Tottenham: Roberto De Zerbi hopes dinner date will work wonders again on struggling Spurs | OneFootball

A trip to Mayfair restaurant Bacchanalia worked last season, so the Spurs boss has revisited his favourite haunt

Roberto De Zerbi took his Tottenham players out for dinner last week at the same swanky Mayfair restaurant they visited last season in their bid for Premier League survival.

De Zerbi and his squad went for a morale-boosting dinner at the Mediterranean restaurant Bacchanalia late last season as the Spurs boss sought to rebuild morale soon after joining the club.

The dinner worked a treat, with Spurs seeing an upturn in form and ultimately staying up on the final day of the season.

After a stuttering start to the new campaign, with no goals or wins from their opening four league games, De Zerbi has looked to repeat the trick again.

Roberto De Zerbi and his favourite restaurant Bacchanalia

London Standard

The Italian took his new, expensively assembled squad back to Bacchanalia in the hopes of sparking a reaction and said it was a “pleasure” to pay for dinner, so long as “I keep the money just for the cigarette.”

“We went last week for dinner with all the players,” De Zerbi revealed in his pre-match press conference on Monday.

“There was something to eat, some water, some beers, yes. It's a pleasure going for dinner with my players.”

De Zerbi has called on his players to relax and stop rushing their decision-making in the final third after a wasteful performance at home to Everton over the weekend, in which they started brightly but were held to a 0-0 draw.

The former Brighton manager has previously admitted his side are struggling with a mental block, but he reinforced his belief in his players while imploring them to take more responsibility.

“Maybe I’m not objective with my players, but my opinion about my players is maybe different to your opinion. I think they are very good players,” De Zerbi continued.

“We are building a new project, a new team. Taking responsibility if we didn’t score and win, but I can’t change my opinion about the players if they don’t win or don’t score.

“If we want to change from the last two or three seasons we have to be stronger here (points to his head) and believe in the quality of the players and the decisions we made one month ago. Or we change. You can change players or change coaches, change, change, change, change, and nothing changes. Or you stay with the head, stay humble, with the right spirit to work. I believe in my players. I hope they believe in themselves like I believe in them.”