New Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi brings controversy wherever he goes, and while he never lasts a long time in any particular place, Vinai Venkatesham, Johan Lange, and the rest of the Spurs brass are hoping things will be different now that RDZ has taken the most prestigious job of his coaching career thus far.
The former Sassuolo, Shakhtar Donetsk, Marseille, and Brighton manager now has the task of turning around a Spurs side that sits just one point above the relegation fight, one season after being 17th in the Premier League despite winning the Europa League.
De Zerbi is committed to the cause, apparently, and he is, on paper, a massive upgrade over Thomas Frank, who has a serious case for being the worst manager in the history of the Spurs. And already, De Zerbi appears to be making a positive change behind the scenes that is actually quite important.
Tottenham players are fans of Roberto De Zerbi
As reported by Football.London's Alasdair Gold, the Tottenham Hotspur players are already raving about Roberto De Zerbi at practice. They were reportedly giving rave reviews of how the training session went when they first started working with the Italian manager.
De Zerbi appears to be bringing a higher level of training to Tottenham, and that is a huge positive over what they were experiencing before. Already, Spurs supporters noticed a difference in intensity and organization in just a couple of games between Igor Tudor and Thomas Frank, though Tudor didn't quite get these same rave reviews that De Zerbi is already garnering from the players for his training sessions.
Given how mentally checked out some of Spurs biggest names like Randal Kolo Muani and Micky van de Ven have been in recent weeks, De Zerbi injecting optimism via better practicing methodology is an asset that cannot be ignored.
There is skepticism from many about De Zerbi's ability to turn things around at Tottenham quickly, as there are only seven games remaining until the 2025/26 Premier League season and this nightmare of a relegation battle is over. RDZ doesn't have much time to make an imprint. But if he is having this much of an impression on a jaded and severely underperforming Tottenham squad, then there is reason to believe in a turn around.
The first judgments of De Zerbi's merits will be passed in a week when Tottenham take on Sunderland. Until then, we'll just have the positive vibes of the players go off of.