Tottenham Hotspur have become the laughing stock of English football this week, with Jack Wilshere and Lincoln City joining in with the jokes in recent days.
Tottenham Hotspur’s latest defeat to Crystal Palace has left them at serious risk of relegation, sitting just one point clear of the relegation zone with nine games to play.
It didn’t help that relegation rivals Nottingham Forest picked up a surprising point away to Manchester City on Wednesday, nor that West Ham United are on the rise after four wins and two draws in their last eight league games.
Spurs will also have to do without Micky van de Ven for their upcoming trip away to Champions League hopefuls Liverpool, as the Dutch centre-back picked up a red card in the Palace defeat.
Cristian Romero will return from his four-match ban, but he himself is only two yellow cards away from another two-match suspension.
Like Spurs, League One leaders Lincoln City look increasingly likely to be in the Championship next season, 10 points clear of third place having played a game less.
With promotion seriously on the cards, their fans took to singing “Tottenham away, olé, olé” on Saturday.
Former Gunner Jack Wilshere was also involved in the banter in a press conference on Friday, saying: “I watched a little bit of Tottenham last night…believe it or not a lot of my family are Tottenham fans, and over the years we had some really good banter about it.
“At the moment my dream is to manage Luton in the Championship, and it might be against Tottenham.”
Looking at the games Spurs have left to play doesn’t really help their case.
There are trips to Liverpool, Sunderland, Aston Villa, and Chelsea, as well as an away game against Wolves that doesn’t look nearly as straightforward as it might have a couple of months ago.
The home games are against relegation rivals Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, a Brighton side showing recent signs of improvement, and an Everton clash on the final day.
But whilst most of those home fixtures look winnable, they’ll all be doubly damaging should Spurs slip up. And there’s hardly one guaranteed result in the away schedule.
Even the Champions League run, a rare positive in Spurs’ campaign so far, could end up being a distraction. The upcoming games away to Liverpool and at home to Forest will both come after fixtures against Atletico Madrid, and a quarter-final would mean more games against Barcelona or Newcastle.
Though relegation is far from confirmed, the situation is dire enough that Spurs are already looking at hiring another manager. Things need to change pretty quickly if they’re going to stay up.