De Zerbi's 'Bombas' and Spurs' Rebuild
Roberto De Zerbi leans back, smiles and drops the word he’s been using all summer.
“Savio is ‘bomba’. All players we brought, I think are ‘bomba’!”
For Tottenham, “bomba” has come at a cost. Around £380m spent, eight first‑team signings through the door, and a squad ripped up and rebuilt just months after flirting dangerously with relegation from the Premier League.
This is not a gentle reset. It’s a jolt.
De Zerbi’s “bombas” and a rebuilt Spurs
De Zerbi has driven this overhaul. After dragging Spurs over the line last season and keeping them in the top flight, he made it clear he wanted top-level reinforcements. The club backed him, and he’s delighted with what has followed.
“In my vocabulary ‘bomba’ is a great player,” he told Sky Sports News’ Michael Bridge ahead of Saturday Night Football against Newcastle.
“I’m very happy. We brought all very good players. Especially because they wanted to come. I want players proud and happy to stay here. To play football now you need big motivation, big ambitions. Without that part it’s impossible to make results.
“At the moment we have a great squad, a great team. Maybe we have to close with another player but we have to sell a couple of players. But we can consider us very, very happy.”
The money matters, of course. But for De Zerbi, the attitude matters more. He keeps coming back to that: motivation, ambition, pride. The fee gets you in the room; the mindset keeps you on the pitch.
The phone calls that changed minds
Several of those new signings have already spoken about the manager’s influence, about phone calls that turned interest into commitment and sold them on the Spurs project.
De Zerbi shrugs off the idea that there’s some magic script.
“Nothing special,” he says. “I live off passion. I live for football. I explain our project – not my project – and we were lucky because they accepted and we’re very happy and proud.”
He might downplay it, but his impact is obvious. When he arrived late last season, there were no guarantees. Spurs were drifting, the mood was flat, the drop was a real threat. He walked into chaos and found a way out.
Surviving Everton, saving Spurs
Ask him about that final day at Everton and the mask slips a little.
“Big emotion, big memories,” he says of the celebrations after the win that confirmed survival. “I think it was maybe the best day in my career.
“Not because of the target. We stayed up with Tottenham. But because they were seven weeks very tough, many emotions. The players deserved to stay up.”
Seven weeks of pressure, then one afternoon of release. Survival didn’t bring a trophy, but it brought clarity. Spurs could not flirt with that kind of danger again. The rebuild that followed was not a luxury; it was a necessity.
De Zerbi knows, though, that sentiment doesn’t win points. “Deserved” is a nice word in May. It means nothing in August.
A brutal reminder at Brentford
That reality hit hard on the opening weekend. New signings in the XI, optimism in the air – and then Brentford tore into them at the Gtech.
Spurs were overwhelmed. Outplayed. Outfought.
“The name of the players are not crucial,” De Zerbi insists. “To make results you have to fight, run, play well. But as a start, I think it’s very important [to have signed such quality].”
Quality on paper. Questions on grass.
He knows why. A squad transformed in one window does not instantly become a team. The pieces are there; the connections are not.
“The patience is to find the connection, the balance between the players,” he explains. “To give organisation you have to know the characteristics of your team-mates and the connection is not so fast to reach.
“But anyway, in Brentford we had the quality and have to compete better. They deserved to win the game, we deserved to lose the game, we didn’t play well but we could play much better anyway.”
No excuses. No hiding behind new names or big fees. Brentford exposed a side still learning each other’s movements, still searching for rhythm. That cannot continue.
Newcastle, the lights, and a first home statement
Now comes Newcastle under the lights in north London, Spurs’ first Premier League home game of the season and the first real chance for this new-look team to show what they are.
The spending has been done. The “bombas” have landed. The manager has his squad – or very close to it.
What he wants now is simple: a team that fights, runs, and finally starts to play like those “bombas” sound.
