Pat Nevin delivers brutal Tottenham Hotspur verdict which nobody can really argue with

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The Chelsea legend pulled no punches when discussing Spurs’ campaign, touching on the limited squad resources at Mauricio Pochettino’s disposal.

Tottenham Hotspur have found themselves under intense criticism by Chelsea legend Pat Nevin following what he saw from the Spurs players in their Premier League defeat to Bournemouth last weekend.

The Lilywhites have impressed this season in both the league, where they were very much in the running for the title until they experienced a major downturn in form in the second half of February, and in the Champions League, having reached the semi-finals.

However, given such a busy season in terms of competitions and fixtures, combined with a relatively small squad and no players having been signed in either the transfer window last summer or the subsequent January one, the Spurs team has been very much stretched to the limit this term.

Nevin, who played for Chelsea in the 1980s, is a columnist for the official Blues website and he touched upon the Spurs game against the Cherries, which he attended, whilst discussing Maurizio Sarri’s own squad rotations.

“With Champions league football for next season in the balance I was amazed at how sluggish they looked in that first 45,” wrote Nevin. “With a little further consideration it became apparent that just too many of their players were running on empty.

“They have a limited squad in terms of depth, their Champions League run has stressed them too far and in the season after a World Cup it was all just too much to overcome. They didn’t manage to, or weren’t able to, rotate their squad enough, especially the most vital players. That’s why they have only picked up 10 points from the last 33.”

As much as it may irk some Tottenham fans to read of a rival club’s legend delivering such a brutal assessment of their team, the truth is he can’t really be argued with, and as admirably as Spurs have performed this season, it is evident that ultimately the squad was spread too thin for the tasks at hand, not to mention directly after a hectic World Cup campaign.