Tottenham Hotspur's 20 year old center midfielder Lucas Bergvall submitted a transfer request to the club during the World Cup in light of the rumors linking Spurs to Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, and after the Lilywhites signed both players for a combined 185 million pounds, everyone has taken the Swedish international's exit from the club for granted.
That being said, despite Nottingham Forest pushing hard after Bergvall and a couple of other notable Premier League sides linked, Roberto De Zerbi and the Lilywhites are doing their best to convince the young midfielder to stick around as a crucial backup with plenty of minutes left to go around in another grueling season.
Even though De Zerbi is pushing to keep Bergvall and does not want to acknowledge the possibility of him leaving just yet, he also isn't going to lie to Bergvall about where he stands in the pecking order - or what Spurs will do to him if he does not buy in.
Roberto De Zerbi won't lie to Lucas Bergvall
Following a win over Sydney FC on penalties, De Zerbi addressed the Lucas Bergvall transfer saga to the media again, via Hotspur Lane, “The situation is clear, he wants space and to play in a double pivot but I cannot give a guarantee to any player that he can play. He was right that he wants to play as a central midfielder. I would like he stays, but if he doesn't want I can do nothing. He will then have to speak to Vinai or Johan. He has to have the right spirit to stay."
That last line from Roberto De Zebri is the real reverberator here. If Bergvall is not in the right spirit and does not have the right menality or love for the club to stay and help Tottenham Hotspur at all costs, then the Italian manager is not going to cater to him or beg for him to stay; he wants winners who want to win.
But if Bergvall has the mentality, De Zerbi does see a useful role for him, and even though Mateus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali, and Archie Gray are all young and ahead of him, that does not mean the talented box to box Bergvall can't fend his way back into the starting lineup in the future.
De Zerbi is right, too, in saying he cannot guarantee minutes for Bergvall. And in truth, nothing the young man has done this last year for either club or country makes Spurs want to give him any reason to guarantee anything beyond a small role.
Add us as a preferred source on Google