Mason must get it right to stop the mood becoming more toxic

TOTTENHAM’S PR machine kicked into over drive after Sunday’s humiliation at Newcastle, with Daniel Levy’s message to supporters, in which he took “ultimate responsibility” for the result, followed by the players promising to reimburse travelling fans for their tickets and the club establishing a fan advisory board.

- Dan Kilpatrick

Some frank communication from Levy and supporter representation at board level are both good things, but no amount of positive pronouncements can banish the memory of St James’ Park, nor the escalating fury at the chairman’s running of the club.

The atmosphere for tonight’s visit of Manchester United is sure to be febrile following Spurs’s latest nadir on Tyneside and the subsequent dismissal of a second head coach, Cristian Stellini, in the space of 29 days.

There will be a desire to get behind Stellini’s successor Ryan Mason, one of the club’s favourite sons, but if the team struggles, fans are likely to turn on Levy en masse and the stadium could quickly become toxic — just as in Mason’s last home game as interim head coach, a 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa in May 2021, following the sacking of Jose Mourinho.

Levy’s decision to overlook Mason for Stellini when the club parted ways with Antonio Conte on March 26 was the chairman’s latest mis-step, and the Italian’s disastrous four-game interregnum has severely impacted Spurs’s chances of returning to the top four, even if they beat fourth-placed United.