\u201cTo dare is to do.\u201d Those words feel fitting as Tottenham turn to Roberto De Zerbi in a desperate bid to arrest a slide toward relegation. The outspoken Italian, best known for spells at Marseille and Brighton & Hove Albion, arrives with a reputation as one of the most influential tactical minds of his generation. His short-pass, possession-focused approach, labelled by many as De Zerbismo, has been widely copied and admired. Pep Guardiola once left a press conference early just to catch his Sassuolo team in action.<\/p>\n
De Zerbi is, however, a divisive figure. His public defense of Mason Greenwood at Marseille drew criticism from some supporters before his appointment. From a purely sporting angle, the choice is unconventional. Spurs sit just a single point above the relegation zone with seven games remaining, and the board could have opted for a manager experienced in top-flight survival. Instead they have gambled on a coach whose ideas demand time and adaptation.<\/p>\n
Reports say Tottenham offered De Zerbi a long-term deal that includes a \u201chuge survival bonus,\u201d with figures in the region of $13.2 million (\u00a310 million) mentioned, on top of a competitive salary. While costly, the alternative may be far worse. BBC Sport estimates Spurs could lose as much as $344.8 million if relegated, a financial consequence that reframes the outlay.<\/p>\n
There were suggestions De Zerbi preferred to wait until the threat had passed, yet Tottenham convinced the 46-year-old to commit. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to getting out on the training pitch and working with these players to achieve that.\u201d All it took was a golden rope.<\/p>\n
Off-field mismanagement, recruitment errors and dressing-room issues have been cited, but luck has also played its part. As Pedro Porro observed, Spurs \u201ccould field an XI of injured players that might even be stronger than the XI that\u2019s currently playing.\u201d The injury list has eased over the international break, with Rodrigo Bentancur and Mohammed Kudus potentially available early in De Zerbi\u2019s tenure. Kudus remains a crucial player, still the team\u2019s leading Premier League assist provider despite months out.<\/p>\n
The immediate task is clear: De Zerbi must transmit his specific style rapidly to a squad that can scarcely afford a prolonged settling-in period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roberto De Zerbi joins Tottenham as they sit one point above relegation with seven games remaining. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,1464],"tags":[1505,1081],"class_list":["post-10328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epl","category-tottenham","tag-accountability","tag-adaptation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}