‘Tottenham must have closed their academy and opened a spa’: Tim Sherwood launches scathing attack
Tim Sherwood has launched a scathing assessment of Tottenham’s decline, questioning decisions behind the scenes and challenging the direction of the club as their alarming slide continues.
Tottenham Hotspur’s horror start to 2026 continued on Sunday when Arsenal put four past them at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
That defeat meant Spurs’ winless run in 2026 in the Premier League continued, with just two wins from their last 19 outings.
Relegation remains a stark reality for Tottenham, who have enjoyed top-flight status for over four decades, with four points now separating them from 18th-placed West Ham United.
Tim Sherwood names four reasons and urges Spurs to bring academy players back
With Tottenham’s downward trajectory continuing, Tim Sherwood has now outlined four reasons behind Spurs’ struggles this season.
The former Tottenham manager believes that collective failure, poor recruitment, a lack of accountability,, and the absence of academy integration are all contributing factors.
Speaking to football.london, Sherwood first addressed where responsibility lies when results collapse, arguing that while managers carry the can, deeper issues remain.
He said: “I think it’s the collective, but always the person who gets to blame is the manager. That’s not only Tottenham, that’s every football club, because the buck stops at the man who’s picking the team, and the results aren’t good, everything is bad at the whole football club.
“But I would look at the recruitment. I mean, who is actually picking these players? Because when you turn over so many managers, like the Nuno’s [Espirito Santo], like the Ange Postecoglou‘s, like the Thomas Frank’s, and now you’ve got Igor Tudor, if they’re still struggling at the bottom of the league, then when does the vindication come from the managers?
“And you say, you know what, maybe a little bit elsewhere here, perhaps it’s the players. Who brought the players in? And I think they need to have a good look at themselves.”
Sherwood then turned his attention to the academy, questioning its visibility and calling for young players to be given an opportunity, again speaking to football.london, he said “Then something close to my heart, where is the academy? Have they closed that? I don’t know.
“Where’s the academy? They must have closed it and put a spa in there. Where’s the academy players? Tottenham Hotspur, where are they? There’s a few of them out on loan doing alright. Mikey Moore at Rangers? Bring them back and give them a chance to play. At least you gain something out of the season.
“I mean, at the moment, they’re playing the players who they paid 20s, 30s, 40 millions, 60 millions for, and they’re still getting beat every week.
“You might as well get beat with the kids, at least you’re getting some experience into them and seeing whether they’re good enough for next year. The whole culture of that club has to change. It is a club I do not recognise from the outside when I was there.”
When asked about the club’s latest managerial appointment and whether he is the right man for the job, Sherwood admitted uncertainty and described it as a gamble.
“Well, who knows? Only time will tell. No-one knows do they?
“It’s just an absolute left-field gamble, but anyone is a gamble, no matter if they’ve got Premier League experience, Thomas Frank had plenty of that, didn’t he?”
Tottenham relegation fears: Tim Sherwood backs Spurs survival but warns over fixtures
Despite Tottenham’s struggles and fears of a drop to the Championship, Sherwood insisted he still expects Spurs to survive, highlighting the importance of their upcoming fixtures.
“I think they will get out of it. I still believe the next two games are so crucial because you can forget about the injuries, you can maybe hold your hands up and say that it was obvious in hindsight that Arsenal were too good. But having said that, Arsenal on paper would be too good for Wolves, especially with a two goal lead and Wolves still got something out of it.
“So, Tottenham should have done better, just trying to find a way, but they haven’t. They’ve got to dust themselves down, have a look for now, get calm heads, see where they are. You’ve got to go away to Fulham and home to Crystal Palace, if you get nothing from them two games, then the hole gets bigger. And you start looking up thinking, we’re never getting out of this.”
The former Spurs boss also named West Ham United as the side he believes is most at risk despite their recent improvement.
“Well, West Ham at the moment, because they haven’t got the points on the board. But having said that, I’ve been looking at West Ham and they look like they’ve got a real bit of fight in them. It looks like they’re really organised as well.
“Probably got more players capable of, mentally, realising they’re in a relegation fight, rather than when you look at Tottenham squad, the worry is none of them come to Spurs to play in a relegation battle.
“They finished 17th last year, so a lot of people will say they should have been ready for it because they finished 17th.
“We all know why they finished 17th, because they put all their eggs in the Europa League basket and actually won it. So, they changed manager [in the summer] and now they’ve decided to change again.
“For me personally, I wouldn’t have done it. I would have kept Thomas Frank there. I felt like they’d been safe with him. I feel like they’d be safe without him. But Igor Tudor has got a really tough job on his hands.”
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