Tottenham Hotspur club captain Hugo Lloris has issued an apology to the supporters who made the journey to St James’ Park after they witnessed their side taken apart by Newcastle United.
The north Londoners headed to Tyneside knowing that they had to beat the Magpies to realistically keep their hopes of a top four finish alive but instead put in the worst performance in living memory.
Cristian Stellini, who was given the responsibility to attempt to secure Champions League qualification decided to change to a defensive back four and it backfired massively on the Italian.
Tottenham found themselves 5-0 down after just 21 minutes, which is the most they have conceded at such a time of a game in Premier League history and in reality, the game was beyond them inside the opening ten minutes.
Many of the Spurs fans had decided to leave their seats high up in the stadium and head for the exit by the twenty-five minute mark and must be left to wonder where does the club go from here.
Lloris told Sky Sports: “It’s very embarrassing. We should apologise to the fans. We didn’t show a good face and we could not match the performance of the Newcastle players. We were late in all aspects of the game and we completely missed the first part of the game. The second half is a different story but it’s really painful.
“It is not even about tactics, we just could not fight and we were late. I think Newcastle just had a great performance, they were very aggressive and offensive everywhere they had the ball.
“It is difficult right now to assess the performances but there was a lack of pride.
“You can get punched once or twice, but it was like we could not even react or bounce back. Newcastle deserve a lot of credit for starting the game at 100 miles per hour. They knew exactly what to do.”
SpursWeb Opinion
If Daniel Levy and the board are not frantically looking to speed up the managerial process and get a new head coach in before Thursday, they are accepting defeat and realistically the club face the prospect of even finishing outside of the Europa Conference League places.
Spurs now face the prospect of facing both Manchester United and Liverpool in the space of the next six days.
The loyal fans are without a manager, sporting director and a clear direction – those in the boardroom must take responsibility.
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