Tottenham fans know all too well the uneasy feeling of facing Liverpool with a manager under pressure.
This Sunday, Spurs head to Anfield, where the Reds could seal the Premier League title in Arne Slot’s debut season. For Tottenham, however, the situation is far bleaker.
Ange Postecoglou’s side languish in 16th place, in what has been one of the club’s worst-ever campaigns.
A humiliating defeat to Liverpool could hasten what many already view as his inevitable departure.
It wouldn’t be the first time a Tottenham manager has faced the sack after a thrashing from Liverpool.
Back in 2013, Andre Villas-Boas was sacked after a 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool. It was, at the time, their worst defeat at White Hart Lane in 16 years.
At the time, Spurs were left adrift in seventh place, far adrift of their top-four ambitions.
Villas-Boas, visibly embattled, defiantly told reporters after the match that he would not resign, insisting he was not a ‘quitter’.
But the decision was soon taken out of his hands. Summoned to a meeting with chairman Daniel Levy, Villas-Boas departed shortly afterwards, with the club issuing a statement that the decision had been reached ‘by mutual consent’.
The reaction from the dressing room was surprisingly emotional. Former Spurs defender Kyle Walker later revealed on his podcast that the players were in tears upon hearing the news.
“I’ve got tears running down my eyes… Michael Dawson is welling up,” Walker recalled. “That’s how much he meant to the lads.
“Gareth Bale was a massive, massive loss. They signed seven players off the back of the Bale money.
“There are a lot of changes there and we just never really gelled in time for him [Villas-Boas] to then do well. For 10 or 12 men to be crying because the manager’s gone, he’s done something well in the dressing room.”
While Villas-Boas clearly left his mark on the squad, tensions behind the scenes undermined his tenure.
The fallout from the £85m transfer of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid cast a long shadow. Reports suggest Villas-Boas objected to four of the seven players signed with the Bale money – Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, Vlad Chiriches, and Christian Eriksen.
His own preferred targets, including Hulk, Joao Moutinho, and David Villa, were reportedly vetoed by Levy.
Reflecting on his time at Spurs in an interview with the Italian press, Villas-Boas offered a glimpse into the frustrations that ultimately derailed his tenure.
“The first season was magnificent in all aspects,” he said. “We had a ‘short’ squad in terms of depth, but a great spirit and so much will. We picked up the most points in Spurs’ history, with an incredible Bale playing behind Adebayor where he was free to move, but also with Lennon and Walker, who allowed us to have a good counter-attacking 4-4-2.”
Villas-Boas revealed he turned down an offer from Paris Saint-Germain that summer, choosing instead to remain loyal to Tottenham. “Maybe that was a mistake,” he admitted.
“In April, we started planning for the next season. I offered some names to buy and sell, but during the transfer window, the board didn’t listen and quickly destroyed everything we’d created.”
For many Spurs fans, Villas-Boas’s tenure remains a tale of unfulfilled potential. While opinions on his time at the club are mixed, there’s little doubt that his preferred signings could have altered the trajectory of his Spurs career.
As Tottenham prepare to face Liverpool this weekend, it’s hard not to feel a sense of deja vu.
