Inside Futbol

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Tottenham Hotspur legend Graham Roberts has talked up the impact that Rodrigo Bentancur has had since he returned to the side from injury.

The 28-year-old midfielder has endured a difficult campaign, due to a hamstring injury which forced him to miss 16 games, and limited him to just 23 appearances in the Premier League this season.

Spurs moved out of the relegation zone following a 2-1 win over Aston Villa on Sunday and first-half goals from Conor Gallagher as well as Richarlison were enough for them to see off Unai Emery’s men.

Following his return from injury, Bentancur has been impressive for Spurs, playing 224 minutes across the last three matches, with De Zerbi still keeping an eye on his game time following his absence.

Spurs legend Roberts believes that the midfielder has made a big difference since his return from injury, helping contribute to the turnaround under De Zerbi.

The ex-Tottenham man is impressed with the midfield trio of Bentancur, Conor Gallagher and Joao Palhinha in general, while he also noted that Randal Kolo Muani has stepped up.

Roberts wrote on X: “Bentancur has made such a difference to the team he has suffered terrible injuries but so so important for us.

Club Years Boca Juniors 2015-2017 Juventus 2017-2022 Tottenham Hotspur 2022- Rodrigo Bentancur’s career history

“That midfield 3 are proper men and that’s what we need now in this period.

“Muani did great too.”

Spurs are currently 17th in the league table on 37 points, just one point above the relegation zone, and are locked in a survival battle with Nottingham Forest and West Ham United.

The Lilywhites have parted ways with two managers this season, Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, and appointed Roberto De Zerbi to secure Premier League survival, and an ex-Spurs boss believes the Italian head coach could become a ‘hero’ if he manages to avoid the drop.

Under De Zerbi, Spurs are unbeaten in the last three Premier League games, a brilliant turn in form, after they failed to win a single game in the calendar year before he arrived at the club.

Spurs will host Leeds United next at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 11th May, and then travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on 19th May, before ending the season at home against Everton on 24th May.

De Zerbi will be keen to keep Bentancur fit throughout Spurs’ remaining games as he plays a key role in their survival fight.

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Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi is wary of his side’s next opponents, Leeds United, who he feels have been playing well of late and are ‘deserving’ of where they are in the table.

Spurs have moved out of the Premier League relegation zone after a 2-1 win against Aston Villa, and have secured consecutive league victories for the first time since August.

Conor Gallagher opened the scoring in the 12th minute and Richarlison doubled the lead in the 25th minute which proved enough to take all three points and move Tottenham a point clear of the relegation zone.

De Zerbi’s side cannot afford to let up and are due to welcome Leeds to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next up.

Leeds recorded a comfortable 3-1 victory over Burnley in their most recent Premier League outing, with Anton Stach, Noah Okafor and Dominic Calvert-Lewin all finding the back of the net.

De Zerbi has taken note of how Leeds have been playing under Daniel Farke of late and is expecting a tough clash.

Despite sitting on 43 points, Leeds are not yet mathematically sure of avoiding the drop and securing at least a point at Tottenham would help.

Result Competition Leeds United 1-2 Tottenham Premier League Leeds United 1-4 Tottenham Premier League Tottenham 4-3 Leeds United Premier League Last three Leeds United-Tottenham meetings

The Tottenham manager is not getting carried away about pulling out of the relegation zone and wants the focus to instantly go on to Leeds, who he thinks fully deserve to be where they are in the table.

Asked about how he feels with Spurs going out of the drop zone, De Zerbi told TNT Sports: “Nothing because the season is not finished yet.

“We have to play another three games, starting on Monday night with Leeds.

“Leeds are playing very well. They are deserving of staying in this position in the table.

“We can’t forget what the situation was before Wolverhampton.

“It was a very sad situation and these memories have to stay in our heads every day, especially in this week, after this win.”

Leeds have won three of their last five Premier League games and also managed to reach the semi-final stage of the FA Cup before being knocked out, in what has been a superb campaign so far for the Yorkshire giants.

The earlier meeting between the two teams this season saw Tottenham visit Elland Road and come away with a 2-1 win.

Spurs also have a good recent record against the Whites, having won each of the past five meetings and, with their upturn under De Zerbi, will likely start as favourites to make it six.

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Tottenham Hotspur boss Roberto De Zerbi has slammed the negativity around the club, dubbing it rubbish ahead of a crucial fixture against Aston Villa on Sunday.

