Gus Poyet has claimed that his former club Tottenham Hotspur have reached the "end of an era" and need to "change everything" in order to get back on track.
Spurs almost crowned years of progress under Mauricio Pochettino with Champions League glory last season, reaching the final only to be beaten by Premier League rivals Liverpool in Madrid.
Pochettino has since been sacked following a poor start to the 2019-20 campaign, and matters have barely improved under Jose Mourinho with Spurs sitting eighth in the Premier League table and having been knocked out of all three cup competitions before football was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Mourinho's appointment has already questioned as a result of that form, but Poyet believes that there is a wider issue with the club which now needs to be addressed.
"I think it is the end of an era, the end of a process. At certain places, you can manage the process in a way by slowly changing. Sir Alex Ferguson was the master of that. He was always one step ahead of allowing important players to leave and then replace them," Poyet told Goal.com.
"There are other places where you hang onto a team until the end and then you feel like you have to change everything. I think Tottenham is in that place at the moment. This defends every manager in the world, not only Jose Mourinho.
"They had their finances and a clear plan under Pochettino to build a training ground and stadium, taking them to another level. Somehow they still did well without too many changes in their squad. The strategy took them to a higher level but now they need to focus on the sports side again. I wouldn't be too critical. That's football that you need to tweak it after a while."
Tottenham failed to win any of their six games prior to the shutdown of football - the longest winless run of Mourinho's managerial career.
Barney Corkhill
