Roberto De Zerbi has warned Tottenham’s biggest rivals they will continue to spend after Savinho joined from Manchester City in the latest big-money move.
Spurs’ long-standing pursuit of Savinho, who wishes to be referred to as Savio moving forward, finally concluded on Tuesday morning when the 22-year-old joined for an initial £75million with a further £10m part of the overall package as add-ons.
It has taken Tottenham’s expenditure in the first summer of the post-Daniel Levy era, after his September departure, beyond the £300m mark and even though they were humbled in Saturday’s Premier League opener at Brentford, De Zerbi wants more big transfers.
Ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup second round tie at home to Charlton, De Zerbi said: “I don’t feel pressure about the transfer market. If I can, I want to spend more money again without problems, because the other teams don’t spend anything different.
“I feel pressure because I am working in one of the best clubs in the world and I would like to help this club to compete to win the titles.
“I don’t know (whether) this season or next season, but, in the end, it’s my big target, my personal target.
“We have nothing less than the other big clubs in the Premier League, especially now in my time. We are moving very well in the transfer market and why not?
“I can’t understand why Tottenham can’t compete with Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal. I don’t understand why Tottenham can’t spend the same money as Chelsea, Liverpool.”
After Jan Paul van Hecke, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali for a combined total of £237m, Savinho’s arrival should be the first of a double swoop on Man City with Omar Marmoush still expected to join Spurs, the Press Association understands.
However, De Zerbi acknowledged they will need time and challenged his new-look group to win five matches in a row in a bid to change the mentality of the club after back-to-back 17th-place finishes in the Premier League.
“I would like to win five games in a row, changing the habits, the environment of the team group, that’s the medical and physical staff, my staff, because we are maybe not now but in a few weeks, we will be ready to win three, four, five games in a row,” De Zerbi said, with Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro set to be on the bench against Charlton.
“I said to the players – last season, in a worse situation, we showed character and we showed balls, we showed pride. We showed the qualities of the players and we think now we have to stay calm.
“Chelsea, for example, at the beginning they spent two or three seasons to become a team. I think we can do for sure faster, but we need to work harder, everyone together, stay focused and with a clear head. Not destructing everything if we lose one game.”
De Zerbi also called on Savinho to embrace life as Tottenham’s key player.
“He must become one of the key players,” De Zerbi said. “The improvement is to become better, to take more responsibility. Not just Savio, but also the other players.
“He’s arrived at that moment, and we are here to help him, to hug him, to give all the instruction, all the information he needs.”