We’re all another month closer to the grave and that cheery start means it’s time for another update of the Mood Rankings.
20) Tottenham (9)
It’s a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling for an increasingly unmoored Spurs. Events of the last six or seven months really have discombobulated everyone.
They won a trophy, which feels weird. They sacked a manager, which doesn’t. But then they sacked the man who sacked the manager, and we’re back to weird.
Watching Thomas Frank struggle desperately to find acceptable answers to the impossible Tottenham question is nothing we haven’t seen before. He may even have had his Nuno Moment with those resignation-letter substitutions in the capitulation at Forest.
What’s different is that while Tottenham fans increasingly know they don’t want Frank, there’s less clarity than usual about what they do want, who they want to do it, and most importantly of all perhaps: who’s to blame for the mess.
That’s the big change. Daniel Levy’s role as lightning rod for fan anger should not be underestimated. With him out of the picture, nobody knows where to direct their ire…
19) Burnley (13)
Every Mood has a decisive ‘A month really is a long time, eh?’ moment, and already so early we have it.
A mid-table Mood Ranking back in November reflected a situation that had them reaching the third international break outside the bottom three, which already seems like a nonsense idea…