Cast your mind back to the 2021-22 season and both Nuno Espirito Santo and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were weathering early storms.
But as a sign of how far these two have fallen, Spurs were ninth at the time while United were fifth. This was considered to be underwhelming. They’d bite your hands off for those spots now.
United got the job done with a 3-0 victory courtesy of goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford and Nuno was given the boot in the following days.
But what of that Spurs side? Here’s where the starting XI are now.
Hugo Lloris’ 12-year Spurs career came to an end in 2024 when he headed stateside to join Los Angeles FC.
They topped the Western Conference in his first season but lost in the semi-finals of the post-season playoffs, although he has lifted some silverware in the form of the U.S. Open Cup.
He’s 39 but still first choice and has kept 12 clean sheets in the 2026 season so far.
Emerson Royal left Spurs in the summer of 2024 and moved to Milan, but spent just a single season at the San Siro before returning to Brazil.
He’s been playing for Flamengo ever since but was linked with a move to Aston Villa in the summer.
He’s only 27 still, so could make a return to Europe at some point.
Spurs fans’ love/hate relationship with Cristian Romero ended this summer as he headed off to Atletico Madrid. Which seems the perfect home for him.
He’s had a decent start since arriving in Madrid and remarkably only has one yellow in four games. No red either.
Eric Dier’s unusual career continues as he is currently playing his football in Monaco, which is nice work if you can get it.
He most recently came back on English fans’ radar when he scored a penalty to draw 2-2 against Manchester City in the Champions League last season. And we still love *that* tackle on Sergio Ramos.
Davies is the sole survivor of this starting XI, still plugging away at Tottenham.
He’s pretty much there as a vibes guy now, having played just three Premier League matches last season, but Spurs handing him a contract extension in the summer showed they still valued having him around the place.
Having spent a season on loan initially, Hojbjerg moved on to Marseille permanently in the summer of 2025.
He’s still there now, but the club has had an awful start to the year and are in the relegation zone after five games.
Leicester signed Skipp in the summer of 2024 ahead of their Premier League campaign and if £50k a week is not a huge amount in the top flight, it certainly is in League One.
Skipp has been one of the clinger-ons at the Foxes, because frankly why would you give up the money? Back-to-back relegations mean he is one of several high earners Leicester are concerned about.
He is currently on loan at Charlton, with the Championship club reportedly paying a portion of his wages.
The hero of that night in Amsterdam returned to his home town club after his Spurs career came to an end in 2023.
Moura rejoined Sao Paulo, 11 years after leaving the club he first joined in 2005 and is still playing there now at the age of 34.
Lo Celso was a player who never seemed to really fit at Spurs and a five-year stint at the club amounted to 77 league appearances.
He was loaned out for the 2022-23 campaign to Villarreal before moving permanently back to Spain and Betis.
With Kane gone, Spurs fans had to then say goodbye to Son last summer.
His move was very sudden, with it being announced on a pre-season tour in Korea, meaning Spurs fans never got the chance to properly say goodbye, but the now 34-year-old left for the MLS and LA FC.
Linking up with Lloris once again, Son has scored 20 goals and provided 23 assists in his 49 games for the club.
Kane was already one of the world’s best back in 2021, but few would have seriously suggested he would ever be in Ballon d’Or contention.
His move to Bayern Munich has not only given him his long-awaited trophies but also the chances to score bags and bags of goals, meaning that while his former club are staring at the relegation zone, he has a serious chance of being named the best player on the planet.
His contract reportedly includes a clause giving Spurs first refusal on any future transfer, so a return isn’t completely ruled out.
One of the more forgettable Spurs players, bar that injury-time madness at Leicester, moved back to the Netherlands and joined Ajax in 2022, having once been part of their youth academy.
In 2024, he took the Saudi money with a move to Al-Ittihad.
The player that infuriated Jose Mourinho left Spurs in 2024 permanently after a series of loans across Europe.
His landing spot was Nice, who he played for in the past two seasons but they opted to let his contract expire in the summer and he is currently without a club. Possibly the worst big-money Levy signing.
Alli made an appearance in what turned out to be his final season at Spurs. Since then, he moved to Everton, Besiktas on loan and then Como, but has not had a club since last year.
These days, he’s largely streaming on Twitch.
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