Tottenham Hotspur lifted the Europa League in Bilbao, started a new season as continental champions, and somehow ended it in a relegation battle that went to the final whistle on the last day of the campaign. We have now rated every player who wore the shirt in one of the most traumatic seasons in the club’s recent history.There is no clean way to frame this season. We went into it as Europa League holders, Champions League participants, full of a cautious optimism that now feels almost embarrassing in hindsight. Three managers. One relegation scare that went to the 90th minute of the final day. An injury list so grotesque it stopped feeling real at some point around February. And through all of it, a fanbase that showed up, kept watching, kept suffering, because that is what we do.And yet. João Palhinha scored. Antonín Kinsky saved. We stayed up by two points. These are the honest verdicts on the players who put us through all of it.Credit: @thefrederikkejensen / InstagramTottenham’s goalkeepersGuglielmo Vicario: 5/10Performed solidly enough in the opening months and was not one of the primary reasons this season fell apart. His performances dipped in the second half of the campaign though, and we have previously relayed that his time at the club appears to be over, with Vicario open to a return to Italy. The fact that De Zerbi trusted Kinsky over him in the final weeks told you everything. A decent goalkeeper; the exit feels right for both parties.Antonín Kinsky: 7/10The redemption arc of the whole season, and the one story from 2025-26 that gives you genuine hope. He came in last January and had a rough start, with errors in the Champions League at Atletico Madrid forcing him to the bench as Vicario reclaimed his place. Then De Zerbi arrived, picked him, and watched him reward that faith with crucial saves against Wolves and Leeds before the stoppage-time stop against Tyrique George on the final day that kept us up. He’s 23. He’s the future. We are lucky to have him.Tottenham’s defendersCristian Romero: 3/10Start with the generous version: the knee injury at Sunderland in April was genuinely bad luck, ruled him out for the rest of the season, and there is only so much a player can control. Fine.The trip to Argentina was also, by all accounts, a medically approved decision: De Zerbi confirmed it himself, explaining that Romero and the medical staff had agreed weeks in advance that he would complete his rehabilitation programme there. His agent was unequivocal that the trip had nothing to do with attending football matches.The problem is the optics. While Romero was in Argentina, Belgrano – his boyhood club – were playing River Plate in the Apertura final, on the same afternoon Spurs were fighting for their Premier League lives against Everton. Whether he attended that match is unconfirmed; what is confirmed is that he was there, in the country, when the backlash hit. To his credit, he responded to it: he flew back to London and was in the stands at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the Everton game. De Zerbi had already said he understood fan anger “100%.” Most of us felt the same.The rehab was legitimate. The optics were not. And when he did play this season, the performances rarely matched the billing of a supposed world-class defender. Reports suggest Spurs value him at around £56m. Take the money. Move on.Micky van de Ven: 7/10The most important player at this club going forward — and before you argue, consider what this season looked like when he was not fit, composed, and setting the tempo from the back. There were patches under Frank and Tudor where van de Ven looked as lost as everyone else, genuinely poor in moments. But his transformation under De Zerbi was striking, and several key interventions in the run-in prevented this from getting much worse. Reports that he is loving life under De Zerbi and close to signing a new contract are the best piece of news this club has had in months. Get it done.Kevin Danso: 5/10Solid when called upon, which was the job. Never going to be the answer as a regular starter at Tottenham’s level, but his long throw created the opening for Gallagher’s goal at Villa Park and he kept things ticking over without embarrassing anyone. Adequate cover. Whether there is a longer-term role for him here is the question.Radu Dragusin: 4/10Barely featured. When he did, the performances rarely suggested a player pushing for regular football. Physically imposing on paper; not convincing on the pitch. His future at the club looks uncertain, and on the evidence of this season, that seems correct.Pedro Porro: 6/10The full campaign was inconsistent, as it always seems to be with Porro. But De Zerbi’s system did unlock something in him during the run-in: significant contributions with crosses and set-piece deliveries, more purpose in his movement, more discipline. The ability was never in question. We need to see it over a full season, not just the last eight games.Credit: @thefrederikkejensen / InstagramDestiny Udogie: 6/10The most frustrating rating on this list to write, because Udogie was barely here. Missed huge stretches through injury, and whenever he came back you could see immediately what we had been missing: the directness, the confidence, the threat down the left that no one else at the club provides. A fully fit Udogie over a full season under De Zerbi is a genuinely exciting prospect. Whether we ever actually get that remains the question.Djed Spence: 5/10Spence covered capably at right-back/left-back when needed and never produced anything that actively cost us points. That is a reasonable return from a squad player. The honest assessment is that he has never developed into someone who can genuinely challenge for a starting role at this level. Useful. Not a solution.Ben Davies: 5/10Twelve years. Over 350 appearances. The fractured ankle ended his season before it really began. The last player from the Pochettino era, departing this summer as a free agent, a man who gave this club everything and was still named in the leadership group by Thomas Frank even when he couldn’t kick a ball, which tells you something real about who he is. He deserved a better farewell season. He deserved a proper send-off. Instead he got this. That is on the club, not him.Tottenham’s midfieldersXavi Simons: 8/10The cruelest story of the season, in a campaign full of them. Simons came to the club with enormous hype and, for a brief window under De Zerbi, justified every word of it. The most exciting player at the club: creative, decisive, absolutely at home in De Zerbi’s system in a way that made you catch your breath a little. Then came the ACL at Molineux. Season over. World Cup over. He posted on Instagram calling it cruel, and he was right. What we glimpsed in those weeks was something genuinely special. His return in 2027 is one of the very few things to look forward to about all of this.James Maddison: 4/10Impossible to rate fairly, so we won’t pretend otherwise. Maddison suffered an ACL in pre-season and missed almost everything, then came on against Leeds and spent five minutes reminding everyone watching exactly why this club spent the money on him. Three ACLs at one club in a single season: Odobert, Maddison, Simons. That has to be addressed at medical and conditioning level before anything else. As for Maddison himself: he is 29, fit, and has everything to prove. Next season is his.Archie Gray: 6/10Enormous promise. Frustrating season. Both things are true. Gray had stretches during the worst months where he looked genuinely out of his depth, slow on the ball, and unable to impose himself on games that were collapsing around him. De Zerbi benching him when form dipped was the right call: you do not protect young players by playing them through bad patches, you protect them by having standards. The ceiling on this kid is real. He is just not there yet, and that is fine at 19.Lucas Bergvall: 6/10Same arc as Gray, same verdict. Bergvall had difficult patches mid-season where the inexperience showed badly. But his technical quality and football intelligence shine through every time things settle, and they will only grow. He is 20. De Zerbi is exactly the manager to develop him. Give it time.Rodrigo Bentancur: 7/10Quietly one of the players of the season in its final months, and not enough has been said about it. Bentancur missed a chunk of the campaign and had a difficult personal period, but his return under De Zerbi was immediate and brilliant: our own match ratings had him at 9/10 at Villa Park, composed and aggressive in the press. Every game in the run-in he was the same. His contract situation must be resolved this summer. Losing him for nothing would be the most Tottenham thing that could happen this summer, and we cannot let it.Credit: @thefrederikkejensen / InstagramJoão Palhinha: 8/10Sign him. Permanently. Immediately. Palhinha arrived on loan and within weeks was the heartbeat of everything De Zerbi was trying to build. He scored the late winner at Wolves, our first league win under the Italian. He scored the only goal against Everton on the final day that kept us in the Premier League. Two goals. Six points. A defensive midfielder on loan, in a relegation fight, delivering the two moments that defined our entire season. Tottenham reportedly hold an option to buy at around £26m. That is not a decision. It is an obligation.Conor Gallagher: 6/10Nobody at this club had a more contradictory season than Gallagher. Under Frank he was consistently one of the poorest performers: anonymous, hesitant, a passenger in games Spurs were losing badly. Then De Zerbi arrived and the man was transformed. He scored at Villa Park, his first Tottenham goal, and was one of the most energetic presences in the run-in. De Zerbi said when he plays like that “we play with 12 men.” So: which version shows up next August? That is the only question that matters with Gallagher, and it has been the only question since