Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson is beginning to fear the worst for Tottenham and boss Mauricio Pochettino after worrying signs at the weekend.
Spurs suffered a 3-0 defeat away at Brighton on Saturday, which capped off a miserable week for the club after their heavy loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League in midweek.
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However, while Merson believes that ultimately that game against the Bundesliga champions could have gone either way and there wasn’t a need to be overly concerned from a Tottenham perspective, he believes there were major warning signs at the weekend for both Spurs and Pochettino.
“It’s worrying times for Tottenham,” he wrote in his Sky Sports column. “I was all for them the other day because when they lost 7-2, I didn’t really see an awful lot wrong with that. I thought they got a lot of bad criticism for no reason because that game could’ve gone either way.
“However, what happened on Saturday was an absolute joke. It was a worrying, worrying joke. In football terms, to get brushed aside and blown away by Brighton was a disaster. It was as worrying as it gets on the football field.
“They should be extremely embarrassed. I think the last time Brighton scored three goals in a game I was at school!”
Merson went on to concede that he believes that there is a danger that Pochettino has perhaps now taken Tottenham as far as he possibly can, as the performance against Brighton ultimately made him question if the players are still fighting for him.
It’s impossible to make a statement like that without being within the group to know the general mood and atmosphere among the players, but from what was seen on the pitch on Saturday, it certainly now is a crucial period for the club to see whether or not they can get out of this hole.
Spurs host Watford on October 19 in the first game back after the international break, and if they can get back to winning ways in that clash and build some confidence back up, things could turn around quickly again.
However, if there’s more of the same from Saturday, it will only heighten concerns and perhaps give real strength to Merson’s claims above and his belief that it’s a genuinely worrying time for Tottenham and it could lead to question marks over Pochettino’s future.
