s first ever chief executive officer. If you are reading this story, you may well be familiar with the outline.

But there is still more to come. And one of the pressing considerations right now concerns the identity of the new sporting director that Tottenham are working to bring in. This is the search to find the candidate to replace Fabio Paratici, who was one of the club’s two sporting directors from 15 October last year until the end of the January transfer window, when he left to take over at Fiorentina.

For the last month or so, Tottenham have been reduced to just one sporting director, in the form of Johan Lange. He has spoken publicly about the events of this season, first to Tottenham’s in-house media after the January transfer window and then to journalists last month. The club want someone else alongside him to return to the twin-director model from earlier in the season.

To that end, Tottenham have enlisted the help of Excel (formerly Nolan Partners), a headhunting agency who specialise in placing candidates in sport executive roles. They are currently in the process of reaching out to candidates who fit the profile of the job, compiling a longlist of options to present to Spurs.

The rough idea for the job is to find someone who is used to working within a structure, not necessarily as the sole football decision-maker, but perhaps more like a No 2 in a system, arguably more akin to a technical director. The role would involve working with the players and the head coach, along with agent networking and transfer negotiations. The pitch is that this is a job to work alongside Lange, rather than replacing him.

With an executive search company leading the process at this stage, discussions with potential candidates can take place in the background before the club itself gets formally involved. Ultimately it is too early to say who will be on the long-list.

But what sort of executive might fit the role? The highest-profile name to be publicly linked elsewhere this week to the position was Paul Winstanley, one of Chelsea’s two sporting directors. Winstanley has been a key figure at Chelsea under the BlueCo ownership and, along with co-sporting director Laurence Stewart, he signed a new deal last year to secure his future at Chelsea until 2031. The strength of his position at Chelsea and his relationship with the ownership could well render a move unlikely.

Dougie Freedman was also mentioned in reports earlier this week, and the former Crystal Palace sporting director has the sort of experience that could appeal to Tottenham. He worked for eight years under Steve Parish, fitting into Palace’s structure and building a very competitive team on a budget. But Freedman now works for Al Diriyah in Saudi Arabia, whom he only joined last year.

Part of the challenge in this process will be the fact that many of the candidates will be in jobs with rival clubs, and if they have to serve a notice period or gardening leave, then Spurs may not get their chosen person in until the summer.

The other challenge for the club will be finding the right candidate to come and work in the very specific structures that now exist at Spurs.

The fact that Tottenham are recruiting for this position proves their commitment to a joint-director model, with two people in the job rather than just one. This is the case at Chelsea, where Winstanley and Stewart are in those roles, but it is not always common practice across the rest of the Premier League. It is more usual to invest the power in one person.

Anyone arriving at Tottenham as a new sporting director would find themselves working in a more collaborative environment than they might be used to. Paratici had only been in this role for two months when he decided — with personal reasons also a factor — to leave for a position of total control at Fiorentina.

So much has changed at Tottenham this year, but nothing more profoundly than the inversion of the decision-making dynamic. For not just years but decades, Tottenham was run by Daniel Levy and those close to him with a remarkable centralisation of power. It was a hands-on personal rule that felt like something from another era.

Now, six months after Levy’s shock departure, Tottenham is run in a very different way. Power is less concentrated. CEO Venkatesham has daily responsibility for running the club, with Lange overseeing the football side (along with, eventually, the new sporting director). Venkatesham is accountable to the board, while the owners, who are represented on the board but do not sit on it, are consulted on major decisions. The challenge, as within any football club, is to make sure that the decision-makers are aligned and there is clarity about roles.

Tottenham are very confident in their new structures and in their appeal to candidates. The question that those candidates may ask themselves is where they would fit within Spurs’ collaborative model, and how much individual power they might have.

Dele Alli is training individually at former club Tottenham Hotspur to maintain fitness while he searches for a new club.

The 29-year-old midfielder has been a free agent since leaving Serie A side Como in September.

Tottenham have confirmed that Dele has been permitted to train on an academy pitch at Hotspur Way, their Hertfordshire base, for a few weeks while he continues to look for a new club. He was seen working with an individual coach on Wednesday.

Dele scored 67 goals and provided 59 assists in 269 Tottenham games during his six-and-a-half seasons in north London. The attacking midfielder also made 37 England appearances while at the club, scoring at Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.

The two-time PFA young player of the year has struggled for consistent game time since his departure from Spurs in 2022. Dele had subsequent spells with Everton and Besiktas but has not played more than 20 games in a season since 2021-22. He missed the entirety of the 2023-24 campaign through injury.

In September, the Englishman agreed to a mutual termination of his Como contract after just six months at the Italian club. “Dele is keen to secure regular playing opportunities and, as he was not part of the club’s immediate plans,” read a Como statement at the time.

He was a guest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium during the 4-1 north London derby defeat to rivals Arsenal on February 22.

“I can’t wait to get back on the pitch playing, hopefully it won’t be too long now,” Dele said when addressing the home crowd at half-time.

“I hope you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you. A lot has happened in our journeys since we were last together but I’m back today and I hope you know that you’ll always be my family.”

Tottenham Hotspur are clearly in a dire situation.

They have not won a Premier League match since December and are only four points above the relegation zone with 10 of their 38 league games remaining.

Dropping into the Championship would have huge ramifications for everyone at the club. The Athletic reported on Monday that most members of the first-team squad would face mandatory salary reductions of around 50 per cent. Many of them would likely seek an immediate exit if Spurs did go down.

