Tottenham sent brutal Roberto De Zerbi warning

Cameron Smith

• 31 Mar 2026 06:00 CDT
• 3 min read

News

Tottenham Hotspur are close to appointing Roberto De Zerbi as their new permanent manager following the departure of interim boss Igor Tudor, but they have been warned that his arrival may not fix things.

The 46-year-old left his role at Olympique Marseille in February and he was initially only interested in joining the north London giants following the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.

However, Spurs have identified him as their priority managerial target and reports speculate they are willing to make him one of the highest-paid head coaches in the Premier League on a lucrative five-year contract.

A full agreement has not yet been reached, but De Zerbi is now widely expected to be appointed as the new Tottenham boss as they look to avoid a humiliating and disastrous relegation to the Championship.

The 2025 Europa League winners are currently one point and one place ahead of West Ham United in 18th and they have turned to De Zerbi to end their current slump, having failed to pick up a single Premier League win since the beginning of 2026.

However, Brighton & Hove Albion defender Lewis Dunk’s comments from 2023 suggest that De Zerbi may not have an immediately positive impact at Spurs.

The Seagulls picked up a 3-3 draw against Liverpool in his opening match in charge, but they failed to win any of their first five Premier League matches under the Italian and a similar scenario could feasibly happen at Tottenham - which is something they can’t afford.

Roberto De Zerbi warning

Speaking to The Telegraph in 2023, Dunk admitted: “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 a carnage two weeks.”

De Zerbi subsequently implemented an immense style of football at the AMEX Stadium, but Tottenham need results immediately and this could be a problem if he runs into similar problems to the ones he experienced at Brighton.

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