Harry Kane done all this without the PR. Without campaigning himself to win. Without towering himself above anyone else. He did it his way. Feel so proud of him. Spurs fans have always known. And now so do the rest of the world.
The day it all came together. It’s been coming but did not expect that today, we just don’t play like that at Stamford Bridge. Almost the perfect away performance. Tonali & Fernandes absolutely immense!
Ridiculously premature inquests into Roberto De Zerbi’s management at Tottenham Hotspur. He’s been in charge for only 14 games, rescued Spurs last season, came in, organised, galvanised and kept them up. Should have plenty of credit in the bank.
RDZ’s career does show he gets emotional in times of stress, can fall out with people and must guard against some of his public outbursts about the team (however legitimate). “Fragile” is a heavy word that leaps into headlines. RDZ understandably angry with his players for individual mistakes (Robertson, Van Hecke, Van de Ven, Fernandes) but calling them out in public doesn’t always help.
Plus he bought six of them. Club gave him £350m and he didn’t address the attack properly. Marmoush best in a pair, a shadow striker. RDZ could also be angry with himself for not keeping Richarlison onside. Spurs created enough chances early on against Villa but didn’t finish plus Suzuki one of the signings of the season.
But even discussion of regime change is crazy; managerial churn (eight in five years inc caretakers) would simply set them back, set the sad cycle to continue. He’s a good head coach.
Spurs’ issues run far deeper than RDZ. Do players get comfortable – magnificent stadium, wonderful training ground? Is it because club often too focused on money (concerts etc), rather than glory? The main problem is Spurs play in spurts; they don’t sustain promising moments.
RDZ is having to combat Spurs’ ingrained culture of not being physically or psychologically robust enough. If they go behind, they rarely recover. There aren’t enough fighters. Antonio Conte highlighted that in 2023. Turning Spurs around is a long-term job. RDZ deserves time to attempt it. #THFC
Positives:
Tosin, Fernandes, Maddison (through balls, forgot they existed), Savio and Marmoush
Mixed bag:
Bergvall (good forward, bad backwards), Senesi.
Negatives:
Tel’s end product, Gallagher in possession and Gray is not a right back.
That's the difference between a forward line who can put it away, and one that contained Porro & Tel for an hour. The system is there, most of the players are there, but it'll take time. Night & day to last week. Patience.
"Staying up against Everton was maybe the best day of my career"
Roberto De Zerbi on the "emotion" of beating Everton on the final day to keep Spurs in the Premier League ⚪️
This will be my abiding memory of Cristian Romero 🏆
Ignoring the ref & United players to march our team to the end where #THFC fans were for our pre-match huddle. It set the tone.
Cuti dragged us home in Bilbao. We don’t do it that night without him. Forever in our history 🤍
Roberto De Zerbi on whether club record signings add additional pressure for the upcoming season: “Zero pressure. You know why? Because one day the taxi man in London stopped me to congratulate me on the transfer market. He said, "eh, you are spending a lot of money". I said "but who are you a fan of?" Arsenal. You have spent the money for a long time in the last three or four years. I think Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, to stay at the top of the table, they have spent money. If you want to compete, now, for the top of the Premier League, and to put Tottenham in the highest level, I think we need to bring top players, like we are doing.” [via @AlasdairGold]