The mismanagement of Tottenham Hotspur ought to be studied for years to come, irrespective if they escape relegation under an overpromoted new manager…

The Mailbox is reacting to the news that Roberto De Zerbi is likely to come in at Spurs on a five-year contract.

Send your thoughts on the shambles unfolding in north London, or on any other matter, to [email protected]…

How has it come to this?
Yesterday, to feel a modicum of joy for Spurs again for the first time in ages, I watched back the clip of the whole stadium singing ‘I’m loving Big Ange instead’ after the win over United, during that glorious first 10 game unbeaten run, which had Spurs playing exciting, attacking football again. Finally we had a manager who matched our identity, an exciting group of players, and unity between the team, the fans and even seemingly the boardroom.

Two tumultuous seasons followed… but they ended in an open top bus tour less than 12 months ago, as Spurs finally broke the ‘Spursy’ trophy curse, and won the Europa League. Less than 12 months ago.

How have we fallen so far, so soon?

Since that moment, and maybe even before, Spurs have strung together disaster after disaster.
Our often maligned ex-Chairman Daniel Levy was axed in the summer after a 20 year stint where he turned the club from mid table also-rans, into top 6 contenders who play in the best stadium, train in the best training grounds, have often had some of the world’s best players like Kane, Son and Bale, are one of the wealthiest clubs in the world. Yes, he was miserly, and warranted plenty of critique along the way… but compared to the absolutely inept management that have taken his place, I am crying out for the Levy era.

Our new ‘ownership’ who’ve taken the reins from Levy: The US based sons and daughters of 88 year old billionaire Joe Lewis, and their partners, who have a background in real estate, not football. No connection to the premier league, or Sports, as far as we’re aware. But yes, they’ve inherited the 9th richest club in the world. And nosedived it in less than a year.

Football Director: Johan Lange, known best for his stint at Villa where he steered them towards relegation, before Unai Emery could turn the ship around.

CEO, and main culprit in my opinion, Vinai Venkatesham. His previous role: CEO at Arsenal, and at this point, I’m genuinely convinced he’s an Arsenal double agent. No way any executive could torpedo a big team as quickly as Vinai. If it turns out he’s been an Arsenal agent all this time, with the goal of ruining Spurs, he’s done an impeccable job.

If we call the sacking of Ange the first mistake, and the ousting of Levy the second, let’s look at the most recent:

1. Sticking with Thomas Frank far, far too long. He should’ve been gone after Arsenal or Chelsea in December when we were cowardly. If not, losing to West Ham at home in January should’ve been the final straw. Another 6 crucial, winless weeks past instead, and we end up floundering.

2. Hiring Tudor. I’ve no issue with Tudor, and I admire his bravery in jumping on a sinking ship (and I send my condolences for his recent loss), but he simply wasn’t the man for the job. A Spurs team bankrupt in terms of confidence and positivity – a no-nonsense ‘seargent major’ wasn’t what this group needed. Evidently, as a 7 game winless streak in the premier league suggests.

3. And now, almost certainly, the final, perfect F*** up for Vinai and our new Spurs leadership: Hiring Roberto De Zerbi.

Spurs are on the edge of absolute disaster, where I honestly believe the only thing that can save them is good vibes. Someone (like an Ange!) who knows the club, has the respect of the players, and is capable of motivating a group. Forget tactics, we’re past that.

Instead? A panic option. Put a blank cheque in front of one of the most miserable, volatile coaches in Europe, famous for falling out with every team he’s ever coached.

At the time of writing, RDZ is apparently holding them over a barrel (and why wouldn’t he?). He knows Spurs are desperate, so he’s squeezing them for a guaranteed £10-15mil a year (second highest in the league after Pep) and a 5 YEAR CONTRACT. This man has never coached more than 91 games AT ANY CLUB, and yet we’ll give him 5 years? Shameful.

Why any club would BEG the poor man’s Antonio Conte like this is incredible. What’s on his CV or track record that warrants this fawning? If Spurs leadership had any sense, and a morsel of humility, they’d have called Ange, and made the right decision weeks ago. But why should I think that group are capable of any good decisions.

I had slim hope that we’d survive this mess, and Poch would return in the summer and bring some joy back to Spurs. That hope goes up in smoke with De Zerbi (unless his tenure ends with him jumping into the Spurs crowd Paolo Di Canio style before the end of the season – not impossible).

