Who's to blame for Spurs crisis?

Tottenham Hotspur's increasingly chaotic descent towards the Premier League relegation zone continued as thousands of supporters left early during their damaging home defeat by Crystal Palace on Thursday night.

Spurs stand one point off the drop zone after interim manager Igor Tudor lost his third game in succession after replacing the sacked Thomas Frank.

Tudor was appointed as a so-called "impact coach" based on his previous track record - but such has been his lack of impact that questions are already being asked about the Croat's future.

Their campaign has been characterised by toxicity, misery and on occasion high farce - so who is to blame for the collapse of a club that won the Europa League last season and reached the Champions League final as recently as seven years ago?

Former chairman Daniel Levy was always the lightning rod for criticism when Spurs struggled, with the 2008 League Cup the only success in his reign before he "stepped down" after almost 25 years last September.

Levy was the driving force behind Spurs' magnificent stadium, but found himself in the crosshairs of supporters for what they regarded as his failure to provide the financial backing to break into the Premier League elite on a regular basis.

Former Spurs and England goalkeeper Paul Robinson told BBC Sport: "This is a problem that has been building over years. You can circle a drain long enough but at some point you will fall in.

"Daniel gets a lot of criticism. Some if it is unfair. You look at the managers he has appointed when the clamour was for trophies.

"He employed 'win now' managers in Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte but he didn't give them 'win now' players."

Since Mauricio Pochettino's sacking in November 2019, Spurs have spent £979m on players with a net spend of £653m. Only Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are ahead of them.

Other factors came into play with Levy, however, such as the suggestions he drove hard bargains which saw targeted players end up elsewhere, or players who could have been sold staying at Spurs because other clubs simply would not meet his demands.

Spurs' wage bill must also be factored into the equation, with Levy running a tight ship.

According to the Deloitte Money League, their bill last term £248.6m, much lower than the rest of the top-flight's so-called "Big Six".

Levy can point to financial and structural success off the pitch, but there was under-achievement on it.

He will also be associated with instability, including a revolving door of 12 sacked managers as Spurs reached 16 semi-finals and seven finals.

What his true legacy is may only be measured at the end of this season.

The fact that any straw poll of Spurs fans would end with Pochettino standing in the technical area at the start of next season shows the affection still felt for the Argentine.

Pochettino's high point was the Champions League final against Liverpool in 2019 - but that defeat also marked the beginning of the end.

He felt it should have been the reverse, a starting point, but fractures soon appeared in his relationship with Levy, with Pochettino feeling his wish to rebuild the side with greater glories in mind was not fulfilled.

Robinson agrees, saying: "You look back to that Champions League final. Spurs had a manager who people would walk over hot coals to get back now.

"This was the time to back him with a long-term contract, invest heavily to ensure you stay on that level. Ever since that day the club has regressed."

Tanguy Ndomdole's arrival from Lyon for £53.8m was the marquee signing in summer 2019.

The writing was on the wall in pre-season when Pochettino memorably said: "Sell, buy players, sign contract, not sign contract. I think it is not in my hands, it is in the club's hands and Daniel Levy.

"The club needs to change my title and description. Of course, I am the boss deciding the strategic play but in another area I don't know. I feel like I am the coach."

Just 171 days after winning the Champions League. He was sacked.

Since then, none of Pochettino's successors have truly captured the Spurs' fans imagination like he did, both in personality and playing style, which is why he is favoured to come back in the summer.

One question: Would he come back to a Championship club?

Once Pochettino was sacked, Levy's choice of managers was key to the club's trajectory after the high of that 2019 Champions League final.

In many ways, he went for choices many fans would have made - leading to conclusions that it was the culture of the club under his charge that was the problem.

Robinson says: "There is something that is fundamentally wrong at that club. Spurs have decreased the stock of managers who arrived at the club as winners, such as Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.

"Managers who had won regularly elsewhere didn't win at Spurs. You have to ask why that is."

Levy stood by a revolving door of 12 sacked managers as Spurs reached 16 semi-finals and seven finals, not including the Uefa Super Cup before his departure.

Mourinho replaced Pochettino, briefly took Spurs to the top of the Premier League, and was then bizarrely sacked in the week before a Carabao Cup Final against Manchester City.

Nuno Espirito Santo was well down a list of successors when he was appointed in summer 2021. He lasted only four months before he was replaced by Antonio Conte.

The combustible Italian, who won the Premier League and FA Cup with Chelsea, took Spurs into the Champions League but left after 16 months following a savage attack on the club after a draw at Southampton, saying: "Tottenham's story is this - 20 years there is this owner and they never won something. Why?

"The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here? I have seen the managers that Spurs had on the bench."

Ange Postecoglu followed, winning that long-awaited trophy, but a finish of 17th place in the league saw him sacked.

Thomas Frank tried and failed.

The record suggests Levy tried all shapes and sizes of manager - none have truly fitted this dysfunctional club.

Frank's shortcomings were laid bare during his ill-fated eight-month reign in charge - but he could point to other factors that have led Spurs to the dark place they currently occupy as mitigating circumstances.

Spurs have been robbed of two key components all season, with the creative forces of Dejan Kulusevki and James Maddison still to appear.

Kulusevski had surgery on a patella injury sustained last season while Maddison tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a pre-season friendly against Newcastle in June.

Dominic Solanke, Spurs' most recognised central striker, was also sidelined for months with an ankle injury, although he is now back.

Son Hueng-Min left Spurs in the summer to join Los Angeles FC after scoring 173 goals in 454 games.

The great South Korean's partner in goals, England captain Harry Kane, decided his career needed trophies, leaving for Bayern Munich in August 2023 in an £86.4m deal as Spurs' record goalscorer with 280 goals in 435 appearances.

Two big proposed moves also went down as Arsenal hijacked a £60m deal for Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace, while Spurs thought they had a deal for Morgan Gibbs-White poised for completion until he signed a new contract at Nottingham Forest.

Big summer signings Xavi Simons and Muhammed Kudus, through injury and lack of form, have not had the desired impact, leaving Spurs rueing those missed deals even more.

"This appointment was the wrong one from the start," says Robinson. "They needed a Harry Redknapp or a Sean Dyche to keep them in the division.

"They need a manager who would hand over a Premier League club to whoever - maybe Pochettino - next season.

"Igor Tudor, regardless of how he does, will not be manager next season. He might not even be there at the end of this season.

"I also look at some players who can't wait to get out of Spurs so they can go and play European football next season.

"These things accumulate and now Spurs find themselves in a crisis."