Antonín Kinský says the 17-minute collapse at Atletico Madrid is not the part of his season he remembers most. For him, the harder stretch was six months on the bench before his run-in saves for Tottenham. He puts the setback in Madrid behind him, and the late work he did to get back on the pitch is the part that matters now.
Why the Madrid night is not the whole story
Kinsky was substituted after 17 minutes in March at Atletico Madrid, a brutal night for any goalkeeper. But his own verdict is blunt enough. "The season was not about Atletico for me," he told mirror.co.uk. "For me, the six months on the bench were definitely harder than this one moment."
That is a fair way to frame it. A single bad night can dominate the outside view, especially in the Champions League, but Kinsky's season also included waiting, training and then coming back into matches where Tottenham needed him.
He credited goalkeeper coaches Dean Brill and Fabian Otte for helping him through the difficult spell. "Since the start of the season which was going bad for me, they just helped me so much," he said.
The saves that changed his run-in
The comeback story is not just talk. Kinsky produced a brilliant save at Wolves to secure Tottenham's first win, then a last-gasp stop against Leeds' Sean Longstaff and a jaw-dropping stop on the final day to thwart an Everton fightback.
The numbers back up that late improvement. He was given a 7 rating against Everton, after an 8 rating against Leeds and a 7.5 rating in the League Cup win over Wolves. Those are not season-defining numbers on their own, but they do show a goalkeeper finding his level again after a rough start.
Kinsky also said the support from supporters mattered. "When you go out there on the pitch and sometimes the fans cheer your name or generally the support is huge, like it was before the game against Everton when we were arriving, it gave me so much energy," he said.
That matters because the Madrid night only looks like the headline if you stop there. Kinsky's own version is more grounded. The real obstacle was the six months in between, and the season included enough strong moments to show he was not defined by one collapse.
Tottenham finished 17th in the Premier League, so this was never a clean rescue story, and it would be overdone to present it as one. But on Kinsky's side of the argument, the late saves, the coaching work and the fan backing are the clearer evidence. Madrid was the ugly moment. The rest of the season was the fight back.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
