Tottenham’s senior players ‘given telling off’ by future captain Skipp
Tottenham’s senior players were allegedly put in their place by Oliver Skipp on Sunday at half-time against Newcastle after the angry young midfielder exploded following the manner of his side’s embarrassing collapse at St James’ Park. Spurs travelled to Tyneside in desperate need of a positive result to keep their Champions League qualification hopes alive but they eventually left having turned in a performance that was so bad, it left Daniel Levy with no other choice but to sack caretaker boss Cristian Stellini on Monday.
Tottenham were 3-0 down inside nine minutes and 5-0 down with 21 minutes on the clock as the likes of Jacob Murphy, Alexander Isak, Joe Willock and Joelinton ran riot.
Spurs failed to show any form of grit or character when the going got tough and young midfielder Skipp was evidently furious with his team-mates when he was booked for a late challenge on Bruno Guimaraes.
It appeared the Englishman knew he was never going to get the ball but instead he wanted to leave a foot in on the Brazilian midfielder to prove that Tottenham weren’t a total rollover.
He was evidently furious and according to Football.London’s Alasdair Gold, he actually told some of the senior players some home truths during the half-time interval.
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Gold said on his YouTube channel: “At half-time, for quite a quiet chap, he was very angry, from what I’m told. He was properly telling off more senior players for what he believed to be the issues in that first-half.”
Captain Hugo Lloris, who was questionable for a number of goals, was replaced by Fraser Forster at half-time due to a hip problem.
Eric Dier and Cristian Romero were so poor that Newcastle seemed to be in on goal just about every time they went forward in attack.
Son Heung-min remains desperately out of form and looks a shadow of the player that won the Premier League Golden Boot last season after hitting 23 goals for Spurs.
Outside of Harry Kane, who netted a second-half consolation for Tottenham, there is a glaring lack of leadership within their ranks.
Kane’s future is now also up for debate once again as Manchester United begin to explore the terms of a summer transfer.
The England captain will have just 12 months remaining on his contract at the start of July and there are no guarantees he will be extending his stay.
If Kane wants to win silverware, it’s clear his interests are likely to be served better elsewhere.
Skipper Lloris berated Tottenham’s lack of leaders following the match, stating Spurs cannot hide behind excuses following the horror show on Tyneside.
“It is very embarrassing, we should apologise to the fans,” Lloris told Sky Sports. “We didn’t show a great face today. We could not match Newcastle’s performance.
“We were late in all the aspects. We completely missed the first part of the game. It is really painful today. It is not talking about tactics, we could not fight
“We can try to find excuses but the first thing is, we miss the fight. In football if you go without the desire to show aggressiveness it makes it very hard.
“We cannot hide behind the club’s problems. We are professional but today there was too much lacking. There was a difference in level between Newcastle and Tottenham.”
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