Tottenham may have survived, but the mood around the club is anything but celebratory. A tense 1-0 win over Everton preserved their Premier League status and consigned West Ham, Wolves and Burnley to relegation, yet the final whistle brought as many questions as it did relief.

For the second successive season Spurs have finished 17th, clinging to safety in a manner Gary Neville described as “pathetic”. The former defender turned broadcaster delivered a scathing assessment of a club he believes has lost its way, on and off the pitch.

“This is Tottenham Hotspur, a club steeped in incredible traditions,” Neville said. “They’ve been underachievers and underperforming for a long time, but this is another level of underachievement and hitting new lows.”

Joao Palhinha’s decisive goal against Everton spared Spurs from disaster, yet Neville argued that the narrow escape only underlined the scale of the crisis. He accused the squad of being “flimsy, weak, vulnerable” and insisted that an “autopsy” must begin immediately.

His criticism extended to the ownership, highlighting a chaotic sequence of managerial appointments and sackings, from Ange Postecoglou to Thomas Frank, Igor Tudor and now Roberto De Zerbi. “What a rollercoaster of a season,” Neville said. “The owners have lost a lot of credibility and trust. They’ve failed the fans on the pitch – that is most important.”

De Zerbi, however, used survival as a starting gun rather than a finish line. The Italian head coach outlined an uncompromising vision for a rebuild, speaking of the “team I have in my dream” and warning that only around a dozen current players are guaranteed a place in his plans.

“From tonight, we have to start to organise and build a new team,” he said. “We have 10, 11, 12 players good enough to stay. Then we have to complete the squad with first-level players. We are Tottenham and we can’t suffer like this until the last second of the last game to stay up.”

De Zerbi namechecked Palhinha, Conor Gallagher and Randal Kolo Muani as players he wants to keep, while centre-back Micky van de Ven insisted the club is finally “on the right path” under the new coach. Yet after back-to-back 17th-place finishes, belief at Tottenham will be measured not in words, but in the ruthlessness of the reset that now follows.