Interim head coach Igor Tudor has a reputation for fixing broken teams in a short space of time but he has lost his first two games in charge, which have shown very few signs of improvement.

Tudor admitted there are “lots of problems” after Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Fulham. “We lack when we attack,” he said. “We lack quality to score. We lack in the middle to run. We lack behind (in defence) to stay and suffer and not concede.”

Senior players need to step up and drag this team away from danger.

However, captain Cristian Romero will miss Thursday’s fixture away to Crystal Palace as he serves the final game of a four-match ban. Micky van de Ven has worn the armband in his absence but has not looked at his best in recent weeks, while Guglielmo Vicario’s form in goal has been erratic to say the least. James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski continue to recover from the long-term knee injuries which have prevented them from playing a single minute of football this season.

There are a few in the squad who have been in relegation fights before, and that experience could be crucial.

Yves Bissouma spent four years with Brighton & Hove Albion before he joined Spurs in June 2022. Brighton finished 17th in the Premier League in Bissouma’s first season, only two points above Cardiff City, despite not winning any of their final nine games. The midfielder’s contract expires in June and strong performances over the next three months would surely boost his options in the summer. Wilson Odobert suffered back-to-back relegations with Troyes of France’s Ligue 1 and Premier League Burnley in 2022-23 and 2023-24 but will not feature again this season after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury in last month’s defeat to Newcastle United.

Nantes finished 18th in Ligue 1 in 2020-21, so faced a two-legged tie against Toulouse, who had come through the Ligue 2 play-offs, with their top-flight status on the line. Randal Kolo Muani scored as Nantes won the first leg 2-1 away, Toulouse responded with a 1-0 victory three days later and the rules meant that the teams therefore stayed in their respective divisions.

Dominic Solanke joined Bournemouth from Liverpool in January 2019. He did not score in his first 38 league appearances for them, and they were relegated in summer 2020 after finishing a point behind Aston Villa. But Solanke redeemed himself in 2022-23 with the drop looming for Bournemouth again, scoring in three crucial victories against Fulham, Spurs and Leeds United in the April and also setting up the other two goals, including Dango Ouattara’s stoppage-time winner, in a 3-2 defeat of his current club.

But it is another of Tottenham’s forwards who has thrived the most when relegation has loomed for his team.

Richarlison became a hero for Everton in the 2021-22 season, scoring six times in their final 10 matches to inspire what had for a while looked an unlikely escape from the trapdoor that leads to the Championship.

The Brazilian had struggled with injuries throughout a campaign that brought a great deal of upheaval off the pitch at Goodison Park: Rafael Benitez was sacked in the January after six months as head coach, to be replaced by Frank Lampard, with director of football Marcel Brands also having left the club the previous month.

Despite all the drama, Richarlison led a revival from February onwards and Tottenham fans will hope he can repeat the trick between now and the end of May. His contribution to the cause was decisive, including the only goal in a 1-0 defeat of Chelsea, which came from him aggressively pressing Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta as he received a pass from fellow defender Thiago Silva, pinching the ball and slotting it past goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.

During that game, a blue smoke-bomb was thrown onto the Goodison pitch. Richarlison raised it high in front of Everton’s supporters, creating an image that was a symbol of that late-season revival, deepening his bond with the fanbase in the process.

There is seemingly not a great relationship between Tottenham’s fans and players at the moment and Richarlison might just be the best candidate to start bridging the gap.

The away end sang his name after his goal as a substitute at Craven Cottage on Sunday to halve the deficit, and at the full-time whistle he was clearly distraught that Spurs had lost again.

The 28-year-old might not be blessed with the technical elegance of Solanke or Kolo Muani, but he is a fighter. Sometimes his emotions take over, but he can never be accused of not caring. Richarlison played through the pain barrier in what proved his final few months with Everton to help keep them up. He barely trained between games and had injections to manage his discomfort.

Richarlison set up Dominic Calvert-Lewin and also scored himself to put Everton in control in a crucial match against Brentford on the penultimate weekend, before red cards for Jarrad Branthwaite and Salomon Rondon turned the match around and left the club facing their first relegation since the 1950s.

His biggest contribution arrived four days later, when he equalised in the 75th minute of a dramatic 3-2 home win over Crystal Palace which confirmed Everton’s safety. In an interview with The Players’ Tribune in June 2023, Richarlison revealed he felt “destroyed” before facing Palace in what was Everton’s last Goodison fixture before a daunting final-day trip to Arsenal.

“I refused to take a medical exam because I knew that if I did it, they wouldn’t let me play,” Richarlison said. “I had to sweat blood that day. When we scored the third goal, you can see that I had nothing left to give. I hit the ground with my head and said to the coach, in tears, ‘I’m done.’ It was my last breath, my last sacrifice, my last game as an Evertonian; a moment I will carry with me for the rest of my life, because I loved playing for this club.”

Spurs have a huge injury list, which includes Maddison, Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Bergvall, Rodrigo Bentancur and Destiny Udogie. Nobody is suggesting those players should rush back and risk causing themselves more problems, but Richarlison’s selfless act three years ago underlines his character at a time when the Tottenham dressing room is sorely lacking leadership and people prepared to take accountability.

Richarlison is their top scorer in the top flight this season with eight and is joint-third for assists (three) behind Kudus (five) and Xavi Simons (four). Those eight goals have come from 13 starts and 23 appearances across a total of 1,332 minutes. Kolo Muani has started more games (14), made three fewer appearances overall and racked up slightly less playing time (1,154 — effectively two fewer matches) but only scored once.