The mismanagement of Tottenham Hotspur will be studied for decades to come.
Andy, Eire, Spurs(?)

MORE: Top 10 issues De Zerbi and Tottenham must instantly address to try and avoid calamity

Everyone falling upwards at Spurs
Not sure I really buy any of this negativity about De Zerbi to Spurs, or indeed that Ben Davies might be a better strategy. In fact, it’s really everyone kind of failing upwards, at least for the next few weeks which ultimately is all that matters for everyone involved.

For Spurs, the clear benefit is someone with an attacking philosophy with the nous to unlock some really underperforming attacking players. There are elements of the out of possession work Spurs have been doing all season under Frank with more direction and verve going forward for it to be at least as intuitive as any other coach could instil and he’s a more positive vibes guy than Tudor for sure. Spurs basically have no good options, but he seems like probably the best (not certain even someone like Alonso would consider there to be the tools to implement his system). De Zerbi has a ton of his own baggage (more on that in a second) and no-one is pretending his stuff is simple or low risk, but it’s probably better than nothing.

For De Zerbi, his reputation as a tactical innovator and influence in the game is at real risk of tarnishing by his managing approach/demeanor, to the point this Spurs team represent almost certainly his last chance at a ‘big’ European job (maybe not Italy, but I don’t know enough about how he’s perceived there) and, if he does keep them up, a ton of cash for doing so plus probably full support from a grateful ownership to reshape the squad how he wants (and this ownership will spend a lot this summer from all accounts to try and fix this disaster of a season). His madcap vibes are clearly neither for everyone or maybe even long term sustainable for a big club, but they might work for at least a while and have a slightly more positive mindset than someone like Tudor.

Everyone is about at as low an ebb as it can go (Spurs can’t get any worse on the pitch, De Zerbi can’t ruin his reputation on something that already looks so forlorn) and there really is at least a reasonable amount of upside (well, not getting relegated).

Or go with Gareth…? Great vibes, simple tactics, might be tempted by a nice stack of cash for a quick revival job?
Tom, Leyton

Relegation isn’t funny
Daveargues that a Tottenham relegation would be ‘hilarious’
He’s far from the only offender. I see the same sentiments all over the socials and youtube.
Perhaps these people forget that not everyone has a happy, comfortable life like them or, presumably, Dave.
There are Premier League supporters all over the world.
And some of them are sick people in pain. Many are people in poverty that Dave and I can’t even imagine. Some fans are people in abusive relationships, or unemployed long-term through no fault of their own, for whom the footy is an escape, and when it goes badly wrong for their team, it hurts. It affects people’s emotional lives in a real way.

I hope Spurs, my team, don’t go down. But I don’t hope that West Ham do just so that I can ridicule everyone I know who supports them. Support your team. Let others support theirs. And banter with your mates, but don’t forget football is not just a banter mine. It’s an escape for millions less fortunate.

Kind regards
Sam

Anyone can manage Spurs but no one wants to
I just wanted to write in and correct something I wrote at the beginning of the year on this mailbox regarding the vacant Spurs job.

Just to recap; me and my best mate have always resolutely believed that we’d do a decent job of managing Spurs – we’re not Tottenham fans (amen to that) but we always saw it as a springboard to something bigger and better when we came up with the notion in the late 1990’s.

Do well at Spurs, then progress to Real Madrid, either Milan giant, Barca or possibly Atleti (Simeone has subsequently stolen our thunder on this one) or maybe Juve or similar.

At the start of 2026 I publicly threw our hat into the ring for Spurs on this very forum – and I cannot help but think that even if we’d have rocked into the training sessions in a clown car wearing blindfolds and getting the entire squad to sing ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ for 8 hours straight, we’d have a vastly superior record to that of one Igor Tudor.

So with our potential future employment very much in the balance and also not wanting to bring unnecessary embarrassment to ourselves; we herby rescind our application for the Spurs job. We are in fact going above them both in class and potential success directly, applying to Ayr United, Forres Mechanics & Accrington Stanley instead.

