TOTTENHAM.. A CLUB IN DIER STRAITS

Sloppy ON the pitch.. and ill-disciplined OFF it, Spurs now lack direction and energy as their brilliant run in last year’s Champions League seems a distant memory

1 JUNE 2019: Spurs face Liverpool in their first ever Champions League final. Lose 2-0. 5 JUNE 2019: Christian Eriksen (below) confirms he wants to quit Spurs. AUG 2019: Spurs sign only two players in disappointing summer transfer window, Tanguy Ndombele and Ryan Sessegnon, leaving Pochettino unhappy. 25 AUG 2019: Spurs lose 1-0 at home to Newcastle, setting the tone for the start of the season. 24 SEPT 2019: Knocked out of Carabao Cup by League Two Colchester on penalties. 1 OCT 2019: Thrashed 7-2 at home by Bayern Munich in the Champions League in their worst ever European result. 5 OCT 2019: Thumped 3-0 at Brighton. 19 NOV 2019: Mauricio Pochettino (above) sacked after five years, chairman Daniel Levy citing “extremely disappointing” results with the team down in 14th. 20 NOV 2019: Jose Mourinho (below, with Dele Alli) appointed manager. 22 DEC 2019: Beaten 2-0 at home by Chelsea. 1 JAN 2020: Top scorer Harry Kane (left) suffers hamstring injury. Out until April. 28 JAN 2020: Eriksen finally leaves Spurs in a £17million move to Inter and later claims he was treated like a ‘black sheep’ for running down his contract. 16 FEB 2020: Vital striker Heung-min Son (below) breaks arm at Aston Villa. May return before end of the season. 19 FEB 2020: Beaten 1-0 by RB Leipzig in Champions League last 16. 22 FEB 2020: Beaten 2-1 by Chelsea in massive blow to Champions League qualification. 26 FEB 2020: Dele Alli charged with misconduct for posting a video mocking the coronavirus outbreak. 4 MAR 2020: Knocked out of FA Cup at home by rock-bottom Norwich after penalty shootout.

TO lose one England star for off-field misconduct is unfortunate. To lose two begins to look like carelessness for Tottenham Hotspur.

Bans for Dele Alli and Eric Dier would highlight how it has taken only nine months to go from the Champions League final with Mauricio Pochettino, to a club in crisis under Jose Mourinho.

And how their luck and highenergy momentum in the last campaign has run out – perhaps along with an era.

The only upside to Dier’s diversion into the lower West Stand on Wednesday night was that the headline-grabbing incident overshadowed a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions.

Losing at home in the FA Cup to the Premier League’s bottom club ended their last realistic chance of silverware in this troubled season.

And Mourinho claimed after the penalties loss to Norwich that his long injury list will now force him to prioritise between the league and the Champions League in his next two matches.

He has worked slowly to change the culture at a club of traditional underachievers, the decline having started before Pochettino was sacked after only five wins in their first 17 games.

Serial-winner Mourinho was brought in to make the final step from challenging to winning. But instead it has all gone Spursy again very quickly.

The serious injuries to talismen Harry Kane and Heungmin Son have undoubtedly been massive blows.

The influential Christian Eriksen was offloaded in January before his contract expired, while Dier could now join Alli

(right) – who is facing an FA charge for his social media post mocking coronavirus victims – in getting banned for a lack of off-field discipline. Alli is planning to appeal the charge.

But there are also problems on the pitch. Mourinho teams are traditionally built on defensive solidity. In his first season at Chelsea in 2004/05 his Blues side conceded just 15 Premier League goals.

But the Portuguese manager has seen Spurs keep only two clean sheets in 13 home games since he took over in November.

Toby Alderweireld, who signed a new deal in January, was again left out against Norwich, with Jan Vertonghen deployed at leftback. “We had chances to kill the game but we didn’t,” said captain Vertonghen (with Troy Parrott, right). It’s a fact that we don’t keep enough clean sheets, that we concede too many goals.

“It’s not just now, the last week, it’s since the start of the season. Even more than a year ago we started to concede too many goals. It’s a problem we need to solve.”

Mourinho, who has criticised the displays of record summer signing Tanguy Ndombele, also took a shot at Spurs fans this week over calls to play teenage Republic of Ireland striker Troy Parrott. But the Parrott issue is symbolic for Spurs fans raised on those glory days who want to see a proper centre-forward. And they retain their suspicions about Mourinho’s reputation for negative football.

And not replacing Fernando Llorente in the summer or January transfer windows has been another mistake.

Mourinho showed his experience in handling tricky situations by simultaneously admonishing and supporting Dier. Now he must manage his injury-ravaged squad with equal skill against Burnley tomorrow and RB Leipzig next week – and win over the dubious

Spurs supporters.

“I am really sad for the players and the fans, but I am thinking about what happens next and I am worried about playing in two days,” said Mourinho after the Cup exit.

“I have to think about a Saturday match and a Tuesday match and try to decide which one is the priority and which one is the one where I can give some of my boys under fatigue the best possible chance.”

Vertonghen added:

“We have other things to play for. We still have the top four or five, and we still have everything to play for in the Champions

League.

‘‘We feel that we can turn it around.”

DIER MAY HAVE DONE GAME A

FAVOUR – ANDY DUNN PAGE 49