the day he arrived.Yves Bissouma: 4/10Good riddance, more or less. Bissouma was peripheral under all three managers, never found a consistent level, and his best moments at the club now feel like a long time ago. The athleticism is still there occasionally, but fleetingly. Reports suggest he is heading for the exit this summer. Few will argue.Pape Matar Sarr: 5/10Still something there with Sarr: the ball-carrying, the tempo-shifting, the moments where he looks genuinely imposing in central midfield. The problem is those moments remain too rare, too isolated, too dependent on conditions being exactly right. He is only 23 so the patience argument still holds. But this season was not good enough, and under De Zerbi next year there will be no hiding.Dejan Kulusevski: N/AMissed the entire season through injury. Impossible to rate. Kulusevski under De Zerbi is one of the most compelling questions of the rebuild: a fully fit, motivated Kulusevski in a system built for his direct running and technical quality could be something. We genuinely cannot wait to find out.Credit: @thefrederikkejensen / InstagramTottenham’s forwardsRicharlison: 7/10The top scorer across all competitions with 10 goals, and a player who ran himself into the ground when it mattered. There were dreadful patches mid-season: goals dried up, confidence looked shot, the usual. But when De Zerbi came in and the stakes became existential, Richarlison showed up. Scored at Villa Park in the 2-1 win, contributed the assist for Palhinha’s winner at Wolves, pressed and chased and dragged others along with him in those final games when the club needed exactly that. He leaves this summer. He goes with our gratitude. That is not nothing.Mathys Tel: 7/10Electrifying, infuriating, exciting, costly, and worth keeping: all of those things, sometimes in the same 90 minutes. Tel scored a stunning curling opener against Leeds, then gave away the penalty that allowed them to equalise in what became a draw we could not afford. Jamie Carragher was livid. So were we, if we’re honest. But he crossed for Richarlison’s header at Villa Park and was a constant threat in the run-in. The talent is undeniable. De Zerbi is the right manager to sand down the rough edges. Keep him.Dominic Solanke: 4/10The striker problem at this club has not been solved since Harry Kane left in 2023, and Solanke has been central to that failure, not entirely through his own fault. He has never been given real service or real stability, the injury at Wolves all but ended his season when we needed him most, and there is a broader structural problem here that precedes him. All of that is true. The goals still have not come. Finding a genuine number nine this summer is not optional; it is the most urgent business the club has.Mohammed Kudus: 6/10One of the best performers in the opening weeks of the campaign, and the numbers backed it up: even after missing three months, Kudus had completed more dribbles than any other Tottenham player all season. The hamstring in January changed everything. Then a quad setback in April finished his season entirely. His absence exposed how much Spurs relied on his directness. What next season looks like with a fit Kudus in De Zerbi’s system is one of the genuinely exciting unknowns. We just need him on the pitch.Randal Kolo Muani: 3/10One goal and one assist in around 26 Premier League appearances. His loan was from PSG, and that is where he returns, with Juventus reportedly circling for a permanent deal. Either way, he will not be here next season. Said little. Did little. We move on.Wilson Odobert: 5/10Missed the second half of the season through injury, another ACL in a campaign that produced three of them. Impossible and wrong to rate. Odobert showed enough before that injury to make his return in 2026/27 genuinely anticipated. We hope the medical department has learned something from this year, because the same list of injuries happening again next season is not something any of us can survive.What next for Tottenham?We survived. That is the summary. Everything else, the Europa League trophy that now feels like ancient history, the Champions League group stage, the brief moments of promise, is context.What De Zerbi showed in seven games is that there is something to build on here. The bones are decent. The squad is younger and more interesting than the table suggested. But Palhinha must be signed permanently. Bentancur must be tied down. Van de Ven needs a new deal. A striker who actually scores needs to be found. And the injury crisis, three ACLs in one season, more than 285 weeks of player time lost across the squad, needs to be investigated with the seriousness it deserves, not quietly moved past.The players came through when it mattered. Now it is the club’s turn.READ MORE: Five 2025/26 mistakes Tottenham Hotspur must not repeat next seasonThe post Rating every Tottenham player out of 10 for the 2025/26 season, including 3/10 disappointment appeared first on Spurs Web.