Rio Ferdinand says he would turn down Tottenham if he was in Roberto De Zerbi’s position, warning the Italian concerning the club’s apparent lack of ambition and refusal to ‘spend like an enormous team’.
De Zerbi has emerged because the clear frontrunner to select up the pieces following Igor Tudor’s dismissal just 44 days into his disastrous reign in north London.
Relegation-threatened Spurs are keen for De Zerbi to take over on a everlasting basis and the previous Brighton head coach has reportedly been offered a five-year contract.
In response to Sky Sports, talks are progressing at a pace and the 46-year-old is open to the prospect of taking charge despite previously underlining his preference to attend until the summer to contemplate his options after leaving Marseille.
De Zerbi had been among the many leading candidates to administer Tottenham after Ange Postecoglou’s departure at end of the last season, just for Thomas Frank to take over the reins.
The Europa League holders are hovering only one point above the relegation zone following a dismal 3-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest before the international break.
Club bosses are determined to tie down a brand new manager before the side return to Premier League motion away to Sunderland on April 12.
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‘Imagine going right into a club like Spurs with the stadium, the training ground… imagine the walk-around of the facilities, it’s like the perfect at school,’ Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel when addressing the messy situation at Spurs.
‘But obviously on the pitch in looks very different.
‘Listen, in the mean time I’d be more apprehensive concerning the hierarchy, I’d be looking into that. Why has it gone so flawed for thus many? Big names, recent ones… why has this place not been capable of kick on?
‘I don’t understand it because they’ve got all of it sitting there… are they [the hierarchy] going to be a hinderance to me [Tottenham’s next manager] behind the scenes? Are they going to break my repute much more now? What’s the situation here?’
Though an admirer of De Zerbi, Ferdinand questioned whether taking the Tottenham job can be the suitable move for the ex-Brighton boss considering the desperate situation the club find themselves in.
‘I’ve at all times championed De Zerbi, I feel he’s an incredible manager. He’s a considering manager, he’s at all times in search of recent, revolutionary ways to construct his teams.
‘This is likely to be the proper time to get him but are Spurs in the suitable situation for him?’
In response to Ferdinand, Tottenham can only be considered a ‘big club’ in the event that they start spending and recruiting on the identical scale as their rivals at the alternative end of the Premier League table.
‘I’ve got to be honest, I wouldn’t go to Spurs straight away,’ he added.
‘I just think it’s a club that’s in such a nasty way and there have been far too many managers which have failed there.
‘That’s not the one thing because we will take a look at a number of clubs like that. But they call themselves an enormous club or wanting to be an enormous club, they’re bemused after they’re not mentioned in the large club bracket.
‘But they don’t spend like an enormous club to draw the most important players after which they wonder why they’re not in the highest echelon of football clubs in that sense, while you take a look at them on the pitch and their output.’
Asked which members of Tottenham’s current squad could thrive under De Zerbi’s management, Ferdinand replied: ‘I actually couldn’t let you know, I couldn’t let you know.
‘I assumed [Micky] van de Ven was going to be a top centre-half. Is it him or is it the dearth of stability on the football club or the tactics, the way in which the team is being arrange that’s making him look bad? I don’t know.
‘I can undergo so many players… I spoke to Carlo Ancelotti when he was the Everton manager and he had Richarlison there and he said this kid would play for a Real Madrid or a team like that, a category A club in Europe sooner or later.
‘He couldn’t be further away from it if he tried straight away. Is that all the way down to him [Richarlison] or is that all the way down to the environment that he’s in at Spurs?
‘There are far too many players which can be underachieving with their quality from what we’ve seen before.’
Ferdinand picked out Xavi Simons as one other example of a player who has regressed at Tottenham, saying the Dutchman ‘looks a shadow of himself’ since arriving in English football.
‘Have a look at Xavi Simons on the Euros, he was good for the Netherlands and his club football, he was flying,’ the ex-Manchester United and England defender went on.
‘He’s gone to Spurs and he looks a shadow of himself, confidence has dropped, the environment is sucking the life out of those players.
‘James Maddison has obviously had a number of injuries but he wasn’t the Maddison of Leicester, pulling up trees and getting them out of situations consistently on a regular basis.’
Should De Zerbi take the Tottenham job?
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