{"id":518970,"date":"2026-03-06T21:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/518970\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T21:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:32:10","slug":"the-night-tottenham-died-how-spurs-fans-feel-as-threat-of-relegation-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/518970\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The night Tottenham died\u2019 \u2013 How Spurs fans feel as threat of relegation grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s home defeat to Crystal Palace on Thursday evening left the club teetering on the precipice.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s results have left Spurs just one point above the Premier League\u2019s relegation zone with nine matches to play. Having not won a league match in 2026, and just two since the end of October, momentum is clearly not in their favour.<\/p>\n

Months of woeful performances have left fans disconsolate and fearing the worst. The Athletic spoke to some who attended last night\u2019s match to gauge the mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like watching an elderly relative pass away\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking up to the ground, I thought that it actually felt like a decent atmosphere. There were songs outside. I was a little bit late, so I don\u2019t know what it was like on the concourses before the game, but walking up, it seemed pretty full, people were singing, and there were no protests outside the ground, which you\u2019ve seen a fair bit in the past few months.<\/p>\n

Getting in, the people around me were nervous. As the game started, the fans were definitely behind the team and there was plenty of noise. But I just think, teams like Newcastle have had six corners in every home game by the time the fans have sat in their seats. Everybody is up, you can tell they\u2019re on it.<\/p>\n

Palace came to Tottenham and nearly scored after 52 seconds. We barely touched the ball for 10 minutes and you could see slowly, again, that nothing had changed.<\/p>\n

The Arsenal and Fulham games were both bad, but this was (Igor Tudor\u2019s) first home game against someone we should really be beating or taking the game to, and nothing had changed. So I was already getting frustrated. Then we scored, and for two minutes, you\u2019re like, OK, maybe everything\u2019s going to be alright.<\/p>\n

But before you know it, we\u2019re 2-1 down. I\u2019ve watched us win two home (Premier League) games all season, I think four in nearly 30 Premier League home games.<\/p>\n

And I just couldn\u2019t do it again. When Strand Larsen scored the second, I turned to my mate and said I\u2019m sitting in the car.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n (Shaun Brooks\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

I take my mate, David, and my dad and his mate, who sit somewhere else, and as I got out my phone to text my dad to say I\u2019m going to sit in the car, my dad text me saying: \u201cI\u2019m going, so is Malcolm\u201d. So we all left.<\/p>\n

I thought to myself, walking down the stairs, \u2018What happens if we win this?\u2019. I\u2019d have been so pleased that we turned it around and won, but by the time we got to the bottom of the stairs, it was 3-1.<\/p>\n

I just knew it wasn\u2019t coming and I\u2019m just so sad \u2014 that\u2019s the word \u2014 and I\u2019ve had enough of watching us lose. I love this football club so much, too much, and it\u2019s depressing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like watching an elderly relative pass away. And yeah, in those circumstances I\u2019d be by their side \u2014 I\u2019ve done it \u2014 but I wanted to be by Tottenham\u2019s side last night, but they had to show me something, and they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of fans, I move my work schedule and my life around to watch this football club. And I know I should be there supporting the team, but I don\u2019t know if I have the fight in me because I don\u2019t see anything coming back.<\/p>\n

There are so many people to blame. I\u2019m so tired of shouting at everybody and blaming everyone. I\u2019m desperate for them to stay up. I kind of felt yesterday before the game that it was on us, the fans, \u201clet\u2019s get them over the line\u201d. But it\u2019s not on us, really. It\u2019s on them and I\u2019m seeing nothing in return. And so the very short answer is the reason I left was that I can\u2019t do it anymore. I can\u2019t watch them lose. It is just so sad.<\/p>\n

Jonny Blain, Echo of Glory podcast<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so little for fans to believe in right now\u201d<\/p>\n

I stayed until the end of the game, as did most of the people around me, but mainly out of a sense of obligation.<\/p>\n

The decision-makers at the club are getting exactly what they deserve right now; it\u2019s just a shame the paying fans also have to suffer even more.<\/p>\n

The most painful thing is watching this team and knowing there are players out there who have been giving us less than 100 per cent for so long. For over a year, we\u2019ve seen this team go through the motions in Premier League matches and then suddenly turn up for European games.<\/p>\n

If the team were bad but giving everything, it would be far, far easier to rally behind them, but the reality is, although some of them are nowhere near as good as they seem to think they are, we should still be better than this.<\/p>\n

Some of these players don\u2019t seem to care enough about the club or the fans. I suspect there are some who think they\u2019ll just get a nice move in the summer and get on with the rest of their careers.<\/p>\n

There are bigger problems at the club than the players out on the pitch, but they are the ones who have the opportunity to at least stave off this looming threat of relegation. Some of them \u2014 senior players who should be setting standards \u2014 just don\u2019t look motivated.<\/p>\n

There is so little for fans to cling to or believe in right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our only hope is the younger players, such as Archie Gray and Mathys Tel, somehow digging us out of trouble, but it feels like a big, big ask.<\/p>\n

Alan Wallace, season ticket holder<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n (Harry Murphy\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night felt like the night Tottenham died\u201d<\/p>\n

