De Zerbi cracked the whip with strict rule during Tottenham's Marbella trip

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FT Desk

Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi attempted to address his team's awful early-season form by taking the squad to a warm-weather training camp in Marbella last week.

Spurs are suffering from one of their worst-ever starts to a Premier League campaign, with just three points on the board from seven matches. They are the only team in the division yet to win a game, with those three points coming from three draws and three losses.

Remarkably, they have scored just three goals in those six games, too.

That comes after the highest-spending transfer window in the club's history in which €366m was spent on Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Savio, Jan Paul van Hecke and Tosin Adarabioyo, with Any Robertsona and Marcos Senesi also arriving as high-profile free transfers.

Omar Marmoush and Mykhaylo Mudryk also arrived on loan from Man City and Chelsea, respectively.

Despite that raft of new players, things have not yet clicked for Spurs in 2026/27. De Zerbi is looking to install some camaraderie in the squad and that's why he decided to ban mobile phones from all meals during the trip to Marbella last week.

"We worked on the pitch, we stayed together - we removed phones from breakfast, lunch and dinner to stay together because now it is like [phone] all the time," he told reporters.

"We had two or three important meetings speaking about football, our situation and how everyone has to take responsibility. And nothing more. There were some dinners just for the players, some dinners just for the staff.

"As a coach you understand you have to improve, you have to change the situation and you try to find all solutions.

It seems De Zerbi treated the trip as somewhat of a secondary pre-season as, due to the World Cup and the turnover of players, the squad did not have the opportunity in the summer to gel before the Premier League season commenced.

"I already did this type of training camp two times with Marseille and it was a good solution," the Italian explained.

"I spoke with the club, with Vinai [Venkatesham], with Johan [Lange], with the owner and together we took the decision, but it's nothing special. It's just to spend more time together because in pre-season we couldn't.

"We had many new players and players who came back from the World Cup. Three or four days together without family, putting the club at the top of their priorities, is normal and is good."

Tottenham return to action on Monday evening when they take on newly promoted Coventry.