Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi is coming under fire in the media after a slow start to the 2026/27 Premier League season, even though it has only been three games. Critics point to the fact that Spurs spent nearly 400 million pounds this summer transfer window - signing exactly the players De Zerbi specifically requested, even if they were controversial and cost the club stronger performers from the 2025/26 season - and have yet to score a goal or win a game.
But even as De Zerbi has not won very much since taking over Tottenham, it's mind boggling how the obvious has been seemingly overlooked in this narrative. Not only should De Zerbi get some real credit for turning Tottenham around immediately to save a team that was literally doomed and almost guaranteed to be relegated to surviving, but he should also get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the time it will take to turn the results around.
To wit, Ange Potsecoglou and Thomas Frank immediately won to start their Tottenham careers. Both were fired with their teams in the bottom four of the league. Mauricio Pochettino won just as little as De Zerbi did coming in, and he ended up being the greatest manager in the club's storied history.
Roberto De Zerbi is inheriting the worst ever Tottenham
There is a big difference between De Zerbi's and Poch's situation, too, if that comparison of starts is to be made: De Zerbi is inheriting an even worse team. Not only did Tottenham Hotspur almost get relegated last season and had a 99 percent chance of going down if it were not for De Zerbi's efforts in the first place, but he is also inheriting a team that finished 17th the season before. That's what Jose Mourinho would call Football Heritage, and it's not like he nor fellow coaching legend Antonio Conte fared great at N17 either.
Roberto De Zerbi is coming into a team with a long standing stench of organizational failure and a lack of a winning mindset from the Daniel Levy days, and, worse yet, he is coming into a team that gave up on itself and nearly went down in historic fashion to the EFL Championship.
That Tottenham is not immediately off to the races with an almost entirely new look squad, especially in the midfield and attack, and with several injuries lingering as a result of the previous mismanagement is not a symptom of De Zerbi's problem, but rather emblematic of the situation he is walking into.
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