ARNHEM BARNUM

Nuno’s clowns embarrassed as Wittek strikes

HEROES from Arnhem 1, clowns from Barnum 0.

In a city famous for Allied troops’ courageous sacrifices to take a strategic crossing over the Rhine in 1944, Tottenham found 11 changes a bridge too far in the Gelredome.

And as Spurs slumped to third in Group G, boss Nuno Espirito Santo had only himself to blame as his plans for the European Conference League circus backfired horribly.

Tottenham made a mess of it in Europe last term when they came a cropper against Dinamo Zagreb, now they may regret Maximilian Wittek’s crisp strike from Eli Dasa’s 78th-minute cross.

One of Vitesse’s adopted club anthems is Status Quo’s ‘Whatever You Want’. To reflect 13 years without a trophy, perhaps Tottenham are better suited to another Quo classic – Rotten All Over the World.

Spurs legend Glenn Hoddle said: “It’s a very, very poor performance. The attitude was wrong, they have to look at themselves in the mirror.

“There are Spurs fans who have travelled across here, they deserve better. There was a lack of ability and no creativity.

“Sometimes you can say there was no desire or mental approach to the game – and that’s one thing that wasn’t there.”

Nuno insisted he did not want to get involved in any public spats with Hoddle, but Spurs – for all their changes – had nine internationals in their starting XI.

The Spurs boss said: “I knew it was going to be tough, but I’m not here to judge my players: I’m here to improve them.

“We have two home games to resolve the situation.”

Plastic flags were out in force for Vitesse’s first sell-out in seven years, but Spurs, whose last pot in Europe was back in 1984, were miles off the pace.

To leave all the big guns at home for Sunday’s derby at West Ham, smacked of arrogance or under-estimating Vitesse’s energy. And except for Japhet Tanganga and Davinson Sanchez, none of Nuno’s second string made a case to get another start.

Apart from Bryan Gil’s dipping effort against the bar two minutes after the break, Spurs never looked like scoring.

They should still qualify for the knockout phase, but unless they are careful, Tottenham will discover there’s only one thing worse than having to play in this competition – and that’s getting knocked out of it.