Let’s start with the positives. It might be higher to commit a head coach to Spurs for greater than just the seven remaining games of the season. The players may benefit from having a plan to purchase into, and confidence arising from knowing that the longer term has been considered. It’s price almost any managerial price to remain within the Premier League, given relegation costs £350million. Employing a manager with Premier League experience is important.
But, for Tottenham, making Roberto De Zerbi reportedly the third-highest paid manager within the league – on a take care of no relegation clause – means the rubbernecking only intensifies. What’s it about his profession at Brighton and Marseille that tells you he’s price such an investment?
All I can glean from the announcement is that either he or his agent is negotiator, willing to strike at a time of peak vulnerability for his prospective employer. How do you receives a commission more? You either propose a bigger salary, otherwise you secure an extended deal. Or, if the client is absolutely desperate, you do each. The Tottenham board can spin the choice as an investment within the club’s future. It doesn’t persuade.
And let’s not forget the discomfort with which some fans view the appointment of De Zerbi in the primary place. Three fan groups issued joint statements reminding the board that ‘De Zerbi has publicly defended Mason Greenwood in a way that downplays the seriousness of male violence against women and girls. That raises serious questions on judgement and leadership.’
Greenwood was charged in 2022 with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault. The costs were dropped in 2023. In November when De Zerbi was Marseille boss, he described Greenwood as a ‘good guy’.
The purpose these fans are making is this doesn’t just raise questions on De Zerbi’s judgement, but additionally of the senior figures at Tottenham who’ve made the choice.
Executives on the club have been understandably praised for little or no this season, but conversations about improving the ‘culture’ of the organisation, led by former Arsenal exec Vinai Venkatesham, have been greeted with optimism internally. De Zerbi’s appointment seems only to undermine them.
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His flamable personal style can be a cause for concern. Before we even get into how the ragged collection of players available to the club might play anything approaching De Zerbi ball. Key to which will probably be crushed second-choice keeper Antonin Kinsky, who needs to start out in the primary game of the Italian’s reign against Sunderland in lower than a fortnight.
Talking seriously a couple of first relegation since 1977 has been recent experience for a lot of Spurs fans, including me. The angst across the board’s recalcitrant sacking of Thomas Frank, the misguided – and transient – appointment of Igor Tudor, the continued slide towards serious trouble. These were all struggles we could take care of as a unit.
And so we did: the Cup Final atmosphere ahead of the recent Nottingham Forest game showed what a motivated, unified crowd might be. Be at liberty to proceed to mock, but I’ll at all times feel pleased with what we showed in Tottenham that day.
As the necessity for Tudor’s departure crystallised, the potential candidate list was understandably sparse. Most fans at that stage considered a reference to the club to be key, the built-in respect that will flow in each directions vital.
De Zerbi has no connection. There may be also no evidence from his profession to point that he’s the master of a fast turnaround. He’s been appointed in-season thrice – from his first five games at Palermo, Benevento and Brighton in total he secured only a single win.
When Tudor was originally appointed, many hoped he would secure survival and keep Mauricio Pochettino’s seat warm until after the World Cup. Though De Zerbi’s track record signifies that his lasting greater than a couple of months in north London seems unlikely, his five-year deal effectively kills that dream. The guardians of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club have subsequently traded the last word fan unity candidate for… this guy. They’d higher have seen something I haven’t.
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