They have different profiles as players and it is fair to say Richarlison is the more likely of the two to score a scrappy goal for a team low on confidence. His effort in December’s 2-1 home defeat to Liverpool is the perfect example and his immediate response was to shove opponent Hugo Ekitike off the ball when he picked it up out of the net.

Tudor has demanded that the players show “more personality” and “more wish to do”, which should not be a problem for Richarlison, judging by his previous actions.

Tottenham bought him for £60million in July 2022, a few weeks after those relegation-beating heroics for Everton.

Nobody expected he would be asked to perform a similar rescue mission for Spurs four years later, but it may just be the perfect way to make himself a cult hero in the blue-and-white part of north London like he is on the blue half of Merseyside.

In the coming days and weeks, as they try to avoid being swallowed up by the relegation quicksands, maybe the relevant people can get round to answering an intriguing question.

It is the one that is surely being asked already in the boardrooms of Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and West Ham United, given the jarring reality that one of those three clubs is likely to drop out of the Premier League and be playing in the Championship next season.

The relevant question: where did it go wrong?

We could follow that up by asking how each club respond to the charge that their positions in the table reflect how they are run as much as being a story of coaching failure.

Are they willing to accept some hard truths and understand that, in football, it is one thing to achieve passing success but quite another to sustain it?

If they are truthful, there would be an acknowledgement from each team that it has been an exercise in self-inflicted damage, that the complaints against them are entirely justified and that, in all three cases, a wonderful opportunity may have been spurned.

For whichever of these sides remain in England’s top division, more fool them if they think staying up should negate the requirement for a period of hard reflection when everything is finally settled.

The “champions of Europe” ensemble, we could call them, bearing in mind the supporters of all three can sing that song, and often do. Historically, in Forest’s case. More recently, for Tottenham and West Ham, albeit via the lesser UEFA competitions.

And didn’t they have fun?

Tottenham’s victory in the Europa League final last year propelled them into this season’s Champions League.

West Ham won the UEFA Conference League in 2023 and, briefly, tried to convince themselves it was the first sighting of a brighter future.

Forest qualified for Europe for the first time in 30 years last May and made such a favourable impression under Nuno Espirito Santo that the BBC asked an entirely different question midway through that season: are they going to win the league?

Yet there is no misfortune, or flukiness, attached to the fact that these are the clubs occupying the Premier League’s 16th, 17th and 18th positions.

West Ham are in most peril of the three, directly above Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the relegation zone. Forest are one spot higher, but play at title-chasing Manchester City tonight (Wednesday). Tottenham have a little space to breathe, tucked in two points behind Leeds United with a game in hand, but it’s tight and they are horribly out of form. The wind howls, the curtains twitch, and it isn’t easy to know which of these teams ought to feel the most acute embarrassment to be in this position.

Is it Spurs, perhaps, given the financial riches that accompany having the best stadium in England and the considerable evidence that their decline is not just a one-off loss of form but the culmination, season after season, of serial mistakes, questionable decision-making and badly blurred priorities?

Ten years ago, Mauricio Pochettino’s brilliant, fast-flowing side were fighting for the title. Today, Tottenham are contemplating their first relegation since 1977. Worse, their supporters are facing the possibility that they go down while Arsenal, their neighbours and fiercest rivals, finish the season as champions.

Or is it West Ham, where large numbers of supporters regularly protest with black balloons and ‘No More BS’ slogans to signal their disdain for the principal decision-makers, Karren Brady and David Sullivan?

This was the club, lest it be forgotten, that eulogised about Champions League football, not Championship football, when the decision was made to move to the London Stadium. A decade on from leaving Upton Park, West Ham still appear to be suffering an identity crisis. They have just posted the worst financial losses in their history — £104.2million ($140.6m) pre-tax — and appear in need of a complete reboot.

Or should we linger on Forest and, specifically, the thick portfolio of evidence this season to indicate they are not equipped to have the sustained success the club undoubtedly wants?

There is a lot to unpick at the City Ground, that’s for sure, and it’s just a pity that Netflix, or one of the other fly-on-the-wall documentary-makers, was not in place to film the soap opera of Nuno’s fallout with Edu, Nuno’s sacking, Ange Postecoglou’s 39 days in charge, Sean Dyche’s hiring and firing, Vitor Pereira’s appointment and everything else that has happened in between.

For the time being, however, it was summed up to some degree by the picture that was doing the rounds on the internet recently to show the club’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, mocked up as a guest on Would I Lie to You?, the BBC show in which participants share a wild story and everybody has to guess if it can be true.

This one had Marinakis purportedly stating: “I once sacked our best manager in the last 40 years because he didn’t get on with my mate, replaced him with (Postecoglou) who nearly sent Spurs down, only to appoint Dyche eight games in, sack him and get the guy who had less points with Wolves at Christmas than a triangle.”

Some season, indeed.

At this point, perhaps we should remind ourselves that there is still the potential for Leeds, in 15th position, to fall further into trouble and also the rather eccentric possibility, in the case of Spurs and Forest, that both clubs may yet change how this season is remembered. Tottenham are into the last 16 of the Champions League and Forest are at the same stage in the Europa League, so it is not entirely out of the question that the story can change.

All the same, it would feel a stretch, to say the least, to dress up what has happened as anything other than hugely disappointing.

