Spurs home wins against the might of Villa, Palace and Southampton have only papered over the cracks. A home defeat by relegation haunted Newcastle, only drawing with cannon fodder Olympiakos, a loss to Leicester and being knocked out by Colchester told a different story.
Ths club achieved the virtually impossible last season but Pochettino has known the crisis was coming for some time. The double transfer window lack of any effective spending which was either imposed or at least followed last season has left the club with want away 'stars' like Erikssen - is he really interested now? and a manager who was practically shouting to Man United "come and get me before this hits" last year when Olé took the wheel.
A tough wage structure, stars coming to or at the end of their contract, a new stadium leaving the club with money already committed before anything left, hasn't left Pochettino thinking there's a bright future at Spurs.
Publicly he'll have to say all the right things but you can usually see the lack of enthusiasm, the body language and the leaks about his real intentions, he wanted to leave - thought a champions league final impossible to even get anywhere near last season and he still wants to leave. The problems have been there for a long time.
Any stories or rumours about dressing room fights or other off field scandals are just a symptom of the underlying problems at Spurs, no club can effectively compete with the far richer English or continental clubs if it has a wage structure imposed by Levy which pays well below the going rate, relatively speaking and buttons by City's standards. The situation can't endure for long the crisis was always coming, no transfers in last season just brought it a lot nearer.