My Five Worst Spurs Moments of 2021

Having already gone over my best moments of the year, which were sparse to choose from, I now turn to the other side of the spectrum to pick out the ones I hated the most. Luckily, I have a plethora of moments to choose from this time.

5. Harry Kane’s Interview with Neville

Two games remain in the season. The team is in a tight race for Europe: four points off top 4, with difficult matches against Villa and Leicester coming up.

And then boom! Your star striker, who was having one of the finest individual seasons in Premier League history, goes golfing with a Sky pundit and publicly speaks of his desire to leave the club and gives himself a price tag of 100 million pounds, which was way below the club's valuation. Very smart.

England’s captain making such a big statement before a crucial part of the season was gobbled up by all media outlets, we became a laughing stock online, and the man who was perceived as the face of Tottenham faced ire from the fanbase. The whole group was unsettled, and undue pressure was put on rookie manager Ryan Mason, and eventually, we lost the game to Villa at home.

Embarrassing behavior from Harry Kane. I’d say Neville too but him being a nuisance doesn’t surprise me.

4. Manager Mayhem

Jose Mourinho’s sacking was the right thing to do.

Our form was nothing short of a joke, we couldn’t string three passes in a row, we were over-reliant on Kane and Son’s individual brilliance, and were out of three competitions already. He had thrown our players under the bus (who have since then improved under Conte) and in general, a very toxic atmosphere had been created, a stark contrast from December when we were on top and had got some results against City, Chelsea, and Arsenal.

What the wrong thing was though, was to sack him a few days before a cup final. For all his faults, he was the only one at that time who had out-tacticed Pep in a cup final and knew how to give the mental boost to the players ahead of a final. He had already beaten City twice in his tenure, and I feel it was unfair to give him his marching orders before such a big occasion. Although he was bad, he would have certainly done better than Mason.

And what was even worse was not having a proper replacement strategy at all. Levy tried to go for Naggelsman, which was ambitious but not realistic. Further rejections of and by Potter, ten Hag, Rodgers, Conte, Gattuso, and Fonseca showed incompetence of the highest level. Two whole months of no manager really hurt our transfer strategy and other aspects. It was truly astonishing how a Premier League Club could be so indecisive.

3. ESL Debacle

The European Super League was a concept which, if it came to fruition, could have changed the fabric of football as we know it today. It was a blatant attempt to make a cash grab of the beautiful game and commercialize it to embarrassing levels. It would have been a death knell for lower leagues and teams, as well as the local fans.

It was an embarrassing day for football in general, but as a Spurs fan, it hurt even more. We had been a club that had been an anti-thesis of state-owned and billionaire-backed clubs, very much in contrast to our fellow Top 6 peers. Our growth had always been sustainable, and fans were cared about. To see us be a part of the group of these out of touch elitists was a damn shame.

To add to this, I was quite disappointed to see no reactions or any stand taken from our own players. We saw some players of other clubs who were involved in this mess speak out, but there wasn’t any peep from any of our players. And to add to this, instead of facing the music, Levy threw Ryan Mason for the wolves, who had to face the press who had to answer questions about a topic he had nothing to do with.

2. September-October: Two Months of Hell\

Our start to the season when we were on top of the table was very unsustainable. We weren’t creating any chances, getting lucky in defence, and in general, getting out played by the opposition. Now I am not here to put any blame on Nuno or the players: that’s a whole different topic. The thing was that we were playing absolute crap, and the team had regressed massively. We didn’t look anything close to a top 10 team, and the underlying numbers were relegation-level.

It all culminated into one of the darkest periods of the club in recent history: Initially, it was a series of three shameful defeats against Crystal Palace, Chelsea, and Arsenal where we were blown out of the park, conceding 3 goals on each occasion. Even in the Conference League, we struggled to get results against Vitesse and Rennes. Wins against Villa and Newcastle hardly papered over the cracks as we soon lost to West Ham. The final straw was a 3-0 loss at home to an out of sorts Manchester United, before Nuno was finally shown the door.

This was truly a low point for the club. From being Champions League regulars and finalists just a couple of years ago to this was depressing. Luckily, we seem to have turned a corner with Conte coming in, and hopefully, we can build on this.

1. Zagreb

Where do I even begin with this?

You all know what happened. It was the most Spurs thing to happen. We were 2-0 up in the first leg. Their manager got arrested that week. We lost 3-0 in the second leg. Aurier and Sissoko played very badly. I had slept because I had to study for an exam the next day and thought it would be easy. I was wrong. I hoped for common sense to prevail while being a Spurs fan. I was an idiot.

You all know everything. Just look it up at this point. I do not want to think about this. I want to be happy.

What was your worst moment of supporting Spurs in 2021?