De Zerbi speaks to Tottenham fans for the first time but must make his mark quickly | OneFootball

New Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi has spoken to Spurs fans for the first time, and told them it is a ‘very big honour’ to manage the club.

It is a big coup for Tottenham to have secured a manager of the stature of De Zerbi, especially when they are currently 17th and have seven games left of the season to save themselves from relegation.

The Italian manager has signed a five-year-deal with no relegation clause, meaning if Spurs were to go down, he would likely be at the helm even in the Championship.

It is a big show of commitment from De Zerbi, and in his first message to the fans, he said: “Hello all Tottenham fans. I’m very happy to stay here with you. 

“For me it’s a very big honour and I’m very proud to be your coach. I want to give my best, I want to stay for a long time in this big club. See you soon.”

The Italian coach officially starts his role on Good Friday, 3 April, and is expected to address the media en masse a day or two ahead of his first Premier League match, away to Sunderland on 12 April.

On paper, he has a ‘winnable’ run of three matches with the trip to Sunderland followed by Brighton at home and Wolves away.

But the morale at the club is currently very low, and the players appear dejected.

Perhaps De Zerbi’s biggest challenge will be to pick the players up and explain his tactics to them in a way that will allow them to quickly implement the instructions.

Former Tottenham player Sandro was with De Zerbi at Italian side Benevento. He was asked who he rated as the best coach he had ever played under and said: “De Zerbi – one hundred per cent. I worked with him and fell in love with him in the first week.”

Another one of De Zerbi’s former players, Lewi Dunk, said that it took Brighton’s players a while to get used to the Italian’s methods.

Dunk said of De Zerbi in 2023: “If I am being honest, the first couple of weeks were horrendous. I wouldn’t say horrendous, they were baffling. The first meeting when he went in, I was so confused – who to look at, what to listen to, and you slowly pick up. Basically don’t listen to the manager, wait for the translator to speak and you get there in the end.

“Training changed dramatically. We worked on a lot of different stuff and the first couple of weeks were a really hard transition. We were fourth in the league when Graham (Potter) left and we were flying with him and it was a strange time for him to go and then Roberto came in and it was carnage two weeks.”

The problem is that De Zerbi only has a few weeks at Tottenham to make a mark and save them from the drop. But if they can weather the early storm, then the fruits of De Zerbi’s methods can really be seen.

After some time learning his tactics, Dunk went on to say: “I see football in a completely different way now. I picture it in a different way and that is the biggest thing. Football is not what I thought it was. When you learn something completely different you believe in it and it makes sense. You think ‘why didn’t I know this?’ and ‘why didn’t I do this before?'”