Tottenham fans have been left scarred by the past two seasons. Back-to-back 17th-place finishes is nothing short of embarrassing, but there were mitigating factors in the club's domestic demise.
Hiring Thomas Frank ranks highly among them, and so does a borderline unprecedented injury crisis. We thought 2024/25 couldn't be topped. 2025/26 told the previous season to hold its beer.
The tone was set in preseason when James Maddison succumbed to an ACL tear during Son Heung-min's farewell outing in South Korea. We thought at the time that Dejan Kulusevski would soon be back in action to offer adequate playmaking cover, but the Swede's recovery from a patella injury has dragged on and on. We still don't know when he'll be back, well over a year on.
Mohammed Kudus, Wilson Odobert, Cristian Romero and Xavi Simons were among those to suffer long-term injuries, with a total of 27 fitness setbacks crippling Spurs' campaign.
We're all living with some form of PTSD, and our collective paranoia is through the roof. So much so that the fanbase is convinced that Mateus Fernandes has torn his ACL.
Mateus Fernandes hysteria highlights Spurs fans' paranoia
The nasty rumours started to circulate after the club dropped a Sydney training video on Tuesday evening, which showed Fernandes watching on from the sidelines. He was also spotted speaking to coaches in the background of another clip.
That seems to be the basis for the rumours, so I don't think there's any need to panic. We're all just convinced that if Fernandes, who looks pretty special, has picked up an injury, it'll be the worst-case scenario.
Football London's Alasdair Gold, who's with the team down under, has put the Portuguese midfielder in his predicted starting lineup for Wednesday's friendly against Sydney FC, so he's clearly not heard anything regarding a potential injury, let alone a major one.
Fernandes featured off the bench in our first game of the tour against Auckland FC, having scored the only goal in our training-ground friendly win over MK Dons last week. The 22-year-old's impact has already been felt after his £85m arrival, and Gold has reported that several people inside the club are mightily excited about his short- and long-term potential.
It'll be a shame even if it's just a knock, as Sandro Tonali is ready to return to action after recovering from a minor fitness issue. Roberto De Zerbi will want to pair his two shiny new toys together as much as possible in preseason, given how important both are likely to be during the Italian's first full season at the helm.
Let's hope the hysteria subsides.
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