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Andy Robertson admits Tottenham are still burdened by two years of dismal Premier League form and the repercussions of last season's relegation scare.
After successive 17th place finishes, Spurs are rock bottom at the international break and winless with only two points and two goals from five games.
The bright new dawn anticipated after improvement under Roberto De Zerbi at the end of last season and nearly £400million spent in the summer transfer market has yet to materialise.
'They've had a couple of really tough seasons in terms of finishes in the league,' Robertson, 32, told the Stick to Football podcast on Disney+. 'They've had to go into the market in terms of they've spent a bit of money, but I do believe Tottenham are now starting a journey.
'I don't know how far that journey can go, nobody does, but the determination in that group is, like, you can see last season hurt them a lot. And maybe we're still guilty of carrying that weight of last season on our shoulders.'
Scotland captain Robertson, signed on a free from Liverpool, is one of ten signings, all with some Premier League experience to strengthen resolve and maturity inside the dressing room, but the impact on results has been negligible.
Andy Robertson admits Tottenham are still burdened by two years of dismal Premier League form
The bright new dawn anticipated after improvement under Roberto De Zerbi has yet to materialise
After successive 17th place finishes, Spurs are rock bottom at the international break
Spurs are performing worse than last season under De Zerbi when they took 11 points from seven games.
'We need to forget,' said Robertson, and he referred to the impact of the first goal conceded in a 2-0 defeat at home against Newcastle on the mood inside the stadium.
'We need to now try and get Tottenham back to where we believe they belong. And the fans are still carrying it as well, and you don't blame them. They've been through such a tough time.'
He insists there have been signs of progress for Roberto De Zerbi despite collecting only two points from a possible 15 and crashing out of the Carabao Cup against his former club at Anfield.
'We need the first win, and once we get the first win, I think we'll be really good this season,' he added.
Spurs tried to sign Robertson in January but he was not ready to leave Anfield in mid-season.
'I didn't want to leave but Tottenham came in for me,' he said. 'They were bang in trouble at that point. It was never in my plan to leave in January. I had six months left and I had the World Cup.
'But in January time, it started becoming real that I was going to leave, and that's when I came to peace with it, really.
'It was always Tottenham - as long as they stayed up! At that point, I didn't quite want to go to the Championship. So that was the thing, I ended up then getting invested in Tottenham, watching them and especially when De Zerbi came in, I was fully confident.
'They showed their interest first, and they really wanted me, and I was happy with how much they wanted me.'
De Zerbi helped to sell the Spurs vision to Robertson.
'We had a couple of video calls over the summer,' said the Scot. 'He's super ambitious. He wants to be able to win trophies, he wants to be competing and things like that, and he knows it will take time, but he also knows that we need to start showing it sooner rather than later.
'He believes in the squad. And I believe in the squad. Even looking at the team we played against Liverpool in the cup… you've got so much quality, and so many good players, it's just we all need to show it as one, instead of maybe a bit of individual quality.
'We just need a little bit of luck, and we need a little bit more of forgetting about the past and how we need to move forward. I do think as the season goes on, we'll get better.'
