A Premier League season that will go down in infamy but a European campaign that will go down in history, 2024-25 was quite the rollercoaster for everyone associated with Tottenham Hotspur.
In any other campaign, the Lilywhites could have been facing the very real prospect of an unthinkable relegation from the top flight, but unlike Ange Postecoglou's second-season trophy prophecy, that fear did not come true.
Here, Sports Mole looks back on Tottenham's unforgettable 2024-25 campaign with an in-depth season review, picking out the Lilywhites' best moments and looking ahead to 2025-26.
SEASON OVERVIEW
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Final league position: 17th
EFL Cup: Semi-finals
FA Cup: Fourth round
Europa League: Winners
Top scorer: Brennan Johnson (18)
Most assists: Son Heung-min (12)
After the agony of missing out on a Champions League spot for the 2024-25 campaign, the term began indifferently for the Lilywhites, who only won one of their first four Premier League games of the season and were bested by North London rivals Arsenal at home.
Post-match, Postecoglou delivered the bullish yet truthful statement that his entire year would be judged on, asserting that he "always" won trophies in his second year in a job, but Tottenham's dreary domestic form did not suggest his 100% streak would continue.
Tottenham's first 23 games of the new term delivered a paltry seven wins - although one was the 4-0 thrashing of Manchester City - as Postecoglou battled a crippling injury crisis over the winter months, had his unwavering loyalty to his tactics questioned on multiple occasions and also experienced a couple of knockout disappointments.
Aston Villa would take down the Lilywhites in round four of the FA Cup, a 1-0 first-leg win over Liverpool in the 2024-25 EFL Cup semi-finals preceded a 4-0 second-leg slaughter at Anfield, and Spurs became the first side to ever lose as many as 22 Premier League games in a single season but not be relegated.
However, amid all of their problems in the Premier League - of which there were plenty of - Tottenham continued to make amends in the Europa League, notably fighting back to eliminate AZ Alkmaar in the last 16 and defying pre-game expectations to beat Eintracht Frankfurt away from home in the quarters.
Then, following a tetchy pre-final press conference in which he called out journalist Dan Kilpatrick for his use of the term "clown", Postecoglou made sure he would have the last laugh, overseeing a defensive masterclass against a toothless Manchester United outfit in Bilbao.
From Brennan Johnson's scrappy finish, to Micky van de Ven's wonderful acrobatic clearance and Guglielmo Vicario's crucial injury-time save, Tottenham banished the 17-year trophy curse, and with it, a ticket to the Champions League landed in their laps.
PREMIER LEAGUE STATS
Wins: 11 (=17th)
Draws: 5 (20th)
Losses: 22 (17th)
Goals scored: 64 (=7th)
Goals conceded: 65 (16th)
Yellow cards: 70 (15th)
Red cards: 1 (=19th)
Passes: 18,229 (6th)
Shots: 497 (11th)
Big chances missed: 59 (11th)
Saves: 123 (7th)
Tackles: 662 (10th)
Own goals: 4 (1st)
Hit woodwork: 15 (7th)
Clearances: 776 (13th)
HOW DID IT COMPARE TO LAST SEASON?
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Last year, Postecoglou led Spurs to within a whisker of Champions League football via their Premier League position. This year, Tottenham experienced a Premier League campaign like none other, and not in the good way.
The Lilywhites have dropped an astonishing 12 places in the standings, forcing their way into the top five last season and only avoiding relegation this term thanks to the pitiful campaigns of Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town.
Compared to the 2023-24 Premier League season, Tottenham claimed nine fewer victories and suffered an appalling 10 more defeats, and while they only conceded four more goals (65 to 61), they found the back of the net on 10 fewer occasions.
However, Tottenham did not perform any worse in any knockout competition; an FA Cup fourth-round exit was on par with last season, reaching the EFL Cup semis was a vast improvement on a second-round defeat in 2023-24, and they achieved Europa League supremacy after not playing any form of continental football last year.
PLAYER OF THE SEASON: JAMES MADDISON
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Gone are the days when Harry Kane would claim this prize without a challenge; almost every Tottenham fan is likely to have differing opinions on their Player of the Season candidate, simply because there were a plethora of players who stood out without reaching spectacular levels.
Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Dejan Kulusevski - at least from the first half of the season - fall into that category, but when it comes to crucial, game-defining contributions, James Maddison takes the acclaim.
Yes, the Englishman had his injury problems and often found himself out of the starting lineup, but he rarely let Tottenham down with the ball at his feet, reaching double figures for goals and assists across all tournaments and amassing seven direct goal involvements from 11 Europa League matches.
In fact, Maddison contributed to a goal in four of his five knockout appearances in Europe, as well as two strikes in the 4-0 thumping of Man City and the winner in February's 1-0 Premier League triumph over Man United, enhancing his reputation as the man for the big occasion.
STANDOUT RESULT: TOTTENHAM 1-0 MAN UNITED
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Both Manchester clubs experienced a dose of misery against Tottenham in 2024-25, where Postecoglou's side condemned Pep Guardiola to his heaviest-ever home loss as a manager, but it is City's formerly noisy neighbours who were left more heartbroken at the hands of the Lilywhites.
The 2024-25 Europa League showpiece marked the first-ever UEFA club competition final between two sides in the bottom 10 of their league table, and the game was characteristic of Tottenham and Man United's lowly position in the Premier League standings.
Neither team pulled up trees in the attacking third, but it just took one moment of inspiration - or confusion - to decide both teams' European destiny, as Johnson's close-range effort trickled into the side of the net with the help of Luke Shaw.
Formerly known as the side who would refuse to abandon their attacking principles no matter what, Tottenham put every man behind the ball with 100% effectiveness to stunt Ruben Amorim's men and deliver another long-awaited slice of silverware to their patient fans.
Second season and all that.
BEST MOMENT
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Tottenham's run to European stardom was littered with memorable moments, including three academy graduates finding the mark against Elfsborg in the group phase and the Wilson Odobert masterclass against AZ Alkmaar.
However, let us recognise the men at the other end of the field for a moment, as we may not even be talking about Tottenham parading around their Europa League trophy had it not been for a breathtaking Van de Ven intervention in Bilbao.
After Vicario came for a cross and made a mess of the situation, Rasmus Hojlund's floaty header was destined for the back of the net in front of the concerned Tottenham crowd, but the flying Dutchman Van de Ven somehow hacked the ball clear with an astonishing goal-line clearance.
Vicario later made amends with his own critical save from Shaw's late header, but Van de Ven's gravity-defying stop was just as important as Johnson's goal at the other end and worthy of a spot in the Champions League on its own.
TOP PRIORITY FOR SUMMER
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While the transfer team will be hard at work scoping out targets, and the medical team will be analysing how things went so catastrophically wrong on the fitness front, it is crunch time for the hierarchy regarding Postecoglou's future.
All throughout the season, the Australian has had to bat away question after question surrounding his future at the club, where he remains under contract until 2027 and has no plans of abandoning his project midway through its development.
One does not envy Daniel Levy and the other Tottenham decision-makers, some of whom maybe cannot justify sacking a European-winning manager - one who still has the backing of the whole squad - and paying him a hefty severance sum, while others might point to Spurs' alarming Premier League regression as a sign that a change is needed.
The latter scenario may also depend on whether Spurs' rumoured replacement targets - the likes of Marco Silva, Andoni Iraola, Francesco Farioli and Roberto De Zerbi - are attainable, but Tottenham have made enough mistakes in the managerial market in recent times, and another simply cannot be allowed to happen.
FINAL VERDICT
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When Spurs supporters, rival fans and neutrals look back on the 2024-25 season, will they remember Tottenham as the team that finished in the bottom half of the Premier League table, or the team that finally won a trophy after nearly two decades of dejection?
There is a cliche that no-one remembers losing semi-finalists, and no-one not making the decisions in the Tottenham offices should remember Spurs' top-flight placement, as Postecoglou played a blinder in Europe and proved that he is the serial winner he proudly boasts to be.
Of course, no-one will deny that Spurs' historically poor Premier League season was unacceptable for a club of their ilk, but there were some mitigating circumstances to take into account, namely their injury list being in the double figures for a good several weeks over the winter.
However, if the Lilywhites faithful were offered 17th place and a European trophy or sixth place and no silverware at the start of the season, it seems pretty obvious which option they would select, but it is hard to say with confidence that the good outweighs the bad for Postecoglou's Champions League-bound boys.
Ben Knapton
