Yes, relegation is now a very real possibility for Tottenham | Jonathan Wilson

Tottenham Hotspur’s descent from title hopefuls to genuine relegation candidates has been swift, stark and, according to those who study the club most closely, almost entirely self-inflicted. A week that began with head coach Igor Tudor promising fight ended with the Croatian sounding broken, the 2-1 defeat at Fulham on Saturday extending Spurs’ winless league run to ten matches and their sequence of losses to four in a row. With ten fixtures remaining, the north London side sit only four points above the drop zone, a margin that no longer feels comfortable in the most volatile lower-third the Premier League has seen for years.

Tudor, hired as a specialist firefighter, arrived with a reputation for reviving stricken teams, yet his post-match demeanour at Craven Cottage was that of a man watching the roof cave in. He dismissed tactical questions with a wave, instead cataloguing fundamental flaws: an attack short on quality, a midfield that “cannot run”, a back line unwilling to “suffer” for clean sheets, and a collective game intelligence he bluntly labelled “no brain”. The bluntness echoed Antonio Conte’s infamous March 2023 diatribe after a 3-3 draw with Southampton, a press-conference rant that ended with the Italian leaving the club eight days later. Parallels are already being drawn.

Numbers underline the crisis. Since beating Everton in late October, Tottenham have taken 12 points from 19 league matches, a tally better only than the current bottom two. Their last victory came on 2 February; since then they have collected one point and scored more than once in a single game only once. Relegation form is no longer a statistical quirk—it is their lived reality.

Injuries have shredded the squad. Djed Spence, Destiny Udogie, Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Wilson Odobert are all unavailable; Cristian Romero is banned for four matches after his red card against Manchester United. Dominic Solanke and Radu Drăgușin have only recently returned from lengthy lay-offs. Last season offered a warning when a similar spate of casualties undermined Ange Postecoglou’s early momentum; the club failed to build the depth required and is paying for it.

Structural issues pre-date the medical bulletin. A decade ago Mauricio Pochettino’s young team chased Leicester to the summit; the core was allowed to age without strategic renewal, partly because stadium costs restricted spending, partly because Tottenham feared the stigma of being a selling club. When money was finally invested, recruitment proved erratic. No Premier League outfit operated a lower wages-to-turnover ratio last season, evidence of an austerity that has left the squad lopsided—part undeveloped prodigies, part plateaued veterans.

The managerial carousel has compounded the confusion. Since 2019, Tottenham have employed José Mourinho, Nuno Espírito Santo, Conte, Postecoglou, Thomas Frank and now Tudor, each bringing sharply divergent philosophies. The result is a squad assembled in the image of no single vision, ill-suited to the high-wire survival act now required.

Around them, the league has tightened. Last season’s promoted clubs were cast adrift by March; this year at least two of the newcomers have proved obdurate, squeezing the escape lanes. Five points worse off than after 28 games last season, Spurs no longer have the luxury of a stranded bottom three to cushion them.

Relegation would carry a financial sting—the Europa League holders would sacrifice broadcast revenue, commercial deals and the prestige of their £1 billion stadium—but the reputational damage would cut deeper. A drop to the Championship would eclipse the 1977 relegation that shocked the club’s support and rival the seismic fall of Manchester United in 1974. Modern football, with its billionaire owners, global fanbases and elite facilities, is not constructed for a giant to slip through the trapdoor.

Tudor still has ten matches to conjure the escape that once looked routine for a coach of his survival pedigree. Yet the tone of his latest briefing suggested a man who has recognised the limits of his own alchemy. Unless Tottenham’s absentees return quickly, unless the squad discovers the resilience its coach accuses it of lacking, and unless the club’s decision-makers finally confront the malaise years in the making, the unthinkable is edging toward inevitable.

Tottenham may actually go down.