Yours bullet dodgingly,
Jemes & Chręs

MONDAY MAILBOX: Why is the Ole era at Man Utd deemed a failure? Solskjaer was a success…

All that was wrong with Ole
Moses seems to have some troubles with Amnesia or a selective memory in asking “What was the ‘mistake’ with ole?”, so let me help with that:

2018/19 – winning 2 of the final 9 games, none of the last 5. (Including 1-1 vs Huddersfield and 0-2 vs Cardiff- both already relegated)
Everton 4-0 United
Wolves 2-1 United (FA Cup QF)
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Daniel James, Jadon Sancho, Rafael Varane, Donny Van De Beek, Alex Telles, Odion Ighalo
4 semi-final defeats in a row (3 in 2019/20) – 5 in total during his reign.
Basaksehir 2-0 United
McFred
2019/20 – 16 points from opening 12 games
Losing the Europa League final to Villareal (7th in La Liga)
United 1-2 Sheffield United (bottom of the table)
United 0-2 Burnley
Undying faith in De Gea (who was throwing them in at the time)
2020/21 – Losing 6 games at home & conceding 28 goals in the process
Cristiano Ronaldo
United 1-6 Spurs
United 0-5 Liverpool
Pinning all hope on Paul Pogba
Watford 4-1 United
2021/22 – 17 points from his 12 games (conceding 21 goals).
Yes there were good moments, but once the #vibez disappeared it really wasn’t all that great.
Mark (MUFC)

Toasted bagel
Moses(lots of stuff in brackets I couldn’t be bothered reading!) wrote earlier about the success or otherwise that Solskjaer had at Manu Utd.

Firstly he says that he is ‘1000% Carrick in’. This is of course not possible, just like you can’t give 110%, or that Donny can’t reduce drug prices by 1000%, 3000% or 5000%, or whatever random number he pulls from out of his fat arse.

He than states that he ‘would cautiously accept and only tolerate Enrique or bagelboy until they proved themselves’. Enrique I know, but ‘bagelboy’ I have no f*cking idea who this is meant to be.

Bagels are of Polish-Jewish origin I think, and are of course quite famous foods now in New York and Montreal, But I cannot think of a Polish, US or Canadian candidate being rumoured for the Man Utd job, and I have no idea about, nor give a sh*t about the religion of any of the potential candidates.

So, if you are going to give people childish nicknames, please make it obvious who you are referring to or it renders your message somewhat meaningless and incomplete.
A, LFC, Montreal (bagels suck).

Some thoughts
Not quite 16 conclusions but…

– If you were Harry Maguire and you were told that you were 5th choice and only likely to get playing time if the team was behind and you’d be stuck up front to try and nick a goal, would you be entitled to tell Tuchel to go stick it, considering Maguire is 33 and unlikely to feature internationally again?

– The current Spurs squad is not the worst in the EPL, especially as more injured players return. Is it really the time for a fiery and inflexible Manager like De Zerbi? Was not Amorin and Postecoglou sufficient examples of what NOT to do? Not that Carrick is a Messiah, but maybe Spurs should be looking for someone who can instill some confidence in them to get them over the line? Could Hoddle be the answer? What about Martin O’Neil?

– I’m sorry to break it to you folk but VAR is NEVER going away. There is too much money at stake and statistically it is getting most decisions correct. Instead of trying to push back the tide, why not start lobbying for sensible improvements, e.g. more AI.

– Anyone want to bet that most, if not all the injured Arsenal players will make a miraculous recovery in time for their next fixture?

– I understand the anti-Carrick lobby based on the “vibe” argument, citing how it eventually went pear-shaped under Ole but, the reality is that a significant part of a successful team is confidence and Carrick has turned MUFC around without one new signing. Everyone can see the current weaknesses in the team and regardless of who the new manager will be, much of that will be addressed in the summer. If he makes the Champions League, he has earned his chance.

– Is it time that we start rating Pundits (what you think Football365)? They are all on different channels at different times and frequencies but it feels like my Gran could offer better insight than some of the irregulars. Nothing motivates one more than seeing your name at the bottom of the list.

– Exorbitant prices, ICE at the airports and roaming around games (wait until they come across drunken England fans!), 100 degree heat, water breaks, endless commercials, DJT sticking his nose in everywhere… anyone else NOT looking forward to the World Cup?
Adidasmufc (Maybe it’s time for my vacation to Bali!)