Perhaps there is a wider lesson here when analysing the league table in more detail.

Look at the cluster of clubs, in particular, who are taking in the view from seventh to 12th place.

Brentford, for example, who are sitting defiantly in seventh despite losing their head coach, Thomas Frank, and two main goalscorers, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, last summer. Look at the way Sunderland have acclimatised during their first season back in the Premier League, reaching 40 points with Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Leeds.

Brighton & Hove Albion’s season has been tough, according to some. Yet they are still in with a decent shout of ending up in the top half of the table, having finished 11th or higher in each of the previous four years. Or see how Bournemouth have improved their position, from 15th to 12th to ninth, in the past three seasons, and may yet do so again from their current ninth spot.

The moral of the story? That it all comes from the top, and that strategic planning and shrewd leadership can be useful traits in a sport where the competition is so fierce.

Daniel Levy left his role as executive chairman at Spurs in September but will the people still in positions of power at the club take some form of responsibility for the team’s regression?

Can the hierarchy at Forest accept that it has been a season of self-sabotage?

Do the relevant people at West Ham understand that many of those protestors, wanting better for their club, make relevant criticisms?

Because if the answer is no, in any of these cases, they would be kidding themselves. And that is maybe the most important lesson for all of them here, unless the people in question are just going to continue making the same mistakes, over and over again.

Manchester United have hired Ian Broomfield as a casual scout covering the under-21 market.

Broomfield, who gained an excellent reputation for spotting talent after more than 30 years doing so, has been brought in to help United target players emerging at first-team level.

Ayden Heaven, who joined United from Arsenal aged 18 for £1.5million in February 2025, is an example of the type of player Broomfield would be expected to recruit.

Broomfield, 75, was most recently employed by Tottenham Hotspur as head of scouting, before losing his job in a reshuffle towards data in 2024. He was previously chief scout under Harry Redknapp. His extensive career in the game has also seen him lead recruitment at Leeds United and Aston Villa, under David O’Leary.

He started as a schoolboy at Bristol City and trained with an England youth squad before an Achilles injury impacted his progress. He went on to join the police force as a detective, before he returned to football in scouting at Southampton.

Broomfield attended United’s under-21 loss to Chelsea at Leigh Sports Village on Monday night.

Broomfield’s hire follows Connor Hunter being promoted to head of academy recruitment. Hunter had moved to United from Everton in 2013 and worked a variety of age-group scouting roles before being given his current role in January.

United needed to replace Luke Fedorenko who left to join agency Unique Sports Group.

United had been close to finalising a move for Paul Midgley from Newcastle United, but he ended up remaining at St James’ Park.

Jack Chapman, Tottenham’s head of academy recruitment, was also strongly considered but he decided to stay in north London.

United have been reshaping their academy since Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s investment, with Jason Wilcox as director of football providing oversight.

Wilcox was aware of Midgley and Chapman having worked with both previously, at Manchester City and Southampton respectively.

Michael Carrick goes back home on Wednesday.

There will be those who do not think of Carrick as a Geordie, given his playing career was at West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, and Manchester has been home for the past 20 years. He does not have a thick Geordie accent. But Carrick comes from Newcastle, from Howdon in the east of the city, and his first football experiences were with the famous Wallsend Boys’ Club — the ‘Boyza’ as Carrick knew and knows them.

So while the opening lines of Carrick’s 2018 autobiography, Between the Lines, are: “I didn’t just play for Manchester United. I lived for them,” his football life originates on the streets of Newcastle by the River Tyne.

Via his very readable book, subtly ghost-written by Henry Winter, The Athletic has retraced Carrick’s Tyneside roots and his route through playing to the point when he is preparing to start his Pro Licence in January 2019. He has just been brought onto the United coaching staff by Jose Mourinho.

A lot has happened since; a lot happened before.

Early in Between the Lines, Carrick provides an evocative memory from the Wallsend Parade of 1992, when he was 11. There were, he says, “twelve of us boys singing our hearts out all the way through town on the back of a red lorry with a banner stating: ‘Wallsend Boys’ Club, suppliers to the football industry’.” The Boyza was integral to the north-east footballing landscape.

Industry and football, those were two Wallsend characteristics and remain so. On the way to and from Stephenson Primary School — school logo: Stephenson’s Rocket — Carrick would play one-twos off lamp-posts.

Carrick’s father Vince worked in nuclear power plants around Britain. His mother Lynn worked in a school and was in the Salvation Army. Carrick’s wife, Lisa, is a Geordie.

Vince was a good schoolboy footballer, represented County Durham and went on trial with Middlesbrough, the club his son would later coach. Vince also co-authored the history of Wallsend Boys. His father, Owen, had England trials at youth level. Carrick’s great-uncle John played for Millwall. On various branches of Carrick’s family tree, there is football. His brother Graeme is a coach.

Vince Carrick was an avid Newcastle fan and first took Michael to St James’ Park when Carrick was six. Vince’s favourite Newcastle player was Malcolm ‘Supermac’ Macdonald, but his favourite all-time player was George Best. VHS videos of both were staples in the Carrick household. Macdonald had departed Newcastle United by the time Michael was sitting on a concrete barrier in the then-uncovered Gallowgate End. The Brazilian Mirandinha was up front.

“That exhilaration of climbing the steps inside the Gallowgate will never leave me,” Carrick writes. That will resonate with Newcastle supporters. He was there the seismic day in 1992 when Kevin Keegan returned as manager.

