Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi made it a point to bring in center back Jan Paul van Hecke from his former club Brighton, and after securing that blockbuster 60 million euro transfer, De Zerbi is pushing just as hard for the Premier League midfield pairing of Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes.
The Italian manager is like the anti Thomas Frank, bringing ambition and verve to a Spurs side that has missed it. And whlie Ange Postecoglou had the same charisma and ambition, De Zerbi is actually effective, particularly in the player recruitment side.
As Tom Allnutt of The Times points out, the new Tottenham manager has been a massive pull for the kinds of transfer targets Spurs need to be convincing to join, even after finishing 17th in the Premier League and nearly getting relegated. And Allnutt points to two key factors leading to De Zerbi's player recruitment success. The first is that De Zerbi has a great reputation for developing players and is viewed as a top coach, but the second is that the players genuinely enjoy playing football with his tactics.
Roberto De Zerbi excites players
Tottenham Hotspur did not have that at all with Thomas Frank. He did not have the same reputation among players as a great coach, and maybe worse yet, his tactics were such an eye sore and unenjoyable that they were actually driving stars already at Tottenham away like Micky van de Ven.
Players like Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes have been coveted by clubs as big as Manchester City, Arsenal, and Real Madrid this year, yet Tottenham are ostensibly in the lead for both talented midfielders. Spurs are competing and beating teams to players valued around 100 million euros, and while they did land a couple of big fish last summer in Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons, Spurs are actually leading for even more competitive players this year.
So when people say that the real elite talents in the attack like Yan Diomande, for example, are unachievable for Spurs, that has been blown wide open by Roberto De Zerbi. Players want to play for this guy. They are drawn to him and his idea of football, and Tottenham did not even have that kind of allure with the big names they hired in the past because they did not generate the same infectious excitement that De Zerbi does. Maybe, just maybe, Spurs finally got a hire after Mauricio Pochettino right.
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