Roberto De Zerbi has barely had time to find his parking space at Hotspur Way and already the problems are piling up.
The new Tottenham head coach, confirmed on Tuesday on a five-year deal, has been hit by an injury concern to Pape Sarr after the midfielder was unable to feature for Senegal in their friendly against Gambia.
Early injury cloud over Sarr
Sarr linked up with Senegal last week and played in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Peru, but was left out of the squad on Tuesday. Local reports in Senegal say a shoulder injury kept him sidelined.
For De Zerbi, it is the last thing he needed.
He inherits a squad already shredded by absences. Guglielmo Vicario, Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel and Mohammed Kudus have all been either ruled out or are currently unavailable. Now one of the few midfielders who has been a constant this season may be a doubt at the very moment the new manager needs continuity.
There are seven league games left. Tottenham have not won a Premier League match in 2026. They sit just a single point above the bottom three. This is not a gentle introduction; it is a firestorm.
De Zerbi’s contract does not include a relegation release clause. Both he and the club know exactly what is at stake.
A divided welcome
If the situation on the pitch looks fraught, the mood off it is hardly calmer.
Even before his appointment was confirmed, sections of the Spurs support made their opposition clear. Three fan groups released “No to De Zerbi” statements last Friday, focusing not on tactics or style of play, but on his previous comments about Marseille forward Mason Greenwood.
Greenwood, formerly of Manchester United, was charged in October 2022 with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, following allegations linked to images and videos posted online. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges in February 2023, citing the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material that meant there was “no realistic prospect of conviction”. Greenwood, who denied the charges, later resumed his career and joined Marseille in 2024.
In November, De Zerbi described Greenwood as a “good guy” who had paid a “heavy price” and said it saddened him what had happened in the player’s life, stressing he knew a very different person to the one portrayed publicly. Those remarks have not been forgotten.
Tottenham are understood to have raised those comments directly with De Zerbi during negotiations, aware of the sensitivity around the issue and the strength of feeling among parts of the fanbase.
Fan groups make their stance clear
The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust did not soften its tone when the club finally announced their man. On Tuesday, it said it had “serious and far-reaching concerns” about the appointment, a phrase that underlines this is not a routine disagreement over playing style.
Later the same day, Proud Lilywhites, Spurs’ LGBTQI+ fan group, issued a pointed statement of its own. It said it disagreed with the managerial choice “in terms of culture and competence” but would continue to back the players, while refusing to pretend to be comfortable with the decision.
“Staying silent is not the answer,” the group said. “But choosing when and where to be vocal matters.
“Managers come and go. Executives come and go. Players come and go. Fans remain. We are the constant in this club.”
That line cut through. It was not a call for a boycott, nor a surrender. It was a reminder of who lives with the consequences longest.
Spurs Reach, another supporters’ group, echoed that uneasy balance. The appointment, it said, “doesn’t fully sit right with us, both culturally and in the bigger picture”, while stressing their backing for the club and community “goes way beyond any one appointment”.
A brutal starting point
So De Zerbi walks into a club staring nervously at the relegation line, wrestling with an identity debate and now counting the cost of yet another injury.
He built his reputation on high-risk, high-reward football. At Spurs, the risk is already baked in. The reward? Survival, stability, and the chance to turn a hostile first impression into something far more enduring.
Before any of that, he needs fit players. And he needs Pape Sarr’s shoulder to hold up.
