Revisiting the last Tottenham XI to be in the Premier League relegation zone | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur dropped into the Premier League relegation zone on Friday night for the first time since January 2009.

After 6,281 days outside the bottom three, West Ham’s 4-0 win over Wolves saw Spurs slide into the drop zone before they go to Sunderland on Sunday under new management.

Given the talent in Roberto De Zerbi’s squad, it’s a shameful position for Spurs to be in.

But we would fancy the last Tottenham team to be in the bottom three to turn over the current one.

The XI that faced Portsmouth on January 17, 2009 had no business being bottom of the league. Hence why Juande Ramos was sacked in late October and replaced by Harry Redknapp.

Redknapp doesn’t like to talk about it, but he took over with Spurs rock-bottom on two points and winless after eight games.

The manager, lured from Portsmouth, sparked an immediate improvement to win three of their next four and embark on a run that got them out of the drop zone. But they were back there – and bottom – when they welcomed Pompey to White Hart Lane in mid-January.

A 1-1 draw was enough to get them back above the line, on the way to an eighth-placed finish. Which is certainly closer to where this team ought to have been…

GK: Heurelho Gomes

Gomes was new to Spurs at the start of 2008-09, a £7.8million signing from PSV, and he suffered as much as anyone before Redknapp arrived.

A series of errors led to the sacking of his goalkeeper coach three months into the season, but from there it got better for the 11-cap Brazilian. He remained No.1 for three seasons which saw Spurs go from bottom of the Premier League to the Champions League quarter-finals.

Corluka’s Spurs story reads much the same as Gomes’: new to Tottenham at the start of 2008-09; a regular for three seasons; then loaned to Germany.

The Croatia full-back, capped 103 times, enjoyed a positive spell at Spurs, even if he begged Redknapp to let him leave in 2013 after losing his place to Kyle Walker.

CB: Jonathan Woodgate

Sadly, this was the ex-Real Madrid defender’s last season as a Premier League force.

A groin injury at the start of 2009-10 led to only three league appearances in his final two seasons at Spurs.

Still, while he might not have reached 50 league appearances, he did score the winner in a cup final for Spurs, something only Brennan Johnson can claim to have done since.

CB: Ledley King

Anyone might look at Tottenham today and wonder how a side with Cristian Romero and Micky van der Ven is in the bottom three.

But that is nothing compared to the befuddlement still prompted by a team featuring Woodgate and the classy King as their centre-backs being bottom of the table.

Even with both barely half fit – as was too often the case – they were too good to be flirting with the Championship.

Even when King had to be replaced just before the break versus Pompey, in his place came Michael Dawson, who was no mug either.

LB: Gareth Bale

Bale was still very much jinxed at this point of his Tottenham career and remained eight months away from his first win as a Spurs player.

Once that curse was lifted, the Welshmen did alright for himself, we suppose.

RM: Aaron Lennon

There was underperformance aplenty at Spurs in 2008-09 but few fingers could be pointed at the England winger.

Lennon finished the season as the Spurs supporters’ Player of the Season, the club’s Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season, and received a third successive nomination for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

CM: Didier Zokora

Spurs was the 123-cap Ivorian’s only Premier League club, which surprises us for reasons we’re not sure of. Feels like he might’ve played for Wigan, Swansea, someone or other.

Zokora played 134 times in three years at Tottenham between joining from St Etienne and leaving for Sevilla when Wilson Palacios showed up at Spurs.

CM: Luka Modric

Modric was a £16.5million signing the summer before and he was very much still finding his feet in the Premier League. Many doubted if he ever would.

The Guardian had already labelled him a ‘misfit’ and Arsene Wenger, apparently, reckoned he was too lightweight. They were wrong.

And so was everyone who voted for Modric as La Liga’s worst signing when he moved to Real Madrid.

LM: Jamie O’Hara

The winter of 2009 was an odd time for the Spurs academy graduate. O’Hara had made the breakthrough the season before under Juande Ramos but Redknapp never seemed convinced.

The following season, he was sent on loan to Portsmouth, a spell during which he admitted he wanted Spurs to lose in the FA Cup so he could play at Wembley for Pompey. Understandable sentiment though it was, probably one best kept to yourself.

CF: Jermain Defoe

Defoe was a central figure against Pompey since it was there he left 10 days prior to re-join Spurs for £15million.

The visiting fans weren’t best pleased to see him; even less so when he scored the equaliser to get Spurs off the bottom.

CF: Darren Bent

Spurs would have climbed even higher had £16.5million striker Bent not missed a late sitter that prompted Redknapp to say: