Tottenham relegation: Redknapp says the club is not serious enough

Tottenham are still in the relegation fight after Tuesday night’s defeat at Chelsea, and Jamie Redknapp used it to aim much wider than one result. His argument was blunt: Spurs have become a "brilliant entertainment business" rather than a serious football club, and if they do go down, he says the people at the top will have to own that failure.

Why Redknapp went after the club, not just the result

Redknapp's criticism was aimed at the structure around the team as much as the football on the pitch. He said Tottenham have an incredible fanbase, an amazing stadium and an amazing training ground, but that none of it matters if the club does not have the players to match it. He added that he played there, was in the dressing room and felt there was a lack of ambition, then said that has not changed.

He was even sharper on the relegation question. "If they do get relegated its nothing more than they deserve," Redknapp said, before adding: "It's not right to blame Thomas Frank, its not right to blame Igor Tudor, the people that employed them are those you should be looking it because they haven't worked out." The managerial references in the source material do not line up neatly with the team data provided here, so the wider point is the one that stands: he is blaming the decision-makers, not just the dugout.

That view is easy to understand from Tottenham's position. They are 17th in the Premier League with 38 points from 36 games, only two points ahead of West Ham. Their last five league results are DWWDL, which is better than a collapse but not good enough to push them clear.

What the final day now looks like

The Chelsea defeat means the survival battle goes to the final day. Tottenham host Everton on Sunday, while West Ham are at home to Leeds at the same time. Spurs also beat Everton 3-0 in the reverse league fixture earlier this season, which gives them at least one useful reference point going into the last match.

On paper, the final day is manageable. In practice, Tottenham have spent too much of the season giving themselves too much to do, and Redknapp's criticism lands because the club still looks like it is fighting the consequences of repeated misjudgments. If they finish the job and stay up, the argument about standards does not go away. If they do not, the record will not be kind to the people who built this mess.