Tottenham’s Champions League trip to Atletico Madrid highlights their dramatic fall from European finalists to a club battling Premier League relegation.
TOTTENHAM Hotspur’s Champions League last-16 first leg at Atletico Madrid on Tuesday will serve as a painful reminder of their dramatic decline.
The club languishes 16th in the Premier League, just one point above the relegation zone after a shambolic 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace. They have lost five consecutive league games and are without a win in 11, conceding two or more goals in nine straight matches for the first time in their history.
Their trip to the Metropolitano Stadium, where they lost the 2019 Champions League final to Liverpool, underscores how far they have fallen. That Mauricio Pochettino-led side, featuring Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, was seen as an emerging force before a slow decline began with his sacking months later.
The match also recalls a more glorious past, having thrashed Atletico 5-1 in the 1963 European Cup Winners’ Cup final. That kind of dominance has been a distant memory for decades, with the club now labelled English football’s serial underachievers.
Massive investment in a state-of-the-art stadium and training centre gives an appearance of power, but turmoil over the last 18 months reveals their diminished status. Even winning the Europa League last season to end a 17-year trophy drought has not dispelled a stench of failure.
Ange Postecoglou was sacked after that Europa win due to dismal domestic form, including a 17th-place finish. His replacement, the pragmatic Thomas Frank, was a disastrous choice and was dismissed on February 11 after alienating fans and players with a dour style.
Interim boss Igor Tudor has lost his first three matches, failing to spark a revival. With nine games left to save themselves from a first relegation since 1978, panic is setting in among an injury-ravaged squad.
Striker Dominic Solanke revealed the players held talks with Tudor after the Palace defeat. “We’ve had a chat between us and we need to understand we need to improve and improve now,” he said.
“We obviously need to realise the position that we are in. Us players need to take responsibility. We need to make sure next game we are at it and see what we can do to change this form around.”
