"The shell is a fancy Ritz hotel, the inside is a convenience store three-minute meal!" Since Son Heung-min, who symbolized the team, left, what remains at Tottenham is only a record of humiliating defeats and bloated commercialism.
Tim Spears, a reporter for sports outlet The Athletic, dissected the dreadful reality Tottenham currently faces piece by piece in a column on the 30th (Korean time). He criticized, "Tottenham is no longer a football club."
Tottenham confirmed the parting by mutual agreement with coach Igor Tudor in an official club announcement. It was 43 days after his appointment and only seven matches. It was an extreme choice: the second managerial change during the season.
Results explain everything. Under the Tudor regime, Tottenham managed only one win. Far from rebounding, they failed to stop the fall.
The only win was against Atlético Madrid, but its meaning was diminished after elimination from the Champions League round of 16 by an aggregate score of 5-7. League form is worse. They are currently 17th, one point above the relegation zone. They are effectively in the middle of a survival fight.
The final match against Nottingham Forest was the knockout blow. A 0-3 home defeat. Performance, focus and organization all collapsed. The 90 minutes that ended amid the fans' jeers signaled there was no longer any possibility of a comeback.
Spears likened Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to London's former Millennium Dome. The exterior is futuristic and colossal, but the substance to fill it is empty.
In recent years Tottenham has been obsessed with 'brand management' — stadium development, attracting NFL games, hosting global concerts — and has seriously neglected its core business, football.
Even senior club executives have admitted, "We did not focus enough on football itself." Tottenham is now just a 'brand' and an 'event company,' having lost its identity as a football team that must win.
Especially after Son Heung-min, the team's mental pillar, left, locker room discipline collapsed and the break with fans reached an irreversible point.
Igor Tudor packed his bags 44 days after taking the job. But Spears made clear, "This is not Tudor's fault alone."
Tudor's leadership was problematic for imposing excessive tactics and formations on an undisciplined locker room and ruining a promising goalkeeper's career, but the criticism is that the executives who appointed such a coach on Feb. 14 showed 'comedy' in their judgment.
Since the start of last season Tottenham has recorded a staggering 46 defeats in all competitions. Compared with north London rival Arsenal, which has allowed only 13 defeats in the same period and is soaring, Tottenham's record is even more miserable.
They earn the ninth most money in the world, but their performance has sunk to the level of "fast food heated in a microwave in a Ritz hotel," a metaphor that struck a chord with local fans.
An absurd episode was also revealed. Ryan Norris, the club's chief revenue officer, had planned to give a talk in the U.S. about how Tottenham had become a "cultural powerhouse."
But the comedy of a football team fighting relegation boasting of being a cultural powerhouse led to the talk being canceled. Spears sneered, "Canceling the talk was one of the few correct decisions the club has made recently."
Since Daniel Levy stepped down, Tottenham has drifted further. Levy's spirit remains, but his leadership and experience are gone.
The transfer policy is still a mess. None of the club's 10 most expensive signings in history have grown into true stars, nor have they been sold for a profit. Veteran fans fed up with season ticket prices over 1,000 pounds are already leaving the stadium.
CEO Vinai Venkatesham recently cited 'a lack of focus on football results,' 'a lack of expertise' and 'internal cultural reform' as areas needing improvement.
It is an admission that essentially everything required of a football club has been broken. The players lack individuality, and in a home stadium devoid of intimidation they have handed over points one after another to Bournemouth, Newcastle and West Ham.
The 'one team' image led by Son Heung-min is nowhere to be seen, and they are now in a position of worrying about relegation and needing to find a 'firefighter coach.' Spears wrote, "If Tottenham were relegated it would be a disaster, but no one could say they did not deserve it," delivering a cutting rebuke.
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