Constant injury crisis, attacking problems and off the pitch changes: What do Spurs need to address for their next manager? | OneFootball

Tottenham came into the 2025/26 season off the back of finishing 17th in the Premier League.

However, two sacked managers, a new leadership structure and six new signings later, they are not much better off.

Thomas Frank took over a Spurs side that had just ended a 17-year trophy drought after Ange Postecoglou’s men beat Manchester United in the Europa League in Bilbao, with his appointment reflecting a desire for the club to compete on all fronts and not just in Europe.

Even though PSG would come back to beat Spurs, the UEFA Super Cup clash gave Spurs fans reasons to be positive about what the future held. Comfortable wins against Manchester City and Burnley gave Tottenham supporters more confidence that last year’s poor league performance was just an anomaly, and they would soon ascend back towards the top end of the Premier League.

Instead, it would be more of the same for Spurs as they crashed out of the FA Cup against Aston Villa, the EFL Cup against Newcastle and sit in 16th in the Premier League, just one place better off than last year with only 12 games to go.

After only two Premier League wins since October, Spurs’ 2-1 home loss to Newcastle was the final straw with the club’s statement the next morning reading: “Thomas was appointed in June 2025, and we have been determined to give him the time and support needed to build for the future together.

“However, results and performances have led the board to conclude that a change at this point in the season is necessary.” 

But will the sacking of Thomas Frank really change things at Spurs?

Frank has only won twice in the Premier League at home since he became Spurs boss and the team’s persistent failure to create chances left many fans dissatisfied. Chants of “boring, boring Tottenham” and “sideways and backwards everywhere they go” have entertained the supporters when the football has not.

Frank has often defended himself by citing that there is a lot that needs changing at Tottenham. After Spurs’ 4-1 north London derby defeat to Arsenal the 52-year-old said: “I think there’s definitely a lot to work on still.

“As I said, I apologise to the fans. I think it’s also fair to say where we’re coming from. We finished 17th last year. And we’ve tried to build something, which today didn’t look like we tried to build something.”

So what are the other factors at play?

Spurs’ injury crisis

Since Spurs lost 4-1 to Chelsea under Postecoglou in November 2023, where James Maddison and Micky van de Ven both suffered long term injuries, Spurs have scarcely gone into a match with a strong squad of depth. In fact, in the 2024/25 season, Spurs players missed a combined 193 Premier League matches with injury.

At the time of Frank’s sacking, Spurs had 11 players out with injury including pivotal first-team stars such as Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Pedro Porro, Destiny Udogie and Mohamed Kudus. 

In fact, the Dane has been without Kulusveski and Maddison since he joined the club and Dominic Solanke’s first start this season came in January against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.

If Spurs do bring in a new manager before their trip to Arsenal on the 22nd of February, they will only have 13 available outfield players to pick from as it stands.

Simply put, Spurs cannot maintain their current injury record and expect to be competitive.

Stay up to date with all the latest Spurs news by joining our Tottenham WhatsApp channel. 

Tottenham’s recruitment

It is no secret that, over the past year, Spurs have missed out on many targets that would have strengthened the squad.

The two biggest misses for the club in the summer were Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze. 

With Gibbs-White it was reported that Spurs had a deal agreed for the player to come to the club but Nottingham Forest refused to sell the player to Spurs, after they deemed their approach for the player was against the rules.

Similarly with Eze, it had been reported that Spurs had agreed a deal to sign the midfielder, before Arsenal came in and turned his head after Kai Havertz suffered a long-term injury.

More recently in the January window Frank admitted that Spurs were looking to bring in Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth, who ended up joining Manchester City: “I will go against my rule, hopefully only once,” he said. “There’s no doubt it was clear that the club wanted to sign Semenyo.

“They did everything – I think that’s a clear signal that the Lewis family is very committed. That’s a big signing with finances and all that.

“So that’s the quality of players we’re looking for to improve the squad, and if we can’t find that, then it’s definitely better to take the right decisions.”

In January, Spurs only brought in midfielder Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid and young left-back Souza from Santos, despite only scoring 36 goals in the Premier League so far this season.

Tottenham’s failure to bring in any attacking players in January makes the job much more difficult for any new manager that would come in.

Tottenham’s lack of stability

Since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked by Tottenham in 2019, Spurs have had five permanent managers in seven years. The longest lasting of those was Ange Postecoglou who was at the club for two full seasons.

But it is not just the managers that have changed at Spurs.

Each of their past three top scorers in the Premier League have departed the club in Harry Kane, Heung-min Son and Brennan Johnson.

Moreover, the hierarchy at Spurs changed massively over the summer with chairman Daniel Levy departing. Peter Charrington became a non-executive chairman and Vinai Venkatesham is now the chief executive at Tottenham.

Spurs’ lack of stability in all areas of the club may be another reason why the club have struggled to maintain any sort of consistency.

Although Frank was underachieving this season, there are other factors contributing to their poor performances on the pitch. Spurs will need to look to address those issues as well as changing the manager if they are truly going to improve.