Carrick, centre-forward as a boy, was attracting attention. He went on trial with Boro, guested in a tournament for Stoke City and, aged 12, was asked by Newcastle to go with their under-14s to the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland. John Carver, then academy head and later interim Newcastle manager, handed Carrick a club tracksuit and, on Carrick’s 13th birthday in July 1994, Peter Beardsley gave him a cake.

Beardsley was once of Wallsend Boys himself. When he left Newcastle for Liverpool, (whisper it at Old Trafford) Carrick began wearing Liverpool kit like his cousin Gary. Jan Molby became a Carrick favourite, as we might expect of an elegant midfielder.

Paul Gascoigne was another local hero, but Carrick was feeling the pull of West Ham. Other London clubs — Arsenal, Chelsea and Crystal Palace pursued him — but Carrick recalls telling his father West Ham were his preference. “They play two-touch football, Dad, they don’t launch it.” Even then, style was all important as the youngster mapped out his future career.

So Carrick began to take the train from Newcastle Central to King’s Cross with other boys. They would be picked up by Jimmy Hampson, West Ham’s youth development coach. Once, when Carrick’s last train back to Newcastle was cancelled, Hampson drove him the whole way home so he would not miss school the next day.

Carrick signed a two-year YTS contract on £42.50 a week and absorbed Hampson’s kindness, Tony Carr’s youth-team education and the commitment of two boys slightly older — Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard. Lampard’s father, Frank Snr, was an influence and West Ham showed patience when Carrick’s teenage body developed at a rate that concerned him.

They had his eyes tested when Vince thought there could be a problem. There was. “I was as blind as a bat,” Carrick says.

He loved West Ham, even the staged wrestling match with fellow apprentice Stephen Purches, whom Carrick will see on Wednesday, as Purches is part of Eddie Howe’s coaching staff.

Carrick’s debut came under Harry Redknapp at Bradford City in the Premiership, as it was then known. Carrick replaced Ferdinand late on and was praised by Redknapp for a pass to Paolo Di Canio. It was one month after turning 18, Carrick was on £400 a week, a professional — one of more than 90 who have made it from Wallsend Boys, such as Alan Shearer and, lately, Elliot Anderson.

Redknapp quickly sent Carrick on loan to Swindon Town for an eye-opening six weeks. When Carrick was brought back, Redknapp informed him he would be starting the Hammers’ next game. It was away at Newcastle.

It finished 2-2 and Carrick played all 90 minutes alongside Marc-Vivien Foe and opposite Gary Speed. He says he felt emotionally drained at half-time, and physically exhausted. But he stuck at it. “People look at my career and say nice things about composure, but I’m a fighter too. I don’t give up.”

Under Glenn Roeder, Carrick was given the No 6 shirt, which attached him to Bobby Moore. But Redknapp was gone, West Ham sold Ferdinand and, in May 2003, they were relegated with 42 points. Injured, Carrick missed the end of the season, but he was there at Birmingham City (where he’d also had a short loan) to witness the drop.

There was a fire sale but Carrick stayed. West Ham reached the Championship play-off final in May 2004, but lost to Palace. Carrick was about to turn 23 and decided to leave. The club who knocked on the door first were Newcastle. They offered £2m ($2.7m), but said the deal would have to wait until the following transfer window. Carrick found it odd and declined.

Then Portsmouth called. Pompey were in the Premier League and had Redknapp in charge. It was early August, the season looming and Carrick met Redknapp near Heathrow. It went well but, going home in the car with his agent, Arsenal chairman David Dein rang. Arsene Wenger wanted to meet Carrick.

Within an hour, he was sitting in the front room of Arsene Wenger’s house in Totteridge, north London.

It was a Friday night. Arsenal were playing Manchester United in the Community Shield in Cardiff on Sunday. Arsenal expected Patrick Vieira to leave for Real Madrid, so Wenger played a 17-year-old, Cesc Fabregas, in midfield. Fabregas excelled and even though, on the Saturday, Dein had made an offer to West Ham for Carrick, by Monday Wenger had thought twice. The Carrick deal was off.

Just as Dein’s phone call had come out of nowhere, so did the next one. It was from Frank Arnesen, Tottenham’s sporting director. Rather than signing for Arsenal on August 9, Carrick joined Spurs on August 24.

He was entitled to feel bewildered, particularly as, under Spurs’ manager Jacques Santini, he found himself training with the reserves on his first day. Carrick felt humiliated — it will give him an understanding of Kobbie Mainoo’s recent situation.

Santini was soon gone and Carrick expresses gratitude for his replacement, Martin Jol. Under Jol, Carrick made his first Spurs start in the Tottenham 4-5 Arsenal epic of November 2004 — up against Fabregas. His last came in May 2006, West Ham 2-1 Tottenham, the day of ‘Lasagne-gate’. Carrick was one of those Spurs players who was violently ill. Back at Upton Park, he lasted an hour.

At Tottenham, on and off the pitch, Carrick was enjoying himself. There is a glimpse of a future manager’s outlook when he writes: “Camaraderie goes a long way in making a team”. But defeat at West Ham meant Spurs missed out on Champions League qualification and an uncertain end to 2005-06.

At least Carrick was selected by England for the World Cup in Germany that summer. He won 34 England caps over a 14-year period under Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren, Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson. But, as Carrick says, he was named in 87 squads and made only seven competitive starts. He mentions how, culturally, he would have liked to have been in a Gareth Southgate England squad; interesting considering his current assistant, Steve Holland, was Southgate’s No 2.

