Tottenham consider relegation a real threat as Liverpool trip looms

Tottenham’s decision to push back the season-ticket renewal deadline was not a routine administrative tweak but a public admission that the possibility of relegation is now serious enough to affect the club’s business decisions.

By extending renewals until 7 June, after the final day of the season, Spurs have effectively told supporters that waiting to see which division the club will be in is a reasonable thing to do.

That alone tells you how far this season has collapsed.

Tottenham are on 29 points and 16th in the Premier League table, only one point above both Nottingham Forest and West Ham United, and they head to Liverpool this weekend after 11 league games without a win and six straight defeats in all competitions, four under Igor Tudor.

The timing of the decision matters because this is no longer about abstract fear or media exaggeration.

Spurs travel to Anfield next, where the pressure is immense, the form is rotten and the margin for error is almost gone.

And if they lose there, the table could look even uglier by Sunday night.

West Ham host Manchester City and Forest host Fulham this weekend, so a win for either rival could send Tottenham even closer to the bottom three, while wins for both would overtake them if Spurs lose at Liverpool.

That is why this trip feels bigger than a difficult away game against a superior side.

It feels like the point at which a bad season can become a full institutional crisis.

Wayne Rooney did not dance around that reality when he said the Tottenham players had been an “absolute disgrace”, attacking their “performances, the attitude, the lack of desire, the lack of fight”.

That is brutal language, but it reflects what many supporters now see with their own eyes.

The team looked broken in Madrid, where Atlético tore them apart 5-2 in the first leg of the Champions League last 16, and Tottenham’s own defending turned the night into a humiliation long before the tie was effectively lost.

That defeat in Madrid was supposed to be a distraction from the league, but instead it deepened the feeling that the club is sliding without resistance.

The most alarming part is that Tudor has not provided even the short-term shock Spurs wanted.

He has lost all four matches in charge, and the noises around the club already sound like the beginning of another managerial discussion rather than the defence of a coach who has earned more time.

Gary Neville has already said that if Spurs are going to change manager again, it should be done “today or tomorrow”, which is extraordinary language for a coach who only arrived last month.

That is what happens when the emergency starts to outrun the plan.

Tottenham can still save themselves, and their remaining fixtures do offer opportunities, especially once this Liverpool trip is out of the way.