Roberto De Zerbi ‘to sign’ long-term Tottenham deal amid relegation fight | OneFootball

According to L'Équipe, former OM coach Roberto De Zerbi is close to agreeing a long-term contract at Tottenham, with the immediate brief to keep them up. His camp is in active talks and Spurs want a quick resolution given the club’s peril.

Tottenham dismissed Igor Tudor on Sunday, their second manager this season after Thomas Frank’s February exit, and sit 17th, one point above the drop zone. If he accepts, De Zerbi could debut on 12 April at Sunderland, potentially with Spurs in the bottom three should 18th-placed West Ham beat Wolverhampton two days earlier.

He initially hesitated given the risk of the Championship next season. To persuade him, chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange have offered a significant survival bonus and a long-term deal, thought to be five years.

The proposal is said to appeal to De Zerbi, who casts himself as a builder. In January he said he could stay five or six years at OM, then left less than two weeks later by mutual agreement.

Some Spurs fans are uneasy about his fiery, changeable streak, and others criticised his strong backing of Mason Greenwood while in Provence. At Brighton between September 2022 and June 2024 he failed to win his first five games but delivered a sixth-place finish and the club’s first European qualification, and he would need to rouse a side still winless in the Premier League in 2026.

Source: L'Équipe