Spurs finally earned a win in 2026 last week at Wolves, but the victory came at the cost of injuries to Xavi Simons and Dominic Solanke as Tottenham’s injury list stretched further.

The injuries, with West Ham United also winning, led to media focus being turned to questioning Spurs’ medical staff and pitches, rather than remaining on the positive result.

De Zerbi asked everyone associated with the club to ‘silence the voice inside of us’ as the voice can lead to ‘negative thoughts’ that say ‘we are unlucky, we have too many injuries’.

The Spurs manager slammed negative lines of thinking, dubbing it ‘rubbish’, and instead chose to focus on positive aspects such as the quality of the Spurs players.

De Zerbi said in a press conference: “Listen, I want to be clear one time.

“The most important challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us, inside of the players, the staff, the fans.

“This voice produce negative thoughts and the voice says we are unlucky, we have too many injuries.

“We lost Xavi Simons and he was one of the most important players for us in the past two games.

“Our medical staff is not good enough, our stadium pitch is not good enough, our training pitch is not good enough.

“Winning two or three games in a row no because we hadn’t won a game in 2026.

“It’s all negative things and it’s rubbish.

“I want to keep the focus on myself and the quality of my players.”

De Zerbi also feels that it will not be ‘a miracle’ if Spurs win at Villa Park, as he called the Lilywhites a ‘big club’ while acknowledging that Aston Villa are ‘one of the best teams’ in the division.

“We go to play one of the best teams in the Premier League at the moment but if Tottenham win at Villa Park it’s not a miracle.

“Maybe we lose but we have the quality to win this game.

“We have to be positive because we are lucky to work in a big club.”

Tottenham are in the last chance saloon, with former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp feeling that De Zerbi would earn hero status if he could stave off relegation.

De Zerbi himself feels that the Spurs squad have bought into his methods, an idea that has been reinforced by Marseille defender Facundo Medina’s claims that he was hurt by the departure of the manager.

Tottenham fans might be hoping that Villa’s loss to Nottingham Forest in the Europa League semi-first leg proves to be beneficial to their cause, as Unai Emery plots to overturn the deficit next week.

De Zerbi though, true to his words, is likely to focus on himself and his squad, irrespective of the line-up Emery chooses to put out on Sunday.

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Inter Milan have agreed draft personal terms with Tottenham Hotspur custodian Guglielmo Vicario, but the Serie A giants are also considering promoting Josep Martinez as their number 1 next season.

The San Siro giants are looking to bring in a quality custodian next term ahead of the expected exit of experienced goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

Inter Milan have identified options and Tottenham’s Vicario has been the clear front-runner to arrive in Italy.

Cristian Civu’s side had a look at Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez, but Vicario has been chosen as the preferred target over the Argentine due to his lower wage demands.

Inter Milan have even started to lay the groundwork on a swoop for Vicario, led by Inter Milan’s sporting director Piero Ausilio, who headed to England for talks.

Moving for the Tottenham man has not pleased everyone associated with Inter Milan though.

One former Italy goalkeeper suggested the Nerazzurri go for other options rather than Vicario, who he believes is not the best available option around.

The Serie A table-toppers, though, are pushing ahead and have now have a ‘draft agreement’ with Vicario, according to Italian journalist Maurizio Russo.

Goalkeeper Age Josep Martinez 27 Yann Sommer 37 Raffaele Di Gennaro 32 Inter Milan’s goalkeepers

However, other options are still open for the Nerazzurri, who are evaluating whether they will promote Martinez as their first choice next season.

The former Barcelona youth product has been at Inter Milan for almost two years now, having played only 18 times across all competitions.

The 27-year-old Spaniard has clubs from La Liga and Serie A keen on him and if a positive decision is made on him, Vicario could need to look for a new destination.

It could just be though that Inter Milan want an alternative ready in the event they cannot agree a deal with Tottenham.

They have also looked at Cagliari’s Elia Caprile, who is on Premier League club Aston Villa’s radar for the summer transfer window.

Whether Vicario will go back to Italy when this current season ends remains to be seen and he is now working to return following hernia surgery to help the north Londoners stay safe in the top flight.

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Former top flight winger Pat Nevin has insisted Tottenham Hotspur have now been drawn into the same survival mindset as Nottingham Forest and West Ham United in the relegation battle.

The fight for survival has tightened significantly, with Spurs, West Ham and Nottingham Forest all securing wins over the weekend, leading to real thoughts the battle to avoid finishing 18th may well go down to the wire.

