Former Premier League striker Troy Deeney has branded Tottenham Hotspur an “unserious” club ill-prepared for a relegation battle.

Tottenham are currently 16th in the Premier League table, four points above the relegation zone.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have been as good as down since November, while Burnley are nine points from safety and already being written off. That leaves Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, West Ham United, Leeds United and Crystal Palace battling to avoid 18th place, while Brighton and Hove Albion are also looking over their shoulders.

The north London side finished 17th in a horrific 2024/25 league campaign under Ange Postecoglou, who still managed to guide the club to Europa League glory after prioritising that competition from February onwards.

That papered over the cracks, with Spurs qualifying for the Champions League as a result. However, the club are unlikely to win that competition, making an upturn in Premier League form imperative for new head coach Igor Tudor.

Tudor has been appointed interim boss until the end of the season after Thomas Frank was sacked following eight months in charge.

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The Croatian has been tasked with lifting Spurs up the table, but former Watford captain Deeney believes he should be genuinely concerned about relegation.

In a scathing attack, Deeney said Spurs “are not a serious club” and claimed former players have told him there is “no winning mentality”.

The 37-year-old believes Spurs need a reality check and that the players should not consider themselves too good to go down after qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League.

“There will be players and staff pointing fingers or pretending nothing is quite as bad as it really is. But it is not realistic,” Deeney wrote in his Sun column.

“They were in denial when they finished 17th last year and have not moved on from it.

“Many of the players now will be thinking they can’t get relegated because they finished in the top eight of the Champions League. That isn’t how it works. They are not a serious club.

“I never played with a single footballer whose dream was to play for Spurs or who would have thought they had ‘made it’ by reaching that club. I played with some who moved from Tottenham who always said it was a great place to work, but there was no winning mentality.

“Flip that on its head and there will be no mentality for the relegation fight they are facing now.”

Deeney added that the Spurs squad has “too many luxury players” and lacks leaders.

“Go through the squad and there are too many luxury players, not prepared for what lies ahead,” he said.

“Where are the leaders? The people you want and need to scrap for one another. There is one who loves a scrap, Cristian Romero, but he can’t keep it controlled and damages the club because of it.

“They’re not a team that is going to outfight you or beat you up when it gets down to it. And neither are they going to play you off the park – they’re not good enough.

“West Ham are picking up and have players like Tomas Soucek who will battle until the end. Nottingham Forest have fighters too, and also players with enough quality to dig them out of trouble. Leeds will bash you into next week if you give them the chance.

“Spurs have none of that, and if they do go down, it will be completely self-inflicted.”

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