Something significant did happen in Germany, though. Carrick’s mobile rang and the caller was Sir Alex Ferguson. The second half of Michael Carrick’s football career was underway.

On Carrick’s 25th birthday in the summer of 2006, Tottenham announced a deal had been concluded. United had offered £12m and paid £18m. Carrick notes a lot of people were unconvinced and part of him agreed when he heard Ferguson describe him as “a shy boy who needs to be shaken at times”.

The shy boy took Roy Keane’s No 16 jersey to add to Moore’s No 6.

Carrick had heard about the self-policed intensity of United’s senior players’ training, and had been so keen to feel it, contractual personal terms were secondary. He soon discovered United did not offer weekly win bonuses in the league, as they were expected to win.

Ferguson considered Carrick a Geordie, like two previous club legends Sir Bobby Charlton and Bryan Robson. Carrick noticed how Ferguson never said ‘United’, always ‘Manchester United’. His team talks always included “concentration” and “penetration” and an incessant driving of standards. After Carrick’s first United start, an away win at Watford, Ferguson strode angrily into the dressing room to shout: “I’m not having that. That’s not good enough.”

To Carrick’s surprise, Ferguson’s relentlessness included major fitness work in January. United were preparing for the months of April and May — “our time”, as players like Gary Neville called it.

And in May 2007 — Carrick’s first Old Trafford spring — United won the Premier League. His favourite match was the 1-0 win at Anfield in March; John O’Shea’s unlikely late winner. Carrick scored the opener in the 7-1 win against Roma at Old Trafford in the Champions League. He was all-in: “I’d only been there nine months but United was my religion now.”

One year on, United retained the Premier League.

Fans will look askance at his praise for the Glazer family being there the day the title was clinched at Wigan Athletic. United’s game after Wigan was the Champions League final in Moscow against Chelsea. It was 40 years since United won the European Cup for a first time and 50 since the Munich air crash. Carrick writes movingly about it, how affected he and the squad were hearing Charlton speak.

Carrick successfully took the second kick in the penalty shoot-out United won 6-5. In the happy maelstrom of Moscow, he says his thoughts returned to Wallsend Boys.

Another year on and United were in the Champions League final again, this time in Rome against Barcelona. Carrick focuses on his mis-placed header which Andres Iniesta seized upon. Instantly, Samuel Eto’o made it 1-0. It ended 2-0 and Carrick says his playing hangover lasted a year. He talks of depression, of wanting to exit a profession he loved; 2009-10 was his worst season.

But by May 2011, United and Barcelona were meeting in the final again. Again Barcelona won. Carrick accepts this, as here was peak Pep Guardiola-Barca with Lionel Messi, Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Iniesta all starring.

May 2012 brought further pain — Sergio Aguero winning the Premier League title in the last seconds of the season to pip United on goal difference. United were at Sunderland that day and Carrick’s Newcastle-ness comes through. Most significant, though, is his memory of Ferguson walking down the team bus afterwards saying: “Don’t you ever forget what this feels like.”

Unknown to all, Ferguson was entering his last season at Old Trafford. United, inspired by the previous May and by the signing of Robin van Persie, won it with ease and Carrick takes particular pleasure from the game at Queens Park Rangers when he heard the chant: “It’s Carrick, you know, it’s hard to believe it’s not Scholes.” He treasures the compliment.

In Ferguson’s last-ever match in May 2013 — 5-5 at West Bromwich Albion — Carrick was captain. He then signed a new contract under Ferguson’s successor, David Moyes. Carrick does not lay responsibility totally with Moyes for that 2013-14 season. In came Louis van Gaal with his precision and discipline, which Carrick appreciated, but not Van Gaal’s sometimes mechanical attitude to training.

Carrick learned under Van Gaal and notes being pushed back to centre-half for a league game at Anfield that United won. He is less pleased with a collective selfie United took afterwards.

With Dutch bluntness, Van Gaal had informed Carrick that the 2016 FA Cup final would be Carrick’s last match. Wayne Rooney and Carrick lifted the trophy together but in the dressing room, news began to filter that it was, in fact, Van Gaal’s last United match.

Van Gaal’s successor, Mourinho, telephoned Carrick to say he wanted to give him a new contract. Approaching 35, Carrick signed without hesitation. He was made captain again.

But during his first game of the 2017-18 season, against Burton Albion in the League Cup, Carrick suddenly sensed his body buckling. It turned out he had an abnormal heart rhythm; he was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

In late November, a club announcement revealed the issue publicly. Carrick resumed training and reappeared for the first team at Yeovil in the FA Cup in 2018. But he was 36 and knew his career was coming to a close.

There was one last away appearance in the Premier League — at St James’ Park — and a last-day match against Watford at Old Trafford. Carrick was given a guard of honour. The next morning, there was a text from Mourinho about that week’s coaching plan. Carrick was off into this new direction.

“A decent player doesn’t automatically make a decent manager, I know that,” he says.

Acknowledging as much will stand him in good stead, but he looks pretty decent at the minute. In seven games as United’s manager, Carrick has six wins and a draw. When he succeeded Ruben Amorim, United were seventh with 32 points; today they are third with 51 points.

Carrick has faced West Ham and Tottenham and now it is Newcastle, St James’ and memories of Wallsend blowing down the big river. He may have left the area but he is far from disconnected — Carrick’s Foundation funds the post of general manager at Wallsend Boys.

