Thomas Frank had called the task at Tottenham akin to turning around a supertanker. Instead, Spurs almost sank. Roberto De Zerbi just about kept them afloat in the Premier League. The non-executive chairman Peter Charrington was nonetheless compelled to write an open letter to supporters saying their last two league finishes were “not acceptable”. He didn’t mean the fourth place they occupied at the end of the Champions League’s league phase.
Seventeenth again, ole, ole? Spurs could celebrate survival on Sunday whereas, with the bottom three distanced last season, their finishing position felt academic. That could have been called a one-off – and did seem to be when Frank’s team were among the early-season pacesetters – whereas now the first target could be summed up in two words: never again.
