Spurs acceptance of humiliating relegation is final stage of grief | OneFootball

I was eight years old back in 1993 when I saw my team lose an FA Cup semi-final to Arsenal; Tony Adams scored the only goal 10 minutes from time and I was heartbroken.

I ran to my room at full-time to cry my eyes out on my bed, pausing to occasionally curse at my posters of Teddy Sheringham, Nick Barmby and – caught in the crossfire simply because he was also blu-tacked to my wall back then – the Ultimate Warrior. It was the first time football really hurt.

Two years before, I had carefully selected the club that would be mine forever. And the reason is foolproof: my favourite letter was T (I was six), and this team had four of those in their name! I remember following their progress by checking the newspaper each week, looking at a table of football team names and numbers and starting to piece together what it all meant. I saw Tottenham play for the first time at Wembley in the 1991 FA Cup semi-final, coincidentally also against Arsenal. Shortly after, that was when ‘they’ became ‘we’.

Fast-forward to the present day and a whole lot has happened since. Much of it was joyful. There was Jurgen Klinsmann, David Ginola, a Worthington Cup, a Carling Cup, Bale, Ajax away, and that night in Bilbao.

But there was also Ilie Dumitrescu, Paolo Tramezzani, 2002’s Blackburn Rovers, Ben Foster, a lasagne, Vincent Janssen and being beaten 3-0 by Dinamo Zagreb while their manager sat in prison.

That latter list includes moments stretching across 30 years that brought shades of denial, anger, bargaining and depression, but then eventually acceptance. The last four months alone have featured heavy doses of the first four stages of grief in a jumbled mess, each one sparring with the other to take centre stage.

But on Tuesday night at the Metropolitano, when Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha lay prone on the deck after heading each other instead of the ball, the final stage was reached.

Tottenham actually started well against Atletico. In the first five minutes, we had a coordinated attack as well as a shot. It felt like ages since we had an attack and a shot. It was nice. But at Spurs, a ‘nice’ moment has a nasty habit of turning into an absurd situation real fast.

Antonin Kinsky slipped over while clearing the ball in the sixth minute. Then Micky van de Ven also slipped when in possession. When Kinsky kicked the ball off his own leg and became the 65th person to fall on their own bollocks in the first 15 minutes at the Madrid ice rink, I welled up as I almost pleaded with Julian Alvarez not to score. He scored. It was 3-0.

Kinsky was hauled off, blanked by his ‘manager’, headed down the tunnel, and legitimately might never be seen again. And Spurs still conceded from the next attack anyway. The young Czech keeper, hearing those home cheers shortly after reaching the dressing room, would probably have breathed a sigh of relief that maybe the whole story might not be about him.

One positive thing about Spurs is that we actually turn into a pretty decent side after we concede four or more in a first half. So obviously, at 4-0, Pedro Porro finished a slick team move to incite “well now..if Spurs can grab a second goal here then it’s game on”.

And Spurs should have. Richarlison had a free header, but he gave Jan Oblak a chance to save, and a couple of seconds later, Antoine Griezmann provided the kind of flick that leaves a lot of people, especially Ally McCoist, with a tingle in their loins.

Julian Alvarez, who is not noted for his searing pace, collected the pass from Griezmann about 50 yards away from the Tottenham goal with Porro approaching.

Alvarez was running towards Guglielmo Vicario while also focused on controlling a football. Porro was running after Alvarez and very much not also focused on controlling a football, and yet the gap between the two had actually widened by the time the Argentine fired in a long-overdue fifth goal. A reminder: Pedro Porro starts for Spain.

One positive thing about Spurs is that we are a tough side to play against when trailing 5-1. So we duly scored again to make people think the second leg could include a hint of jeopardy.

When the fourth official raised the board indicating injury time, the hope was for no more action – just take 5-2, get home and start planning for the annual defeat to Liverpool. At least Romero is back for that game, right? Within 60 seconds of that thought process forming, Romero jumped for the ball, headed Palhinha and duly ruled both men out of the game at Anfield.

And that was the moment. Acceptance. Calm. There is absolutely no doubt now that Spurs are getting relegated this season. It all became a real possibility after the 2-1 defeat to West Ham in January and far too much nonsense has happened even since then.

But it’s okay. The Championship isn’t the end of the world. It’s embarrassing that we are going there for sure, but when aren’t Spurs accused of being embarrassing? People still take the piss out of us for finishing third in the Leicester season, and that was our highest-ever Premier League finish at the time.

And that happened a year before we completed our only unbeaten home Premier League campaign. Seventeen wins and two draws in 19 games at White Hart Lane that season. But then we knocked the stadium down. Cos obviously.

Tony Adams’ late goal at Wembley is in the past, and soon enough, so too will be the 2025/2026 season. Daniel Levy is gone so there’s nobody to blame anymore. Even the Ultimate Warrior has passed on, so f**k it, bring on Blackburn, bring on Lincoln and bring on QPR.

Let’s look forward to a new season of finishing fifth and reaching the play-off final, before losing that in the kind of comical fashion that only Spurs can. And when we do, eventually, even that will be fine. Acceptance.