 "What is this disease? How can you protect yourself from it? – Firstpost")
On their march towards the underworld, a march they seem ever more determined to complete, landmarks of ignominy have dotted this season of Spurs’ descent.
One of the first was the moment, after their home defeat to Chelsea in early November, when Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence strode straight past Thomas Frank as he tried to get them to acknowledge the Tottenham supporters.
That was when everyone knew for sure that, on top of all the injuries that Spurs have suffered, something was rotten in the dressing room and that Frank was doomed.
Another landmark was when Spurs skipper Cristian Romero was sent off half an hour into the match at Manchester United last month. The skipper, whose red card earned him a four-game ban, looked like a man abandoning a sinking ship.
Then there was the absurd and reckless decision to entrust the fight against relegation to Igor Tudor, a man who burns through jobs like he’s dancing on a hot-tin roof.
Tudor’s had 12 jobs in the last 11 years and has an old-school authoritarian style that makes the old guard of British coaches look like bastions of the Enlightenment.
Tottenham’s leadership’s decision to entrust the fight against relegation to Igor Tudor was absurd and reckless
The substitution of rookie goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky after 17 minutes at Atletico Madrid will follow Spurs back to England and haunt what is left of this nightmare season
Maybe that ought to have told the brains trust that runs Spurs that he might not be the guy to hand the reins to in a moment so critical to the club’s future.
The idea that they could simply sail through the rest of the season, so they could hand the job to Mauricio Pochettino in the summer, was naive and reckless in the extreme.
And then, as damaging, as ugly and as humiliating as any of those other landmarks, there was Tuesday night at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid.
There may not have been any Premier League points at stake in their Champions League round of 16 first leg tie against Atletico Madrid but, make no mistake, their catastrophic, shambolic 5-2 defeat pushed them closer to the drop zone.
It was a ghastly, horrible night for Spurs, made infinitely worse by the sight of their poor rookie keeper, Antonin Kinsky, being substituted 17 minutes into the game.
Kinsky had made two bad errors that made gifts of early goals for Atleti and allowed them to race into a 3-0 lead by the time a quarter of an hour of the match had elapsed.
But his substitution by Tudor, and the manner of the substitution, is something that will follow Spurs back to England and haunt what is left of this nightmare season.
Tudor, who has now overseen four defeats in his four games in charge, may carry the air of a football hard man but he looks like a rabbit in the headlights when things are going wrong.
Tottenham’s ownership and chief executive Vinai Venkatesham must admit they have made a mistake and axe Tudor now, giving them a final chance to rescue the situation
Whoever’s in charge at Spurs needs to recognise that they need to be decisive and have a new manager in charge of this team ahead of facing Liverpool on Sunday
His for and against record since he took over from Frank now reads five goals scored and 14 conceded. The man is a disaster area.
The Spurs interim boss did nothing to console the young goalkeeper as he walked to the touchline in a daze, to be replaced by Guglielmo Vicario.
It was left to others to try to reassure him as he endured the worst moment of his professional career.
By then, those who were in the stadium said it felt like being at the scene of an accident. It was a trauma, in football terms at least.
Spurs were 4-0 down inside the opening 23 minutes at the Metropolitano. It might just have been the worst first half of a first half the club has ever endured.
Streams of Spurs fans left after the fourth goal. Diners at restaurants in the centre of Madrid were treated to the sight of Spurs fans, refugees from the humiliation, wandering the streets before the game had even reached half-time.
Spurs fans do not need telling that the bigger problem that faces them now is that there is a club hierarchy that does not know what it is doing.
Shorn of former chairman Daniel Levy, the club now appears to be run by figures from the family of Joe Lewis, chiefly his daughter Vivienne, and her son-in-law, Nick Beucher, who have no previous experience in football.
Both they and chief executive Vinai Venkatesham have to admit now that they have made a terrible error in appointing Tudor and that they cannot waste any more time.
They have made error after error after error this season and now they have one last chance to try to rescue things.
The idea the club could wait for Mauricio Pochettino – who was present on Tuesday – until the summer was naive and reckless in the extreme
If Spurs are to have any chance of being saved from relegation to the Championship, the motley crew that runs the club need to make Tudor’s total 13 jobs in 11 years and show him the door post-haste.
With both West Ham and Nottingham Forest, their fellow strugglers, showing some signs of recovery, every point is critical for Tottenham now.
Whoever’s in charge at Spurs needs to recognise that and they need to be decisive. Spurs play at Liverpool on Sunday and Lewis or Beucher or Venkatesham need to recognise that a new man needs to be in place by then.
Liverpool are not the team of last season. They are a long way from that. They have just had a chastening night in the Champions League, losing to Galatasaray, too.
So Sunday is an opportunity for Tottenham. But only if Tudor is gone. Because it is already clear that the only thing he is going to lead them into is a death spiral.
It might be too much to ask that the Lewis family have a succession plan. They didn’t appear to have one when they fired Frank.
Pochettino was at the Metropolitano on Tuesday night but he is the manager of the USA national team and the idea that he might leave before the World Cup in the summer is unthinkable.
Whether he would want to take charge of a team in the Championship next season is open to doubt. There are also suggestions he is on Real Madrid’s short-list for their next manager.
Perhaps Spurs could turn to Sean Dyche, recently relieved of his responsibilities by Forest. Perhaps they could turn to a club legend like Glenn Hoddle. Perhaps he would carry them to safety on a wave of nostalgia.
Neil Warnock, now 77 and in temporary charge of Torquay United, joked at the weekend that Spurs should have approached him when they sacked Frank.
The joke, actually, is on Spurs, as it has so often seemed to be this season. Because Warnock would have been a hell of a lot better than Igor Tudor.
It is time for that cursed experiment to be brought to an end, for Tudor to go, and for Spurs to take its final throw of the dice.
