It’s the final day of the season — the sun is shining but the atmosphere in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is one of cold shock. The scoreboard shows the home team trailing by two goals. A child bursts into tears and hugs her father. An old man, a lifelong fan of the club, looks on in disbelief. The referee puts his whistle to his lips for full-time and confirms Spurs’ relegation.
This is the scenario that will feature prominently in the nightmares of all Tottenham fans, and the dreams of their rivals, over the next few weeks as we head into the business end of the Premier League season. Igor Tudor’s Spurs currently sit just a single point away from the relegation zone, and with West Ham and Nottingham Forest starting to pick up points, they will have to fight for their lives in the final eight matches of the season if they want to stay in the division. Despite an unlikely draw at Anfield last week and an impressive, albeit insufficient, victory against Atlético Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League tie, relegation is a very real possibility for Tottenham this season.
A few years ago, the idea of Tottenham playing in the Championship would have been unfathomable. After all, along with Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, and Man Utd, they are part of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’: the league’s elite, whose financial resources dwarf the other teams in the league by such a large margin that it is almost impossible for anyone else to challenge for trophies in England. The concept of the Big Six was first conceived in the early 2010s after Man City’s financial takeover, long before strictly enforced Profit and Sustainability Rules, which put them on a par with the aforementioned teams in terms of spending power. Since then, the Premier League’s winners have exclusively belonged to this group, with the exception of Leicester’s miraculous triumph in 2016.
Perhaps, however, the time has come to reconsider this concept. The last time the top six placed teams at the end of a season were actually made up of the Big Six was in 2022, and the last time before that was back in 2019. Man Utd and Spurs finished 16th and 17th in the league last season and teams like Newcastle and Aston Villa have been performing better than many Big Six teams over the past few seasons. And now with the possibility of a Big Six club being relegated from the league, the time has surely come to move on from this outdated notion.
That said, Big Six teams always seem to bounce back from their problems eventually. Arsenal have moved on from their ‘banter era’ of the late 2010s and are set to win the league this season. Man Utd managed to convince the likes of Cunha and Mbeumo to sign for them in the summer, whilst Spurs picked up Xavi Simons and Kolo Muani, despite their low league finishes the season before. Leicester, on the other hand, finished 5th in 2020 and 2021, only to be relegated in 2023. The spending power of the Big Six, along with the sheer size and global reputation of the clubs, means that they are simply a more attractive proposition for players looking for a move to the Premier League, or players looking to upgrade from smaller Premier League clubs, no matter how well the teams are actually performing.
It remains to be seen whether or not Spurs can survive this disastrous season, and only time will tell the long-term consequences for the club if they are to be relegated. But despite the up and down form of many Big Six teams over recent years, they are still seen as the biggest clubs in the country by players and fans alike, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon.
Photo by Dan Parker on Unsplash.