£175m spent, bottom of the table: Tottenham's nightmare start branded 'as bad as it's ever been'
Tottenham Hotspur head into the first international break bottom of the Premier League table — despite a summer of dramatic spending. After two grim seasons, new head coach Roberto De Zerbi was handed a rebuilt squad and a net outlay of £175m ($234m), a clear signal that the fiscal caution of the Daniel Levy era was over. Yet the message from the opening weeks of the campaign could hardly be more damning.
As the Guardian's Jonathan Wilson puts it in the Soccer Desk newsletter: "The sense had been that this season couldn't be as bad as the last two for Spurs. There is no Europe to distract them. The injury crises couldn't be as bad again. De Zerbi has proved his worth in the Premier League before. They have spent money. And yet this is as bad as it's ever been."
An undercooked start
Spurs' campaign unravelled almost immediately. On the opening weekend at Brentford, a team that was clearly undercooked were hammered 3-0 by far better-prepared opponents — not surprising given how sensible Brentford's transfer dealing had been and how early they had done it. More worrying still was what followed: Spurs started well before fading in a 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle.
Goalless draws against Nottingham Forest and Everton appeared to steady the ship. The biggest problem, it seemed, was confidence — the side tentative in possession and indecisive when chances arrived. Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Aston Villa at least lifted Spurs above Coventry to second-bottom of the goal-scoring charts, and they rank ninth for shots, a statistical quirk that should prompt frustration rather than panic.
Defensive collapses at Villa Park
But deeper concerns emerged from the Villa game, where the lack of confidence in front of goal curdled into something worse — a more general mental degeneration. Just before half-time, with Micky van de Ven off the pitch receiving treatment, Andy Robertson gifted possession to John McGinn while preventing the ball running out for a corner. A cut-back, a scuffed shot, and Johan Manzambi was unmarked in the six-yard box to score.
The second concession was just as bad: a long punt not dealt with, Nicolas Jackson bringing the ball down, Van de Ven not getting tight enough, and a shot bouncing in off Antonin Kinsky's hand. The third, whipped brilliantly into the top corner by Emi Buendía, came after James Maddison — who had been marking João Gomes — failed to close him down. Maddison might have been more aggressive, but this was at least as much a failure of structure.
There was, to an extent, misfortune. Robertson might have cleared the ball for a throw-in; Boubacar Kamara's mishit cross could have gone anywhere; Jackson will not always be so deft in taking down a chest-high ball; Buendía will not always pick out the top corner. But each goal followed some sort of error, and the Premier League is full of high-class players who will take advantage of any slip.
'Too fragile'
De Zerbi has spoken of Spurs being "too fragile" — physically and mentally. Players are returning from injury, several arrivals came late, and preseasons have been curtailed, perhaps inadequately. Where the initial instinct was to be impressed by the numbers and the change of policy, doubts are now emerging about the nature of those summer signings.
Is Sandro Tonali really worth £100m? Mateus Fernandes played for a relegated side. Jan Paul van Hecke wouldn't be the first player to leave Brighton and find his level dip outside that precisely configured environment. Sávio and Omar Marmoush struggled to get into the team at Manchester City — Sávio's finishing brought just two league goals in two seasons at City, and the evidence of Saturday suggests it has not improved.
Once, a club of Tottenham's stature could have dismissed this as a blip. After the last two seasons, nobody can be that confident again. Relegation remains implausible, and another survival fight unlikely, but those preseason thoughts of European qualification are already beginning to look bafflingly optimistic — and that will inevitably slow the rebuilding of the club.