{"id":43655,"date":"2026-02-23T17:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/unacceptable-micky-van-de-ven-criticizes-four-spurs-players-as-tottenhams-woes-deepen\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T17:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:34:15","slug":"unacceptable-micky-van-de-ven-criticizes-four-spurs-players-as-tottenhams-woes-deepen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/unacceptable-micky-van-de-ven-criticizes-four-spurs-players-as-tottenhams-woes-deepen\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Unacceptable&#8217;: Micky van de Ven criticizes four Spurs players as Tottenham&#8217;s woes deepen"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/unacceptable-micky-van-de-ven-criticizes-four-spurs-players-as-tottenhams-woes-deepen\/#Micky_van_de_Ven_wants_Tottenham_team-mate_to_step_up\" >Micky van de Ven wants Tottenham team-mate to step up<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/unacceptable-micky-van-de-ven-criticizes-four-spurs-players-as-tottenhams-woes-deepen\/#Van_de_Ven_suspected_of_ignoring_manager_Igor_Tudors_orders_during_match_against_Arsenal\" >Van de Ven suspected of ignoring manager Igor Tudor&#8217;s orders during match against Arsenal<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tottenham Hotspur&#8217;s star defender Micky van de Ven gave his team-mates a painful reality check before their side&#8217;s humiliating 4-1 defeat in the North London derby.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Amid a season that has turned into a nightmare, the Dutchman labeled the club&#8217;s current position in the league as &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; and named five key people, including himself, who must shoulder the burden of lifting Spurs out of doldrums.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Download the official CaughtOffSide app to get all the latest news and updates straight to your phone. above <span role=\"presentation\"><u>apple<\/u><\/span>  &#038; <span role=\"presentation\"><u>Google play<\/u><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The club sit in 16th place, just two points above the relegation zone, and the atmosphere in the dressing room is reportedly at an all-time low.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Micky_van_de_Ven_wants_Tottenham_team-mate_to_step_up\"><\/span>Micky van de Ven wants Tottenham team-mate to step up<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 612px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Katherine Ivill Photo \u2013 AMA\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Speaking to Sky Sports before the game against Arsenal, the Dutchman pointedly pointed out that the club&#8217;s young players cannot be expected to carry the weight of a relegation battle.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he called on his core group of five experienced players &#8211; himself, the suspended Cristian Romero, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, midfield anchor Joao Parinha and striker Dominic Solanke &#8211; to lead by example.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re a club like Tottenham Hotspur, who have such a quality venue and are, I would say, the greatest club, it&#8217;s unacceptable to be standing in this place on the table and the results have to be much better.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course we still have some quality players left. We have a really talented squad and some top players, but we&#8217;ve also lost some important players for us, so it&#8217;s very important that the players who are fit now step up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We obviously have some young players in the group and we can&#8217;t have them be the players we need to take us forward. So normally next to me I&#8217;d have Kuti, who is unfortunately suspended, but behind me I have the experienced (Guglielmo) Vi\u0107, in midfield we have the experienced Joao Parinha and we have the experienced (Dominik) Solanke.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Van_de_Ven_suspected_of_ignoring_manager_Igor_Tudors_orders_during_match_against_Arsenal\"><\/span>Van de Ven suspected of ignoring manager Igor Tudor&#8217;s orders during match against Arsenal<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Van de Ven&#8217;s words were aimed at leadership, but his own actions on the pitch have drawn heavy criticism.<\/p>\n<p>Footage from Arsenal&#8217;s defeat showed the defender completely ignoring tactical instructions from new caretaker manager Igor Tudor.<\/p>\n<p>Van de Ven remained motionless as Tudor frantically signaled for him to move higher, a display of insubordination that echoed a similar incident with former manager Thomas Frank earlier this season.<\/p>\n<p>This public friction, along with Spurs&#8217; plummeting results, is forcing Van de Ven to leave.<\/p>\n<p>Worth more than \u20ac100m, the 24-year-old is reportedly a target of Liverpool and Real Madrid, with the latter seeing him as Virgil van Dijk&#8217;s long-term successor.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Van de Ven&#8217;s declaration of war does not provoke an immediate reaction next Sunday against Fulham, he could end up guiding his team-mates through their final months in a Tottenham shirt before a major summer exodus.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End -->\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tottenham Hotspur&#8217;s star defender Micky van de Ven gave his team-mates a painful reality check before their side&#8217;s humiliating 4-1 defeat in the North London derby. Amid a season that has turned into a nightmare, the Dutchman labeled the club&#8217;s current position in the league as &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; and named five key people, including himself, who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[40],"class_list":{"0":"post-43655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}