Tottenham's Summer Transfer Strategy: De Zerbi's Confidence in Bergvall and Sarr
Roberto De Zerbi is adamant about one thing in a summer of upheaval at Tottenham: Lucas Bergvall is going nowhere.
“Lucas Bergvall, 100 per cent [he is staying],” the Italian declared. No caveats, no small print.
The 20-year-old told the club earlier in the summer, before heading to the World Cup, that he wanted a fresh challenge and more chances to grow as a number eight. Newcastle and Nottingham Forest tried to tempt Spurs with bids. They were turned away.
De Zerbi responded by handing Bergvall serious minutes and starts throughout pre-season. The message from the touchline matched the one from the boardroom. Backed, trusted, central to the project. Now, the head coach is convinced the Swede has flipped his stance.
“I like that he stays but I think now he wants to stay and we have no problem,” De Zerbi said. One midfield question, answered.
Another hangs in the air.
Sarr’s future in the balance
Where Bergvall is nailed down, Pape Matar Sarr is anything but. The 23-year-old started pre-season late after remaining in Senegal until the first week of August, and his path into the team has been blocked by the kind of spending Tottenham have not seen in decades.
The £185million double arrival of Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes has redrawn the midfield landscape. It also leaves De Zerbi unable to make the same promise about Sarr that he did about Bergvall.
“He’s a good player. I don’t know if he stays or not, we have to analyse the situation, but he is another very very important player,” he admitted.
This is the new Tottenham: talent everywhere, guarantees nowhere.
Spending with a purpose
The numbers are eye-watering. With Manchester City attackers Savinho and Omar Marmoush expected to come through the door, Spurs’ outlay this summer could hit £377million.
It is the response the Lewis family promised after last season’s brush with relegation – “actions not words” – and De Zerbi is adamant the owners and board have delivered on everything they told him before he walked in back in March.
“In my experience, they kept their word, they kept what they said before I came,” he said. “But what we are doing is not for the coach. It’s for the club, for the fans, for the history of the club, for the pride of the club, and for the level of the club.”
Two grim seasons have left scars. De Zerbi sees this window as a pivot point.
“I think this moment is crucial for this club, because after two seasons like we had, we have to change the mood, completely change it, give it a boost.”
The idea is clear: build something now, then stop scrambling every summer.
“When we have finished in this transfer market, for a long time we don't need many things and we can work all together in the right condition, in the right direction, to build step by step something special, or to go to compete for the top of the table.
“Not maybe now, or maybe yes, I don't know, but we have the squad to play in every stadium in the right way. Face to face, we know we have to improve. We have to become a team, but I think we also have all the qualities to do that.”
Big potential, big noise
De Zerbi likes what he sees, but he wants the window shut before he nails his colours to the mast.
“Yes. Big potential. At the end of the transfer market, I will be more accurate in my opinion,” he said. “I have to keep the balance because sometimes the transfer market – with Tonali and JP Van Henke – we bring in a lot.”
Rival fans and pundits have not kept the balance. They have complained, loudly, about Tottenham’s spending, even as the club points to stadium revenue and a projected £213million in sales and loans this summer to underpin the outlay.
De Zerbi is unmoved. If anything, he sounds energised by the hostility.
“I don’t know, you have to explain to me. For me, no pressure and it’s not a problem. I don’t know why the people don’t love if Tottenham becomes better. It’s one motivation more for us. Last season, all other clubs wanted to kill us. This is another part of football.”
He uses that siege feeling relentlessly.
“Every week we have to remember last season,” he said. “The last friendly game against Hoffenheim, the time before was against Everton. You can imagine the difference between that game and the game against Everton when we stayed up with all that pressure.”
From paper to pitch
So how close is this squad to the one he imagines?
“On paper it’s very close. On the pitch we have to see and we have to work. I am experienced enough not to say too much,” he replied. “I’m very happy with the squad. We have to complete the squad but at the moment very happy. The answer I receive from the pitch has to be like my dreams and my thoughts with the board.”