Ultimately, re-reading ‘Between the Lines’ brings reminders of the richness of Carrick’s experience. With his natural football intelligence and personal maturity, he should make a very good manager as much as a coach. Yet after an impressive beginning at Middlesbrough, last season was an injury-hit puzzle that faded out.

All is hardly perfect at Old Trafford, but Carrick has galvanised a drifting squad into, so far, winners. There are 10 games left. How he would like spring 2026 to be “our time” for Manchester United again. He certainly will not want a first loss to be in front of the Gallowgate End he was once part of.

Welcome to week 29 of The Athletic’s Premier League predictions challenge, where it’s starting to look like a straight fight between the subscribers and young Wilfred.

Wilfred continues to predict scores with a wisdom far beyond his six years — and far, far beyond my 50 — while one subscriber after another keeps coming up trumps.

Last week was the turn of Adam, a Newcastle United fan from Kildare, Ireland. Adam got two scorelines right and another three results right to maintain the subscribers’ sudden title charge.

But Wilfred got two of Sunday’s games spot-on (Fulham 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United 2-1 Crystal Palace) to keep his four-point lead intact.

Each week since the season began in August, four of us — Wilfred, a guest subscriber, an algorithm and I — have been predicting the Premier League results with varying degrees of success.

We are awarding three points for a correct scoreline and one for a correct result. There’s also a bonus point for any correct “unique” prediction, so Adam picked up an extra point for the subscribers because he was the only one to predict Brighton & Hove Albion’s win over Nottingham Forest.

Having led the table for much of the campaign, I find myself in freefall. I got six correct results at the weekend, but I’ve barely picked a correct scoreline in weeks.

To sum it up, I picked four of Saturday’s five games to end up 2-1 — and none of them did. I picked none of Sunday’s four games to end up 2-1 — and all of them did.

Even the algorithm got two of Sunday’s 2-1s spot-on and suddenly I’m looking over my shoulder and wondering whether I’m in danger of finishing last. That would not be a good look.

Still, another week brings another opportunity for redemption (or further humiliation)… and another guest subscriber. This week, we have Derian, a 27-year-old Chelsea fan from New York City. Take it away, Derian.

Our subscriber’s match of the week

Tottenham Hotspur vs Crystal Palace, Thursday, 8pm UK/3pm ET

Derian says: More for the off-field narrative than the promise of on-pitch entertainment, this London derby tops the midweek billing. Can Tottenham Hotspur stave off relegation? Will Oliver Glasner's uneasy truce with Crystal Palace fans hold? Expect hard running, a red card, some wild shots — and a 1-0 win for Spurs.

Tottenham 1-0 Crystal Palace

Oli says: If Wednesday’s results go anything like I’ve predicted (spoiler: they won’t), then Tottenham will still be two places and four points above the relegation zone when they kick off on Thursday evening. If Nottingham or West Ham have picked up a win, it really will be panic stations. Spurs were abject in defeat at Fulham on Sunday, the type of performance that demands a response. This fixture offers an opportunity for that — against a Crystal Palace team who are drifting — but even so, my prediction of a home win feels a little wild.

Tottenham 2-1 Crystal Palace

Oli’s other predictions

Everton vs Burnley

Every time Everton drop points, there’s a flurry of anti-David Moyes sentiment on social media. But they’re eighth in the table, higher than they have finished in any of the previous six seasons (and higher than just about anyone predicted last summer), so he’s clearly getting a lot right. What he and Everton really need is to start winning at their new stadium, where they have taken just two points from their past six games. This is a good opportunity against a Burnley side whose laudable spirit might be dampened by the agonising nature of their 4-3 defeat by Brentford.

Everton 2-0 Burnley

Bournemouth vs Brentford

Are Bournemouth the new Brighton? And are Brentford the new Bournemouth? Both teams have surpassed every expectation again this season despite selling key players (and in Brentford’s case, losing an influential coach, Thomas Frank). Brentford are only two points behind sixth-placed Chelsea, which seems absurd. It’s hard to predict which way this game will fall, but it should be lively.

Bournemouth 1-2 Brentford

Leeds United vs Sunderland

Manchester City’s 1-0 win on Saturday was Leeds’ first defeat in an evening kick-off at Elland Road in 25 league/play-off games. They were unfortunate against City, too. Games under the floodlights seem to energise Leeds’ supporters and players, and they will know that, despite their huge improvement over the past three months, they need more points on the board. Sunderland look stronger for Granit Xhaka’s return, but they should be braced for a tough evening.

Leeds 2-1 Sunderland

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Liverpool

Opta’s ‘supercomputer’ calculates that, after an upturn under Rob Edwards, underlined by their impressive victory over Aston Villa on Friday, Wolves have a chance of avoiding relegation. The chance in question is a mere 0.02 per cent, but still… ‘So you’re telling me there’s a chance?’ This is a strange situation because they are at home to Liverpool in the Premier League on Tuesday and then in the FA Cup on Friday. Is there a case for Edwards resting key players on Tuesday and going full-strength in the FA Cup? There might be, actually.

