Pedro Porro says Tottenham’s brutal survival battle felt like losing “100 kilos” after De Zerbi kept the club up.
Pedro Porro has spoken candidly about the emotional and physical toll of Tottenham‘s survival battle, describing the sense of liberation he felt at the end of the season as comparable to losing 100 kilos and crediting Roberto De Zerbi’s arrival as the decisive factor that kept the club in the Premier League.
The Spanish right-back’s words paint a vivid picture of life inside the Tottenham dressing room during the most pressurised months of the campaign, and his honesty about the difficulty of the season reflects a player who has processed a genuinely traumatic collective experience. Porro said ahead of the 2026 World Cup (h/t Chris Cowlin on X):
“Physically and mentally, I feel so much better now after the end of season. When you lose 100 kilos away from you it’s like that, because we had a tough end to the season in Tottenham. It was really tough, but everything turned out great, and that’s what matters most. Roberto came in and kept us in the Premier League.”
His broader reflection on the campaign was equally honest, placing this season in the context of the previous one and acknowledging that the injury problems were real without using them as a convenient excuse. Porro continued:
“It was a very difficult season, just like the one before. I’d say because last season we won the Europa League. But we didn’t do well in the league. And this year was more of the same. We had ten, fifteen injuries. Those aren’t excuses because we have a great squad, but soccer is sometimes very complicated. You get into situations like this, and you just have to get out of them however you can.”
The acknowledgement that consecutive difficult league campaigns represent a pattern rather than isolated bad luck is an important one. Porro is not hiding behind the injury list, recognising instead that a great squad producing poor league results across two seasons points to something deeper that needed addressing, and that De Zerbi’s arrival has begun that process.
Pedro Porro’s relief is understandable
His relief is palpable and entirely understandable. A player who has given everything in a season that nearly ended in catastrophe is entitled to feel the weight lifting at the final whistle. The question now is whether that relief translates into the kind of reinvigorated hunger that De Zerbi will need from every player in his squad when the new season begins.