Roberto De Zerbi is the new Tottenham Hotspur manager after Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange did everything they could to convince the Italian manager to commit to them immediately, which included countless dollar signs. But De Zerbi is here, and he may not like the players Spurs have at his disposal. Here are three players he will surely not rate upon his arrival at the club.
CB Radu Dragusin
Although Radu Dragusin played in Serie A at the time Roberto De Zerbi coached in Italy at Sassuolo, he never got much game time as a failed Juventus prospect. It was only later when he emerged at Genoa, and his issue, which Spurs are finding out rapidly, is that he can never play for a top club because he is so atrocious on the ball. Dragusin is a decent defender who works hard, but he is so awful on the ball that De Zerbi will discard him immediately in a system that emphasizes ball security and progression.
CM Conor Gallagher
Conor Gallagher has been an abject failure of a transfer, which anyone with footballing sense who reasoning goes beyond buzz words like "leadership" and "Premier League experience". The man cannot create or even just play the ball forward. De Zerbi is going to pull his hair out until he looks like Daniel Levy dealing with this guy in midfield, because he is the antithesis of the kind of player RDZ values. Gallagher is the worst kind of sideways passer.
Between the two veteran players, the former Brighton man Yves Bissouma will likely be preferred, because he's actually driven the ball forward more often than Gallagher this season for Spurs.
DM Joao Palhinha
Joao Palhinha's days were already starting to look numbered, but now that De Zerbi has arrived as the new Tottenham Hotspur manager, the Portuguese international is all but guaranteed to head back to Bayern Munich with a very uncertain future. He can defend at a high level and even score the occasional banger by surprise, but he is so lacking in quality on the ball that he is only a step above Radu Dragusin as a midfielder.
De Zerbi is going to favor Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray heavily, which will leave Gallagher and Palhinha as clear afterthoughts. And once Rodrigo Bentancur comes back, Palhinha will really have no road to playing time, though he will probably be less hated than Gallagher.