It was quite an odd atmosphere last night. At the beginning, it really felt like the crowd were trying to get behind the team and the atmosphere was quite good.<\/p>\n

Both Thomas Frank and Tudor have used ship metaphors in recent times, and last night felt like the moment the iceberg was hit. Of course, our captain, for the second time in recent games, abandoned ship (when Micky van de Ven was sent off late in the first half) and what transpired was like seeing the team you love die in front of your eyes. The five-minute spell from the penalty onwards felt terminal and any hope that we would survive this season, let alone this game, almost disappeared completely.<\/p>\n

It was like the conclusion was drawn from the second the penalty incident happened, so I felt no point in staying. I don\u2019t feel guilty for abandoning the team as a fan in this instance because we\u2019ve been abandoned by our owners year after year.<\/p>\n

Last night felt like the night Tottenham died.<\/p>\n

Billie Thorp, The Whistle Blows YouTube channel<\/p>\n

\u201cA true supporter has got to stay with a team, but it is painful\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Spurs supporter and have been for almost 50 years now. I\u2019ve never seen it so bad at Tottenham.<\/p>\n

I was at the game last night and I contemplated leaving at half-time. A true supporter has to stay with a team, but it is painful. What we\u2019re seeing at the stadium right now is really depressing.<\/p>\n

Who do I blame? It would start from Daniel Levy, but Daniel Levy is gone. The problem with Spurs is that we just do not pay enough money to or for players, so we\u2019ve been shopping at the bargain basement.<\/p>\n

But there are problems elsewhere. The players all seem to have a big ego or think they are better than they are.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re watching is terrible: No creativity, no courage, no fight. The goalkeeper is absolutely shocking and never comes out for a cross, and the defenders cannot stay on the field \u2014 either they\u2019re injured or they get sent off. I don\u2019t know what the midfield does and even the strikers seem too scared to move forward now. The midfield yesterday was all on Archie Gray\u2019s shoulders. He was the best player yesterday and he\u2019s only 19. We have to hope that we survive on the back of a 19-year-old\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

I am sick and tired, and I\u2019m contemplating not even renewing my season ticket. That\u2019s how bad it is. I hope things get better if we do get relegated, which I suspect we might, the way we\u2019re going. That could be it for me with Spurs.<\/p>\n

Ade Joseph, season ticket holder<\/p>\n

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\n (Shaun Brooks\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere is too toxic\u201d<\/p>\n

I left on 77 minutes, basically because I couldn\u2019t see us getting back into the game and the atmosphere is too toxic at the moment. I didn\u2019t actually take my children last night because I knew the atmosphere was going to be quite vile and I just don\u2019t want to expose them to that. I only went because I\u2019ve got a season ticket.<\/p>\n

The frustration that the fans are feeling\u2026 they can only sort of vent their frustration by screaming and shouting. And it\u2019s just angry faces, the language is choice. It\u2019s not a good place to be for adults, let alone children. And as long as the atmosphere remains that vile, I won\u2019t be taking the kids again.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been going for years; normally, it\u2019s a pretty good atmosphere. But the minute something goes wrong, the crowd turns instantly and I just don\u2019t wanna expose them to that kind of behaviour and atmosphere at the moment.<\/p>\n

Tony Parsons, season ticket-holder<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed at which this has happened is difficult to comprehend\u201d<\/p>\n

I was quite confident before the game, not based on much more than the thought that you probably can\u2019t just lose every game forever, so we\u2019d have to win eventually. Palace didn\u2019t need a win as much as we did and I hoped we could play on that and be aggressive and get the result we needed. That quickly dissipated when I saw how negatively we were set up and then chose to play.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere around me was pretty good \u2014 everyone around me was behind the team, there wasn\u2019t any booing, there was limited frustration, but the way we played didn\u2019t lend itself to getting the fans really up and at them. Being on the back foot in a game like that at home was disappointing \u2014 we were all probably hoping for more of a front-footed performance that you could really get behind.<\/p>\n

I left in stoppage time at the end of the game. I go with my dad and a few mates and none of us really thought about leaving earlier.<\/p>\n

I just have a profound feeling of sadness right now. Giving up that buffer we had on the teams in the relegation zone has really sharpened the focus in terms of what could happen and how bad it really is.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve lost games relatively consistently for two and a half years now, so maybe we should have seen this coming, but the speed at which this has happened is just something that is difficult to comprehend. Even in our wildest joking nightmares of \u2018we could go down\u2019 in January, I didn\u2019t actually think it would happen; I just thought it could be a problem next year if we didn\u2019t sort ourselves out.<\/p>\n

I feel completely let down by those who claim to be custodians of this club. It would be great if we could find a way to get rid of these people, but unless we\u2019ve got \u00a34billion down the back of the sofa, that\u2019s going to be difficult.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had discussions with friends about feeling betrayed and if you go down, can you ever feel the same about the club again? I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to feel if it happens. I hope we all live 50 more years and we can look back on it as just a blot. We got relegated in the 70s, then four years later we won the FA Cup, and three years after that we won the UEFA Cup, so I\u2019m clinging to that as a possibility, but that might just be copium.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to feel incredibly bleak about the way things are going.<\/p>\n

Adam Nathan, season ticket holder<\/p>\n

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