Tottenham Hotspur have witnessed a fall from grace after winning the UEFA Europa League last season, and they must dip into the market.
A club of Tottenham Hotspur’s stature, with a gleaming stadium, vast resources, and a fanbase yearning for silverware, is now scrapping for survival in the relegation mire. Sitting 16th after 27 matches, Spurs are five points above the drop zone, a humiliating reality for a side that should be chasing UEFA Champions League football.
A campaign of chaos unfolds
The numbers tell a grim story. Just 29 points from 27 games, seven wins, eight draws, and twelve losses, with 41 goals conceded and a paltry 37 scored. Home form is particularly woeful, with only two victories at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, including gutting defeats like a 1-2 loss to Newcastle United and a 1-4 thrashing by Arsenal in the North London Derby.
Thomas Frank’s tenure, which began with UEFA Super Cup promise, collapsed under the weight of two wins in 17 league games, punctuated by cup humiliations and a toxic dressing-room atmosphere. Frank’s sacking on February 11, after that Newcastle United debacle, was inevitable.
Captain Cristian Romero’s public Instagram tirades over the squad’s injury crisis only deepened the rot. Enter Igor Tudor, the Croatian firebrand and ex-Juventus boss, as interim head coach until summer. His mandate is brutally clear: deliver organisation, intensity, and results to avoid the Championship. Yet even Tudor’s debut looms as a high-stakes North London Derby, with survival hanging by a thread.
Squad frailties laid bare
This is no mere managerial malfunction. The squad is riddled with deficiencies no coach can mask. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, once a summer coup, has regressed into an error-prone liability, conceding 1.52 goals per game amid high-pressure lapses. Midfield offers energy from Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr, but zero defensive steel, leaving them overrun and exposed.
Up top, Dominic Solanke shoulder load, but Richarlison’s seven goals cannot paper over a chronic lack of clinical finishing. Defensively, it is carnage: Romero, despite four goals, is courted by Atletico Madrid after his outbursts, while Radu Dragusin clamours for a Roma exit after scant minutes post-injury.
Micky van de Ven and Kevin Danso offer flickers of solidity, but set-pieces and counters consistently bleed goals. Tudor inherits a stretched squad where even Palhinha buckles under pressure. For a club of Tottenham’s means, this is not survival, it is surrender.
The brutal truth: Five signings or bust
No manager, Igor Tudor included, can salvage this without a radical summer overhaul. Tottenham must target five quality additions to address rot in goal, defence, midfield, and attack. Romero’s likely exit and Radu Dragusin’s unrest demand a new central defender. Midfield craves a shield for the creatives. Vicario’s frailties scream for replacement. And the front line needs a predator to unburden Solanke. These aren’t wishlist items, they’re the price of restoring a giant’s pride and avoiding parachute payments.
Start between the posts with James Trafford from Manchester City. At 23, the backup shot-stopper is disillusioned by crumbs behind Ederson, prioritising a Premier League move to reboot his career post-Burnley heroics. Spurs’ ambition aligns perfectly, and at £20-30 million, he will deliver composure and distribution to shore up Tudor’s backline, replacing Vicario’s costly wobbles.
In central defence, Nottingham Forest’s Murillo is a must. The 23-year-old Brazilian has dazzled with nearly seven clearances per game and 11 clean sheets last term, thriving in the Premier League’s cauldron. With Forest teetering, Tottenham can secure him for £40 million to pair with van de Ven, forging a partnership that smothers aerial threats and counters, Spurs’ Achilles’ heel.
Midfield demands steel, and Wolves’ Andre Trindade fits the bill. As Wolves wallow bottom with 10 points from 28 games, relegation looms, freeing the Brazilian protector at a bargain £20 million. He will shield the back four, letting Maddison roam freely, something Bissouma can’t manage consistently, halving those 41 conceded goals through ruthless transitions.
For dynamism across the front three, Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz is the spark. The Moroccan international drifts across lines but rarely starts amid Madrid’s depth, ripe for a £50 million Spurs swoop. His goals, assists, and dribbling would supercharge service to Solanke, thriving in Tudor’s high-octane system as a No.10 or winger.
Finally, no fix is complete without a proven finisher: Juventus’s Dusan Vlahovic. Spurs’ goal drought, with Solanke overburdened at 4-4 contributions, is no secret. The Serb’s physicality and technique scream Premier League readiness, especially with his contract nearing expiry. At a cut-price signing fee plus wages, he could smash 20+ goals, sharing the burden and converting draws to triumphs.
A Reckoning for the boardroom
Igor Tudor may steady the ship short-term, but summer is make-or-break. Fail to invest, and Tottenham’s legacy as serial underachievers hardens: a sleeping giant, forever Spursy. Fans packing the Lane weekly deserve European nights, not EFL obscurity. The board must act boldly, or history will judge them as architects of disaster. Tudor’s intensity buys time; these signings deliver redemption. Anything less, and the shame of 2025/26 becomes their epitaph.
