An extraordinary Tottenham capitulation was stunning to witness but also felt like an unsurprising consequence of years of disastrous mismanagement from the top down.
Of all Spurs' lows since the 2019 Champions League final, a 6-1 defeat to Newcastle at St. James' Park was surely the nadir, effectively ending their top-four hopes and likely Cristian Stellini's disastrous interregnum.
The acting head coach looked shell-shocked as his side produced one of the worst opening 21 minutes in the history of the Premier League, conceding five times to a supposed rival in the most shambolic fashion.
Stellini will have to take a share of the blame, and cannot possibly see out the season from here, and several of his players - from World Cup winners Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero to new signing Pedro Porro and sacrificial lamb Pape Matar Sarr - were embarrassing.
Yet the lion's share of the blame for this humiliation rests with chairman Daniel Levy and the board, and - again - the game felt in many respects like a logical culmination of their catalogue of misjudgements.
Spurs are a club without a manager or sporting director, and completely lacking in a culture, direction or joined-up thinking.
Who would want to fill either role, given the state of the club? If Julian Nagelsmann, among the club's targets to permanently replace Antonio Conte, was watching, he might rethink being open to an offer from Spurs.
It only makes it worse for supporters that their choice, Mauricio Pochettino, was available and open to returning to the club, but is now on the verge of joining rivals Chelsea.
Levy's latest error was putting Conte's assistant in charge after sacking the Italian last month and unsurprisingly, Stellini, whose previously managerial experience amounted to a handful of games in the Serie C, has been woefully out of his depth.
In the wake of last weekend's calamitous 3-2 defeat to Bournemouth, he ripped up Conte's 3-4-3 system and switched to an attacking 4-3-3 on Tyneside, with Pedro Porro and Ivan Perisic at full-back and Cristian Romero and Eric Dier, both untested in a back four at club level, paired at centre-half.
The result was the worst start by any Premier League club, ever.
After barely a minute, Joelinton waltzed past three Spurs players and forced a save from Lloris, with Jacob Murphy firing home the rebound. The Toon pair both scored again within 10 minutes, and Aleksander Isak scored twice.
Aside from Murphy's second, a spectacular long-range effort, the Magpies first-half goals were remarkably easy for the hosts. Spurs looked like a side who both had no desire to play the new system and had not been coached how to, either. They were all at sea.
Sarr was hooked after 22 minutes for Davinson Sanchez, and Spurs reverted back to Conte's 3-4-3, essentially an exercise in damage limitation after less than a quarter of the match.
It hardly mattered that they improved slightly after the break, after Lloris had been withdrawn for Fraser Froster, supposedly due to injury, with Harry Kane pulling a goal back.
Substitute Callum Wilson restored Newcastle's five-goal cushion to make this a worse result than the final day of the 2015-16 season. It was easy to feel a little sorry for Stellini, who is a decent man, and the collapse went beyond his formation and personnel on the day.
This is what happens when players are given excuses to down tools, a consequence of a club without a clear identity, structure or plan, who have arrogantly and carelessly tried to muddle through at every turn.
As the away end sang for Levy to “get out of our club”, the chairman should reflect on the decisions that led Spurs to this dismal low.
It could yet get even worse, with Manchester United lying in wait on Thursday night and a trip to Liverpool to come next Sunday.
Short-term Levy cannot risk another display like this one, and must now rapidly accelerate the hunt for a permanent manager or find another interim to complete the campaign. What a mess.
