Oh, Spurs, you’ve given us some wonderful moments over the years and Tottenham fans won’t know whether to laugh or cry at some of memories that we’re going to be reliving today.
With everything going on in North London at the moment, we wondered how many other times Spurs had been Spursy in the Premier League era and, unsurprisingly, we managed to find quite a few.
We stopped at 15, though, because any more and Spurs fans will have been crying into their Tottenham Hotspur Stadium cheeseboards.
And no one wants to see that, do they? Do they?
Wolves defeat – 2018
First up is a fairly recent memory of Spursyness at it’s finest and I want to make this clear before we go any further, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, we’re laughing at you and not with you.
In December 2018, as they do, Spurs won five in a row in the league to close the gap on top of the table, even rising above Manchester City and into second place.
Victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Wembley late in the month would have seen them move just one win away from Liverpool. They led with 20 minutes to go but collapsed in typical style, conceding three late goals and not even managing to finish in the top three in the end.
Sacking Mauricio Pochettino – 2019
In the years before Mauricio Pochettino arrived at White Hart Lane, Spurs had already begun establishing themselves as a top-six club and regular Champions League contenders.
Pochettino came in and ensured they’d also become proper challengers domestically and in Europe, and he embarked on a heroic project of turning Spurs in to Premier League title contenders and Champions League finalists.
Often operating with a small transfer budget in comparison to other European heavyweights, Pochettino literally performed miracles at Spurs.
But after five years in charge, a handful of title challenges and just five months on from famously leading Spurs to the Champions League final, he was sacked by Daniel Levy with Spurs in 14th place in the Premier League.
A lot of us are still getting our heads around the fickle nature of that decision, as his successor Jose Mourinho now struggles lead Spurs to Europa League qualification.
Lasagne-gate – 2006
Only Spurs could have their challenge to qualify for the UEFA Champions League thwarted by a serving of lasagne.
Martin Jol’s side went into the final match of 2005/2006, at Upton Park against London rivals West Ham United, needing only three points to secure fourth place and thus make it to Europe’s premier club competition for the first time in the modern era.
But before the match, a dodgy meal of lasagne at the team’s hotel the night before caused an outbreak of sickness and diarrhoea in the Lilywites camp, which struck down several key players and led to a costly 2-1 defeat. The ultimate irony was that Tottenham’s bitter local rivals Arsenal clinched fourth instead.
Being knocked out in the FA Cup semis by a relegated team – 2010
The 2009/2010 season was a special one for Tottenham under the leadership of Harry Redknapp as they qualified for the Champions League for the first time since 1962 – meanwhile, Portsmouth were entering administration and were relegated with a mere 19 points.
So what do we think happened when the pair clashed at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final? Something utterly Spursy is the answer.
Yes, the Lilywhites blew their chance to reach the final of football’s oldest competition for the first time in nearly 20 years, falling to a 2-0 defeat after extra-time because of Freddie Piquionne and Kevin-Prince Boateng strikes.
First Division relegation – 1977
Keith Burkinshaw will always be remembered as one of the greatest Tottenham managers of all time, though it’s often forgotten that he led the North Londoners to their first relegation in over 30 years in 1977.
What makes this particularly Spursy is the fact that they had been in a European final just three years earlier and in the two seasons before that had lifted four trophies; the League Cup twice, the UEFA Cup and the Anglo-Italian League Cup Winners’ Cup.
What other teams in world football could be capable of such a dramatic and rapid fall from grace?
Tim Sherwood/Roberto Soldado incident – 2014
From one of the best Spurs bosses to one of the worst in Tim Sherwood. All kinds of Spursy things happened during his reign in the second half of 2013/2014 and we’ve chosen this one as the Spursiest.
Following a hammering at Anfield in March 2014, it was alleged that Sherwood got so angry at misfiring striker Roberto Soldado that he punched him and a dressing-room scuffle between the pair ensued.
The incident was denied by various figures who were in the dressing room that day, however, as we are finding out, anything’s possible at Tottenham.
Bayern Munich 7-2 – 2019
This is one that should be at the forefront of your memory considering that it happened earlier this season.
Tottenham have never been ones for not letting something get out of hand and that was displayed wonderfully at the horrifically-named Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in early October when Bayern Munich smashed them 7-2, thanks in no small part to four second-half goals from ex-Gunner Serge Gnabry.
February/March woe – 2019
We come back to the 2018/2019 campaign now and despite the loss to Wolves, by the middle of February Tottenham had recovered with four Premier League victories on the spin to once again put pressure on the Reds and the Citizens at the top of the table.
You know Spurs, though, once they get a sniff of first place in the English top-flight they go into full-on self-destruct mode so it’s little surprise that, triggered by the defeat at struggling Burnley, Pochettino’s Spurs suffered a woeful February and March.
They slipped to four losses in five and nearly ended up missing out on the top four altogether, failing to win nine of their final 12 games.
Wasting the Gareth Bale money – 2013
Selling Gareth Bale at the end of the 2012/2013 term was always more of an inevitability for Spurs, as they were far from the European force they are nowadays..
It was always going to be about how they spent the £85.3m they received from Real Madrid for the Welshman and put it this way, they splashed out an obscene £56m of it on the duo of Erik Lamela and Roberto Soldado.
Doesn’t that tell you all you really need to know?
Third in a two-horse race – 2016
It should be impossible to finish third in a two-horse race but Tottenham made it happen during what was, to be fair, an overall bizarre 2015/2016 Premier League campaign.
For the majority of it, they had battled Leicester City at the top as it became clear relatively early on that one of them would end up lifting the Premier League trophy for the first time. When Spurs drew with Chelsea in the third from last match the Foxes were confirmed as champions, and the Lilywhites would then lose their last two outings, including an unfathomable 5-1 thrashing at relegated Newcastle, to allow Arsenal to sneak into second place.