Oh, Tottenham Hotspur, your life hasn’t been easy, has it? After a summer filled with huge positivity around the club, it wasn’t a great start to the new season.
They have won just once this season, beating Charlton Athletic 5-1. The irony is obvious. If Tottenham do get relegated, they will face Championship rivals the Addicks. Maybe this is their level?
Of course, we joke, but Roberto De Zerbi is definitely feeling the pressure. They are now out of the Carabao Cup and are yet to score any goals in the Premier League.
Still, the team is at least better than before. Sandro Tonali and Mateusz Fernandez are upgrades from midfielders like Pierre-Emile Hojberg and Oliver Skipp who have struggled in the past. Archie Gray and Pedro Polo are clearly better players than Serge Aurier and Emerson Royal.
Still, that hasn’t stopped some Oriel and Royal-style scapegoats from popping up in the modern era.
What went wrong with Aurier and Royal at Spurs
impatient. This is a word Igor Tudor will be asked when he becomes Tottenham manager at the beginning of 2026. Fortunately, he had no idea what that meant.
Sadly, this curse still hangs over this great club. They did turn things around in 2025/26, but they have been a laughingstock again throughout the new campaign.
It’s been that way for years. Cast your mind back to the days of Antonio Conte. Do you still remember that heated press conference? He condemned the club’s history, saying: “The story of Tottenham Hotspur is this: for 20 years, you have had an owner like this [Daniel Levy]but they never won anything. Why? If they want to continue this way, they can change head coaches – lots of head coaches – but things can’t change. “
Why is this happening? Well, they have players like Aurier and Royal. The former never really played under Conte. He was released in the summer of 2021 but, remarkably, was replaced by a player worth around £25m who joined from Barcelona. Neither player achieved glory in north London.
They are error-prone and riddled with errors. Where does Oriel begin? The right-back’s hat-trick of fouls against Crystal Palace in 2018 arguably summed up his time in the capital.
Of course, this did not have a big negative impact on Tottenham, but a series of mistakes in the defense did. His most costly mistake came in the 2021 Carabao Cup final against Manchester City when he committed an unnecessary foul on Raheem Sterling. The end result was a winning goal for Guardiola’s side from a free kick.
Former Spurs player Jamie Redknapp commented at the end of the game: “He just made the most ridiculous, rash decision that we see him do so often. Just get up, don’t rush in, don’t give up the foul – it’s a stupid mistake.”
Aurier and Royal at Tottenham | ||
|---|---|---|
– | Aurier | royal |
Signed as | £23 million | £25 million |
game | 110 | 101 |
Target | 8 | 4 |
Assist | No. 17 | 2 |
yellow card | 9 | 12 |
red card | 2 | 1 |
Where are they now? | free agent | flamenco |
Royal isn’t much better. Passive on defense and making poor decisions, he found himself in trouble again and again. Perhaps the most notable example was against Liverpool in May 2023, when he made mistakes for the first and third goals and the team lost 4-2.
He was one of the biggest culprits for the team’s failure to succeed under Conte. The fact that they replaced another defender with another error-prone defender is mind-boggling. It’s very Spurs, to be honest.
Tottenham find Emerson and Aurier again
Now, De Zerbi makes Tottenham’s defense look more organized. While they scored three goals against Liverpool in the cup on Tuesday night, they had kept clean sheets against Nottingham Forest and Everton before that. The struggles the defense has experienced in recent years are certainly less obvious.
However, the Lilywhites struggled offensively. Despite spending £85m on Savio and bringing in Omar Mamouche, their fortunes have yet to change. They have scored just once in their past four games.
But continued reliance on Mathys Tel doesn’t help.
The Frenchman signed a contract from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2025 for £30m and it’s safe to say he hasn’t been a positive signing.
Still, there were encouraging signs in the preseason. Terl has been brilliant for De Zerbi, scoring a lovely free-kick against Sydney and proving he is a real fire presence from the flank.
He also set up two captivating goals for Mickey Moore against Hoffenheim. It looks like the 21-year-old has finally found his groove in English football.
However, he failed to achieve the same level of performance in competitive matches. It’s pretty cruel, but he’s becoming Spurs’ new big scapegoat. He’s not a defensive problem like Aurier and Royal, but you could call him the offensive version. When he catches the ball, everything seems to go wrong. His decision-making leaves a lot to be desired.
This is one of the reasons why Tottenham have struggled so much in the final third this season. Terre is yet to score or assist in 2026/27 and his performance against Liverpool this week was indicative of his own personal issues.
Amazingly he lasted 85 minutes. in words Alasdair King of Football.Londonthere was “a lot of panting, but ultimately nothing.” That sums up the phone perfectly.
During his time on the field, he did not take a single shot and did not provide a single key pass. He gave up possession 17 times, giving up possession once every two touches, and he won just five of 13 faceoffs. It wasn’t a timely performance, especially after De Zerbi was seen shouting at him after the Everton game.
The simple fact is that Tel, much like Emerson and Royal in the Conte and Co era, is not robust enough. Sure, he’s a dynamic dribbler and wants to compete with men, but his final performance was so poor; he only scored four goals last season.
So, you can understand why supporters are now making him the center of their negativity, why he is public enemy number one. He is still young and needs to improve, but as Spurs pursue higher goals, they must look for alternative solutions.