Tottenham's Ambitious Rebuild Under De Zerbi
Tottenham have spent the last two seasons staring into the abyss. Back-to-back 17th-place finishes turned the gleaming Tottenham Hotspur Stadium into a nervous, twitchy arena where every misplaced pass felt like a step closer to disaster.
Europa League glory in 2024-25 papered over none of that. It brought long-overdue silverware, yes, but it also ran parallel to a domestic campaign that went right to the wire. Survival was only secured on the final day, Roberto De Zerbi guiding the club away from the trapdoor after taking over a job that had already slipped through the hands of Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor.
The message from the board this summer is blunt: never again.
De Zerbi backed – and Spurs spend big
De Zerbi is being armed for a reset. The clear-out is coming, with underperformers expected to be ushered towards the exit over the next few weeks, but the arrivals door has already been spinning.
Huge money has gone on Italy international Tonali, former West Ham midfielder Mateus Fernandes and ex-Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke. Those deals did not happen quietly in a corner. Rival interest had to be pushed aside, a reminder that even after two seasons of crisis management, Spurs still carry serious weight in the market.
Yet one question hangs over the marquee move. Is Tonali in north London because of footballing ambition, or because of the postcode and the pay packet?
‘London is a pull’ – Murphy on Tonali’s choice
Danny Murphy, who knows the club and the city, did not pretend otherwise when asked about Tonali’s decision.
“I think it would be naive to think that London isn't a pull for a lot of the foreign boys. I say that through experience and speaking to them,” the former Tottenham midfielder told GOAL, speaking in association with BetWright football betting.
His instinct? If the traditional heavyweights had truly gone all in, this story might read differently.
“My gut feeling is that if one of the really big boys, i.e. Man U, Man City, Liverpool, came in for him as strongly as Tottenham in terms of finances as well, then he might have gone there. Because to pick a location over winning trophies isn't something many players would do. But London is a pull. I don't know who was in for him for sure.”
Tottenham, Murphy suggests, leaned hard into the tools they do have.
“The one advantage you have going to Tottenham, other than London, is the financial side. They've really pushed the boat out to get him. Maybe some of the other clubs who were in for him didn't push the boat out to that level.”
Money and location, though, are only part of the equation. The other part sits in De Zerbi’s office.
“The other factor, to give him credit and other footballers, because not every footballer is just greed-obsessed and location-obsessed, is that you have a conversation with the coach when you're talking about which club you're going to go to. Maybe if there was interest from elsewhere, there wasn't a guarantee you're always going to play.
“I don't know that, but I know of situations in the past where a player would choose a club where he's been reassured that he's going to be the main man, he's going to play every week.
“I would imagine the mix of being the main man in the middle of the park, phenomenal wages, and London probably was a mixture of all three. I'd like to think it was a mixture of that as well.”
Murphy does not shy away from the reality that some careers are steered by bank balances and postcodes.
“I don't like to think of players purely moving based on money or location, but it does happen. I think that he's a terrific signing and they've done really well to get him irrelevant of the cost and the amount of wages. I think he'll really improve them.”
A swollen squad and a looming exodus
Tottenham’s early work in the market carries a clear message, one Murphy welcomes.
“It's a statement of intent, much needed,” he said. But intent alone does not thin out a dressing room.
“I think the only difficulty around what I'm seeing there is at the moment, until the dealings are all done, they've got a heavy squad anyway.
“When you're not in Europe, you've got to be very good at your job as a manager to be able to keep that many players happy when you've only got Premier League football. That could become a little problematic unless we start seeing a bit of an exodus of players from Tottenham.”
And that is where the rebuild could snag. Shifting players who under-delivered last season and sit on healthy contracts is never simple.
“The problem with that, of course, is a lot of them who were poor last season, who were on good wages, how many takers have they got? So, there's still some work to do at Tottenham, but I do like what they've done.”
Murphy is impressed by the profile of the signings: proven, Premier League-ready, and tailored to obvious gaps.
“I like Van Hecke, I like Fernandes. I think [James] Maddison coming back is going to be a big plus for them as well because we know what he brings.”
From survival scrap to top-six talk
The target now is not just to escape trouble. It is to leave it far behind.
“I think realistically for them, top six has got to be a realistic ambition,” Murphy said. “Top four might be a push to jump that high so quickly, but top six is realistic for them with the players they're bringing in.”
From a final-day relegation fight to talk of the top six in a single summer. It is a bold leap. Spurs have paid for the right to attempt it.
Whether Tonali and the new faces drag them back towards the elite, or whether that heavy squad becomes a weight De Zerbi cannot quite shift, will define what this new era at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium really is: the start of a climb, or another expensive reset waiting to happen.
