As Tottenham edged to victory over Coventry, a familiar face among the post-match salutations. Could that be Dejan Kulusevski? For it was he, playing 526 days since his last Spurs appearance.
Much has changed though still much stays the same. Ben Davies’s deflected late clincher catapulted Spurs up to … 16th. When Kulusevski last played on 11 May 2025, Tottenham were 17th, the position in which they finished both that season and in 2025-26.
Ange Postecoglou was tinned that summer despite winning the Flamin’ Bigger Vase. Thomas Frank was an appointment the soccer sensibles agreed was smart. A coach with impeccable credentials in improving players, willing to work in tandem with club suits, an ideal apex for an org chart.
Frank was sent packing in February, his popularity ratings plunging to depths unseen since Alan Sugar had the bright idea of appointing George Graham, who had paid his gardener to shape his lawn into the Arsenal crest. In football’s world of irrelevant but interesting (you sure? – Football Daily Ed) coincidences, the last time Spurs beat Coventry in the league, when Sergiy Rebrov’s goal completed a 3-0 stroll in 2001, the manager’s programme notes had been written by Gorgeous George, who the day previously had been the recipient of Sugar’s “you’re fired” flex. Igor Tudor’s tenure resembled a slasher movie, an appointment on the nod from a sporting director, Fabio Paratici, who had already left.
What could possibly go wrong? Everything, it turns out. Or close to, until Roberto De Zerbi was handed the keys and a control none of his predecessors commanded.
The transfer spend has been heavy, and when Kulusevski arrived in the 87th minute on Monday, the game not yet won, he did so following an absence where Spurs signed 20 players either permanently or on loan, at a cost of £530m. Scoring Spurs’ opening goal on Monday was James Maddison. Football’s king of the oche was absent for almost as long Kulusevski.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