Tottenham’s victory over Wolves at Molineux marked their first win under Roberto De Zerbi, having taken just one point from his opening two games, and it also stood as their first Premier League win of the year.

Despite that, the Lilywhites remain in the relegation zone in the Premier League, as West Ham picked up a crucial three points against Everton at the London Stadium.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had spent much of the campaign in the drop zone, but have moved clear in recent weeks through consistent performances, losing just one of their last seven Premier League matches, with Jarrod Bowen hailing their never say die attitude.

Hammers defender El Hadji Malick Diouf also gave an insight into growing confidence in the camp, declaring a feeling that West Ham are back.

With Nottingham Forest also showing solid form and the mindset that they are up for a scrap, eyes have been very much on Tottenham, with a feeling a number of their players have not quite believed the league table.

Injured player Injury Xavi Simons ACL Wilson Odobert ACL Mohammed Kudus Thigh Dejan Kulusevski Knee Cristian Romero Knee Ben Davies Ankle Guglielmo Vicario Groin Destiny Udogie Muscle Pape Matar Sarr Shoulder Dominic Solanke Thigh Current Spurs injuries

Nevin, admitting that weekends where all three sides win have been rare this term, thinks that is evidence why no predictions can be made at this stage of the season.

The former winger feels that West Ham and Nottingham Forest have had the mindset to scrap for results for quite a while and is of the view that now that same mindset seems to have dawned on Tottenham.

Nevin wrote in his BBC Sport Newsletter: “Spurs, Nottingham Forest and West Ham each won in the Premier League this weekend.

“You will search long and hard to find a weekend when that happened this season as they have all struggled to fight clear of relegation.

“It is the main reason why predictions are almost impossible at this time of the season.

“Teams and players cannot be at 100% for every game, but when desperation kicks in, you will get every ounce of effort, even if you can lose some calmness and composure as a result.

“Forest and West Ham have been in this mindset for a while now, but it is only now that Spurs have finally woken up and smelled the very bitter coffee.”

De Zerbi’s side remain three points behind 17th-placed West Ham with four rounds remaining, needing to maximise their own results while relying on slips from both the Hammers and Nottingham Forest.

The Italian boss has claimed that the Spurs players have bought into his methods and believe what he is telling them.

Injuries continue to hit at crucial times though and Xavi Simons’ ACL injury at the weekend is another bitter blow.

Former Tottenham star Jamie O’Hara blasted the Spurs medical team for how they handle the injury to the Dutchman.

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Juventus ‘will send a new offer’ to Tottenham Hotspur target Marcos Senesi ‘in the coming hours’ as they look to tempt the Bournemouth defender to Italy.

Senesi began his career at San Lorenzo in Argentina, before joining Dutch side Feyenoord in 2019, and then arrived in England in 2022 at Bournemouth for a fee of €15m.

This season, the 28-year-old centre-back has been a key member of Andoni Iraola’s side, making 35 appearances in all competitions and also providing five assists in the process.

The Argentine defender’s contract is set to expire in June and a host of clubs are looking to lure him away from the Vitality Stadium on a free transfer, viewing him as a bargain option.

Senesi is widely linked with Tottenham, who are expected to see significant change over the summer, but has also garnered interest from Fenerbahce, who are ready to meet his wage demands.

Juventus are in the race to sign Senesi and are in touch with his entourage over a deal, with their interest now stepped up another notch.

‘In the coming hours’, Juventus ‘will send a new offer’ to Senesi to try to convince him to join them in the summer, according to Italian journalist Mirko Di Natale.

Player Country Marcos Senesi Argentina Julio Soler Argentina Evanilson Brazil Rayan Brazil South American players at Bournemouth

Whether the new proposal which the Italians put on the table for the centre-back is good enough to close out the deal remains to be seen.

It is unclear which other clubs tracking Senesi have reached the stage of sending a proposal over to his entourage and Juventus may well want to steal a march on the competition.

Senesi has been a brilliant signing for Bournemouth due to his ability to play line-breaking passes from the heart of defence and also providing a strong aerial presence in the box.

Tottenham could potentially see Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven leave in the summer, while there continue to be doubts about Radu Dragusin.

It has been suggested Tottenham are prepared to cut their asking price for Dragusin to help a move happen.

Spurs boss Roberto De Zerbi has already insisted that Kevin Danso will be at the club next term.

De Zerbi will hope Senesi can join them, but Juventus are pushing hard for the Argentine.