Roberto De Zerbi has been warned that he is already on very thin ice at Tottenham Hotspur, with the Italian accused of blaming his players instead of taking responsibility himself, and with his big-spending regime in danger of leading to his very rapid sack, three pundits have warned.
After successive 17th-placed finishes in the Premier League, the latter of which left the club sailing perilously close to the relegation trapdoor, Spurs decided enough was enough.
As a result, the club decided to renege on their previous frugal state of mind and opted to invest the best part of £320m (€374m, $431m) into their squad, with another wedge of cash promised should a series of other loan deals become permanent arrangements.
Yet four games into the new season, Spurs have just two points to their name and are yet to score a single goal, leaving them, yep (!) 17th again in the embryonic 2026/27 Premier League table.
With a vital week ahead, Spurs will hope for positive results against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup third round on Tuesday night, before what is, effectively now, a must-win clash at home to Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime.
Defeat in both those games will crank up the heat on De Zerbi to huge levels and, going into the international break, some pundits already fear it’s the beginning of the end for the often-tempestuous Italian.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s All Access podcast, journalist Alex Crook began: “I think this is going to unravel pretty quickly for Tottenham and Roberto De Zerbi because he’s already getting his excuses in.
“I think he mentioned the number of passes they played, the number of opportunities they had, and he was basically saying, ‘well, it’s not my fault my team can’t put the ball in the back of the net. We kept a clean sheet; therefore, I’ve done my job.’
“But he is already passing responsibility. He is already outing players like Tel.
“I don’t think this is going to last very long.”
With the heat growing on the 47-year-old, who has a reputation for falling out with his employers, two other pundits have questioned De Zerbi’s actions, with one calling on him to stop being a “bully” to his players…
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De Zerbi sack? Italian ‘bully’ needs to stop blaming his players
Pundit Troy Deeney, meanwhile, has been left unimpressed by De Zerbi’s tendency to blame his players for their failings, rather than take their poor results on the chin himself.
“What he is already doing is laying into everybody else, the media, the fans and saying, ‘there’s your problem, it’s not me’.
“He stinks to me as a bit of a bully, to be honest.
“Richarlison, who I am not the biggest fan of, is not the same kid I knew at Watford, but he’d been doing alright now.
“He has a bit of fight about him and puts his body around and maybe get a goal.
“Now, he’s not even in the squad, so Richarlison was a problem, and you made him look silly.
“Now, it’s Tel, and it’s so cheap and easy to find one person and say, ‘you’re the problem.’
“What about [Mateus] Fernandes? The kid you spent £85 million on?
“He was f****** mint again, wasn’t he?
“[Sandro] Tonali, who you spent £100m on. Can he pass it and dictate a game?
“What about the winger you brought in [Savio]? Or are you going to just let [Omar] Marmoush keep shooting from 65 yards, so at some point, it’s got to be with the lads.
“I think his ability to self-harm and self-sabotage is going to be the unravelling of this over the next four to five weeks.”
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Despite that, Spurs fan and talkSPORT contributor Ricky Sacks (name is genuine, not a pun!) insists De Zerbi can still turn it around.
“I think we will come good. I think you have to bear in mind De Zerbi, when he first started at Brighton, he didn’t win his first five. Lewis Dunk said it takes around five to 10 games to really understand what De Zerbi ball is.
“You have to bear in mind, we’re playing a different style of football with De Zerbi this season in comparison to last.
“We are trying to gel with nine to 10 new faces. That is going to take a bit of time.”