Roberto de Zerbi conceded that Tottenham have a 'mentality problem.'
The Italian fought to help keep the club in the Premier League in the last two months of the 2025/26 season, but their hefty expenditure does not seem to have turned around the fortunes of the team.
Spurs struggling for results
Defeats to Newcastle United and Brentford have seen Spurs ship five goals and fail to score one across 180 minutes of football as the stylish patterns associated with de Zerbi are yet to materialise.
But a bigger problem according to the head coach might be the spirit missing within the squad.
'You can't buy the mentality in the transfer market'
"It's the biggest problem, it's the biggest challenge and it's the biggest target to find the right mentality. Unfortunately, you can't buy the mentality in the transfer market or putting many players inside. Football is like a magic thing, you know? You can change many players in a window, in one window of transfer market and you can find the balance immediately or you need more time.
"I think we achieve this target and this goal. I would like to achieve this target quickly and as soon as possible because it is crucial to play football, but the plan and the project of the club and what we are doing to build and rebuild a new team with new players is a great plan and a great project. I have no doubt the result of this project. We have to accept and to be stronger to move on after this defeat.
"I think in the first half, if we scored two goals today, now we would have talked about different things, unfortunately we lost the game, and you know in Italian, who wins, celebrates, and who loses, explain why and I'm explaining why."