Tottenham CEO Vinai Venkatesham has hit out at the club's football strategy after a second consecutive 17th-place finish in the Premier League.
While there was no danger of Tottenham going down in the 2024/25 season as attentions switched to the Europa League, Spurs were briefly favourites for Premier League relegation this time around, with significant improvement needed over the summer.
Taking over from the much-maligned Daniel Levy a year ago, Venkatesham was tasked with turning the side's fortunes around on the pitch, having established themselves as one of the game's most successful clubs off it.
But Venkatesham feels the club have fallen behind regarding the football side of things.
"On the non-football side of the club, in particular around stadium operations and commercial, that the club was and is really strong," Venkatesham told BBC Sport.
"I think if you look at the football side of the club, over a timeframe of five years or so, there has just been an explosion in progress across the Premier League.
"I'm not saying that Tottenham didn't improve in that period. But what I can tell you is that when you look at where Tottenham were in many of those areas, compared to where I believe other Premier League clubs are, there was a significant gap. In some areas really quite worryingly so.
"I don't think that there was what I would call a relentless obsession with football success.
"Our training centre is amazing, one of the best, if not the best in the world. But when you look around, it looks more like a five-star hotel than it does a performance environment. That will change over the summer.
"I think there are many areas where the club hasn't got the right level of expertise."
In recent years, changes have been made to the recruitment side of the club with Robert MacKenzie and Johan Lange, but Tottenham's work in the transfer market has left lots to be desired. Crying out for a ball-playing midfielder for years, Spurs made the move to bring Conor Gallagher to the club in the January transfer window.
The absence of European football will be a financial blow for Tottenham, who sorely need to reshape their squad if they're to climb back up the Premier League table next season.
