You’ve spent a fortune to travel 300 miles from north London to Newcastle and your team is 5-0 down after 21 minutes. Do you stick by them, either out of duty or in the hope that they pull off the greatest comeback in Premier League history – even more spectacular than when Newcastle themselves came from 4-0 down to draw with Arsenal – or do you make an early exit? That was the dilemma facing the travelling Spurs fans on Sunday and quite a few decided they had seen enough.
If the supporters wanted to send a message to the club, it worked. Tottenham reacted to the 6-1 defeat by sacking their caretaker manager Cristian Stellini, the second time the club had ditched a manager in three weeks. But is leaving a game early really in the spiri…