Gary Lineker has a theory behind why Tottenham Hotspur had a weak end to the season.

Spurs, at one point, were in the driving seat to finish inside the top four. Champions League qualification seemed to be in their hands, but results didn’t go their way in the final two months of the campaign.

Tottenham won just two of their last seven games of the season in the Premier League and finished fifth, just three points ahead of Chelsea.

Gary Lineker makes claim about what happened to Tottenham after Destiny Udogie’s injury

Destiny Udogie joined Tottenham from Udinese in the summer of 2022 for an initial fee of £15 million (BBC).

The Italian spent that season on loan there and he impressed. He came to Tottenham before the start of the 2023/24 season, and he caught Ange Postecoglou‘s eye.

The Spurs boss made Udogie his first-choice left-back, and he started the season in fantastic style. He blew everyone away with his performances.

Udogie was Tottenham’s main man at left full-back, and Tottenham really struggled whenever he was unavailable in the first half of the season.

Then, in April, Spurs’ worst fears came true – Udogie suffered a serious injury that ended his season.

Tottenham managed just two wins without him in the side from that point, and in the end, they finished fifth, missing out on a place in next season’s Champions League.

Lineker named Udogie in his Team of the Season, and he believes that the Italian’s injury is one of the reasons why Spurs collapsed as badly as they did in the final few weeks of the campaign.

He said on The Rest is Football podcast: “I’m actually going to go with Destiny Udogie. I know he has been injured over the last month or so but I think out of all the left-backs…

“I think he’s probably the best Italian player around at the moment. I think he is one of the reasons that Spurs kind of tailed off a little bit, that injury he got. It’s a real shame that he won’t be at the Euros as well.”

READ MORE: Ashley Cole shares what he really thinks about Destiny Udogie

Tottenham’s stats without Udogie will shock you

Everyone knew Destiny Udogie was a huge talent, but nobody would’ve expected him to have such a huge impact at Tottenham in his debut season.

The Italy international played 30 times for Spurs in all competitions and was good more often than not. But, the problem for the North Londoners came in the games in which he was unavailable.

Tottenham played 11 games without Udogie this season and managed to win just four of those fixtures. Three of those four victories were decided by a one-goal margin.

Spurs scored 15 and conceded 21 goals in the games they played without him, which is a shocking statistic.

This doesn’t just prove how important Udogie is for Tottenham but it also tells Postecoglou how important signing a new left-back is this summer.