Heading into this season, expectations of Tottenham Hotspur were high. After all, the club had just come off a run to the Champions League final and had just added two more seemingly important pieces to their roster in Tanguy Ndombele and Ryan Sessegnon. Although I as well as many others consider Tottenham to have overpaid for both, the two signings were nevertheless expected to bolster the North London club's attempt to win their first Champions League title ever or at the very least their first domestic league title since 1961.
However, to say that this season has not gone according to plan for Tottenham would be an understatement. In the first leg of their round of 16 Champions League tie against RB Leipzig, Tottenham succumbed to a 1-0 loss which has left them facing a possible early exit from the tournament. Timo Werner's penalty scored in the 58th minute ensured that the Saxony club will begin the second leg in Germany with a one-goal advantage.
This season has been one of underachievement for Tottenham. They are currently seventh in the Premier League and are on pace to finish the current league campaign with 54 points. This would represent their worst league season since the 2008-09 season. Tottenham have also been knocked out of both domestic cups and, as has been mentioned, are likely to be eliminated from the Champions League in the round of 16. Not even the replacement of Mauricio Pochettino with José Mourinho as the club's head coach was able to cause them to start moving in the right direction. The mid-season departure of Christian Eriksen to Inter Milan certainly did not help, either.
One clear problem which has plagued Tottenham throughout this season has been their over-reliance on Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. The duo have been far and away the club's best players this season. They have combined for just under 48% of all of Tottenham's goals scored this season. Son in particular deserves much credit not only for his performance this season, but also for the fact that he has made "the leap" from being just a solid complementary piece to a genuine superstar-level player and clearly the best player from Asia today. However, the fact that these two players shoulder such a burden causes the team to suffer acutely if one or both of them were to be injured or have a poor game. For that matter, Kane is currently suffering from a hamstring injury; he is only expected to return in April. The negative effect on the team's performance has been apparent; Tottenham have definitely struggled in the absence of their star centre-forward.
Tottenham have also fared poorly in the transfer market. In the previous off-season, they spent a total of £90 million to sign Ndombele, Sessegnon, and Jack Clarke. This has clearly proven to be excessive and ill-advised - none have lived up to their price tags. Sessegnon has been particularly disappointing. The losses of Kieran Trippier to Atlético Madrid and subsequently Eriksen to Inter in the mid-season transfer window have also hampered the squad's depth and quality. That being said, however, Tottenham did make an underrated pickup by signing Steven Bergwijn from Ajax. The Amsterdam-born winger is off to a strong start for his new club.
The expectations imposed by last season's run to the Champions League final may also have played a role in Tottenham's struggles this season. This is a team which had never before experienced such expectations and the accompanying pressure. Thus, it should not come as much of a surprise that they have crumbled under the pressure all season long. Several Tottenham players have obviously declined this season with the likes of Harry Winks, Davinson Sánchez, and Moussa Sissoko among them.
Tottenham's poor season could very well cause them to enter a worst-case scenario in the coming off-season. They face the prospect of losing Kane, Son, or perhaps both to better clubs which will be perennial domestic league and Champions League contenders. Should one or both leave, it could be a long time before Tottenham are ever considered a top club ever again. Just like their London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea, Tottenham are a club at risk of becoming irrelevant.
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