Six De Zerbi-ites Tottenham should sign in £154.5m summer splurge | OneFootball

Roberto De Zerbi has taken the reins at Tottenham having been persuaded by ENIC to join them in a relegation battle.

After initially insisting he wouldn’t consider the job until the end of the season reports suggested he’s made a U-turn for a host of reasons, almost all of them to do with heaps of cash money.

A man who’s left half of his previous clubs after 30 games or less and didn’t last two seasons at Brighton or Marseille has signed a long-term deal which will supposedly see him become the third-highest paid manager in the Premier League; it also includes a signing-on fee, survival bonus and no relegation clause.

It’s a package that’s proven hard to say no to even before reported ‘assurances of major summer investment to reshape the squad to his vision’.

But how might De Zerbi spend that summer cash if we make the huge assumption that he keeps them in the top flight? Here are six De Zerbi-ites he could look to bring in to fix Tottenham next season.

We’ve included their current market values to give a dubious indication of the required outlay.

Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton): £22m

Son Heung-min’s departure left a gaping hole on the left of the Tottenham attack that’s been filled like a toddler p*ssing into a swimming pool by Mathys Tel and with Mitoma’s current Brighton contract expiring in the summer of 2027 there’s a decent chance of a cut-price deal.

De Zerbi once described Mitoma as a “great player” you can “never substitute” – one he substituted nine times in the Premier League – but who undeniably thrived under the Italian having completed his famous dribbling thesis in Japan and joining Brighton the summer before De Zerbi arrived in September 2022.

“The way he sets up the team and his tactics are helping my performance, as it suits my style very well,” said Mitoma, who got 23 goal contributions in 48 games under De Zerbi and has managed just 24 in 82 appearances since they parted company.

Bart Verbruggen (Brighton): £35m

One might have thought Verbruggen wouldn’t be on best terms with De Zerbi as a result of the rotation policy with Luke Steele, but the 23-year-old – who was brought to the club and became Netherlands No.1 under the Italian’s stewardship – insisted during that in-and-out phase of his career that it was a “privilege” to work under such a “brilliant manager”.

“He makes you want to work harder and harder and harder,” Verbruggen added. “He also prepares you for the games so well. He says stuff to you, like ‘You can expect this, you can expect that’. And then, come gameday, you see it happening in front of you.”

Tottenham have already been credited with interest in Verbruggen, along with Bayern Munich, and the general chaos brought by Guglielmo Vicario and That Night In Madrid for Antonin Kinsky will have left few in doubt at Spurs that a goalkeeping upgrade is required.

Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton): £30m

There’s a fair chance De Zerbi sees plenty of himself in Van Hecke.

“I think the most important quality of JP is the balance between the arrogance and the confidence in himself. He is not arrogant but his confidence in himself is high, high, high.”

Though we would argue De Zerbi fails to toe that particular line quite as successfully as the centre-back there’s evidently a chemistry between the pair and respect that goes both ways as Van Hecke hailed De Zerbi for “making me a better player every day” – a common theme of praise among the Italian’s former players; an encouraging one for Tottenham fans.

Van Hecke has caught Liverpool eyes through his performances this season – his quality in finding passes between the lines in particular – and chances are Spurs are going to need one, if not two, new centre-backs amid significant doubt over the futures of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero.

Carlos Baleba (Brighton): £48m

It’s fair to say he’s taken his eye off the ball following interest in his services in the summer; some might suggest having watched his slump this term that Baleba’s head hasn’t stopped spinning since it was turned by Manchester United and the £100m Brighton rebuke after the Red Devils approached them at the end of the transfer window.

He’s been as off his game as Moises Caicedo was for a brief time following the nine-figure scramble for his services; the key difference being Baleba’s defensive midfield predecessor had already secured his move to Chelsea.

Baleba’s most eye-catching displays came after De Zerbi had left the club but the Italian insisted after signing the midfielder from Lille for £23m that he could “be our new Caicedo” and Spurs could really, really do with half a Caicedo, let alone the full whack.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Marseille): £16m

Sure, Tottenham could perhaps have done with the 133 goals Harry Kane has scored in the 136 games he’s played for Bayern Munich since leaving his boyhood club, but Ange Postecoglou led them to fifth in the Premier League the season after the striker selfishly decided to go and win some silverware.

Spurs’ demise can actually be traced back to the point when Hojbjerg upped sticks to Marseille. A relegation battle this season has followed a 17th-placed finish last term and we put that almost entirely down to the departure of their oft-maligned midfield warrior.

Danny Welbeck (Brighton): £3.5m

We can hear the scoffs and sense the raised eyebrows but 35 is the new 30 and Welbeck scored more Premier League goals (10) than any Tottenham striker last season, while his 12 so far this term outstrips Richarlison (9) who currently leads the way for Spurs.

Welbeck recently signed a one-year extension to avoid him leaving for nothing this summer, but he’s not going to cost a lot even as a goalscoring World Cup final hero having been .