The enthusiasm is real, but so is the caution.
“To be honest, everyone, we are very excited but in the end the pitch speaks, as we say in Italian. If we start now with big words, I love pressure, it’s not a problem of pressure, but if we are to be honest and correct, we have to wait for the answer from the pitch.”
Then he drifts into something more romantic.
“Football is a connection. Football is like magic. You can find sometimes the connection between players when every player thinks like the coach or we come together with an idea of football and the players who don’t start in the team are the biggest fans of the players who are playing. We have to create something on the pitch and off the pitch to compete like we want.”
That “connection” will have to grow quickly in a dressing room that suddenly contains a £100million midfielder.
Tonali, and the new standard
Sandro Tonali arrived from Newcastle for a club-record fee and with a heavy weight of expectation. De Zerbi knew the Italy international well from years of watching him, but coaching him has shifted his perspective.
“Sandro Tonali is better than I thought before working with him, as a player and as a guy,” he said. “I know his family, his agents, and I know they all are good people. I’m very happy to work with him and I think he’s the right player in the right place.
“Especially because we want to put him inside of the project. He has the right qualities, the right personality, the right values, to stay in this place.”
Those values will be tested in a squad where nobody is promised an easy ride.
No comfort zones
There are still 11 days left of the window, and the obvious question is how De Zerbi plans to keep so many players content. His answer is blunt.
“Nothing [to do]. I love speaking clearly. Today is August 21st, I think every one of those players, they already know the squad. If one of them doesn’t want to accept the competition inside the pitch, inside the dressing room, they can leave.”
He will not bend the project to soothe egos.
“I try to be honest and to decide the better decision I can on the pitch to find the best first XI, but the players have to accept why because if we want to become better, if we want to compete for the top of the table, 11 players are not enough, 15 players are not enough.
“If you analyse the teams – Liverpool two years ago, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Milan – the squad there has a big competition inside the dressing room.”
Tottenham, in his mind, must live in that company, not just watch it.
Pathways and pressure for the kids
The influx of attacking talent raises an obvious concern: what happens to the homegrown prospects? De Zerbi insists the door is still open, even as speculation swirls about a loan for Mikey Moore to Bundesliga side Koln.
“Now is not the right moment to speak about the last 10 days of transfer market. I think it’s not finished yet,” he said. “I’m very happy with Mikey Moore, he’s working well, he’s a good player, I don’t know if he goes or not on loan.
“I think he has a big potential for the club and we try to find the best solution for every player we have, also for Luca Williams-Barnett or Malachi [Hardy], two potential big players. Proud that they come from our academy. We have to manage them the best way we can.”
The message is consistent: standards are rising, but the pathway remains if you can handle the climb.
Rediscovering the soul
To make sure his new-look squad understands what they are representing, De Zerbi went backwards before trying to go forwards. He helped bring a large group of former Tottenham players into the club to talk to the current dressing room. Glenn Hoddle, Gary Mabbutt, Steve Perryman and others were asked to explain what Tottenham really is.
“The players and especially the foreign players, they have to understand the level of this club. Even if we finish two seasons in a row in 17th position, nothing changes and the level of the club can’t change because in the last two seasons it was not great,” he said.
“The legends, I think they can explain better than me or better than you what Tottenham has been [before] in the Premier League and in Europe.”
There was one notable absence that clearly stung him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see Chris Waddle,” he admitted. “Chris Waddle was one of my favourite players when I was a kid and he played in Marseille. In Marseille I said the same like this and Waddle would have been good for Kudus, for Kulusevski, for Xavi Simons, for Mathys [Tel] because he was a great player.”
That is De Zerbi’s Tottenham: a club spending like a superpower, leaning on its past, demanding internal competition, and still searching for that elusive “magic” on the pitch.
The money is on the table. The squad is almost in place. Now the question is simple: can this version of Spurs finally play like the club De Zerbi insists they still are?