Wolves 0-2 Liverpool

Brighton & Hove Albion vs Arsenal

Winning while playing poorly is said to be the hallmark of champions, but that 2-1 victory over Chelsea on Sunday left me questioning (slightly) my long-held belief that Arsenal will win the Premier League. It was a poor performance and, again, I felt the main concern was not one of ‘bottle’, as the popular narrative suggests, but of a low-risk approach that turns almost every game into a scrap. So often, there is a lack of freedom and variety in their play. Tension has come to engulf every Arsenal match, particularly at the Emirates Stadium, so a trip to the Amex — not the most intense of arenas — might feel like a welcome change of scenery. But Brighton are back on form after back-to-back wins, so it threatens to be another slog.

Brighton 1-2 Arsenal

Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest

A report last week revealed that Manchester City’s players have covered more distance per game than any other team in the Premier League this season. Four of their players (Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Nico Gonzalez and Tijjani Reijnders) were in the top 10 for distance covered per 90 minutes. Watching them at Leeds on Saturday night, it was their work rate — more than their more recognised qualities — that stuck out. This is far from the most scintillating of Pep Guardiola’s teams, but their attitude is spot-on. Forest were 19th on that list, one place above Chelsea. Vitor Pereira's side look tired from their Europa League exertions and could be given the runaround on Wednesday.

Manchester City 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Fulham vs West Ham United

West Ham have looked much better over the past six weeks, but it is worrying that they a) have failed to capitalise on winning positions and b) conceded five goals on Saturday to a Liverpool side who didn’t really do anything special. They really need to start making games like this count because they don’t pick up enough points at home. The difficulty is that Fulham have won back-to-back games and look like they’re enjoying themselves again. West Ham seem to have forgotten what enjoyment is.

Fulham 2-1 West Ham

Aston Villa vs Chelsea

Aston Villa’s season: 0.4 points per game for the first five, 2.76 points per game for the next 13, 1.2 points per game for the last 10. For what looks, on paper, to be an eminently sensible team, who have averaged a perfectly reasonable 1.82 points per game over that period, that is wild. Logically, top-five form is somewhere between 1.7 and 1.9 points per game. If they perform anywhere near that level between now and the end of the campaign, they should make next season’s Champions League, whereas Chelsea, six points adrift of Villa, need to find a level of consistency that has looked beyond them. Both of them have a tough run of games coming up. Chelsea’s greater need might lead them to risk more here in the hope of making up lost ground.

Aston Villa 1-2 Chelsea

Newcastle United vs Manchester United

It’s five defeats in six Premier League matches for Newcastle and now comes a succession of big tests: Manchester United, Chelsea and local rivals Sunderland in the Premier League, punctuated by an FA Cup fifth-round tie with Manchester City and home and away clashes with Barcelona in the Champions League. Playing two games a week, due to their cup commitments, has really hit them hard, whereas Manchester United, particularly since Michael Carrick took over from Ruben Amorim, have benefited from a lighter schedule. After three consecutive league defeats at St James’ Park, Newcastle need a response. I suspect they’ll come out swinging.

Newcastle 2-2 Manchester United

Tottenham Hotspur have banned three supporters “indefinitely” after making Nazi salutes during the club’s Champions League game at Eintracht Frankfurt in January.

The north London club said the three fans had showed “utterly abhorrent conduct” and have been banned from attending matches in line with the club’ sanctions and banning policy.

A Spurs statement on Monday read: “The club has cooperated fully with UEFA’s investigation, as well as with German police on the night and, subsequently, the Met Police.”

UEFA have handed Tottenham a suspended sanction from selling away tickets for one of the governing body’s games, alongside a fine of €30,000 (£26,100) for the incidents.

The ticket sales ban is suspended for a probationary period of a year from March 2, meaning Spurs will have away fans at their Champions League last-16 first leg at Atletico Madrid next week.

The sanction will, however, come into force if the club is found guilty of another offence in that period.

“The club stands firmly against all forms of discrimination and has therefore taken the strongest possible action,” the club statement added. “The disgusting behaviour of a minority of so-called fans on the night is in no way reflective of the values of our club and its supporters.”

Spurs have also been fined for €2,250 for the throwing of objects by fans during the Frankfurt game on January 28.

The decision was made by UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body.

Randal Kolo Muani and Dominic Solanke scored as Spurs beat Frankfurt 2-0 at Deutsche Bank Park in their final game of the initial phase. The result ensured the Premier League side finished fourth in the Champions League league phase and qualified for the round of 16, while Frankfurt were eliminated.

Tottenham Hotspur players face wage cuts if the club are relegated from the Premier League, owing to clauses written into their contracts.

Spurs are currently 16th in the top-flight, only four points above the drop zone with 10 fixtures remaining.

They have not won a domestic game this calendar year and recently appointed Igor Tudor to replace Thomas Frank as head coach, in an attempt to rescue their season.

However, the Croatian has overseen defeats in his opening two matches against Arsenal and Fulham — heightening the possibility of Spurs falling into England’s second tier for the first time since 1977.

Should that happen there would be major ramifications on and off the pitch, although when it comes to squad remuneration there are provisions in place to limit the cost.

The Athletic can reveal that most members of the first team squad are on deals which include mandatory salary reductions and the vast majority would see their earning slashed by around 50 per cent.

It was a provision factored into all existing agreements struck before Daniel Levy’s departure as executive chairman in September, granting Spurs an element of protection against the doomsday scenario of demotion.

Since Levy’s departure, Spurs have signed two first-team players, Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid and the Brazilian full-back Sousa from Santos.

Tudor’s men host Crystal Palace on Thursday and then travel to Spain for their Champions League round of 16 first leg against Atletico Madrid.