{"id":693504,"date":"2026-05-25T22:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T22:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/693504\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T22:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T22:21:09","slug":"de-zerbis-arrival-at-spurs-saved-disaster-from-happening-admits-maddison-tottenham-hotspur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/693504\/","title":{"rendered":"De Zerbi\u2019s arrival at Spurs \u2018saved disaster from happening\u2019, admits Maddison | Tottenham Hotspur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tottenham would probably have \u00adsuffered the disaster of relegation from the Premier League if it were not for the decision to bring in Roberto De Zerbi<\/a> for Igor Tudor, \u00adaccording to James Maddison and Conor Gallagher.<\/p>\n

Spurs made the managerial change with seven games to go and the team in freefall after a run of one point from six matches under Tudor. De\u00a0Zerbi rebuilt confidence and guided the club to survival, the 1-0 home win over Everton<\/a> on \u00adSunday ensuring that they finished above West Ham, who went down. De\u00a0Zerbi\u2019s record shows he had three wins, two draws and two defeats.<\/p>\n

The club have a big summer ahead as they look to reboot the squad. They are expected to sign the centre-half Marcos Senesi and the left-back Andy Robertson on free transfers from Bournemouth and Liverpool respectively. The captain, Cristian Romero, is poised to leave and the goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario could go, too. The most immediate emotions are relief and gratitude to De Zerbi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really happy for the manager, who has come in and steered the ship clear because without him it could have been doom and gloom,\u201d \u00adMaddison said. \u201cThe appointment kind of saved the disaster from \u00adhappening. \u00adWithout that appointment, disaster could have maybe struck. But it didn\u2019t and he takes a lot of credit\u00a0for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallagher added: \u201cLike Madders said, thank God the new gaffer came in because he was the reason it turned around for the team and for me. From the first day or two he had everyone under his wing. Everyone trusted him instantly and everything he was doing. It was like: \u2018Thank God he\u2019s come in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

De Zerbi, who has lived with his backroom staff at the hotel at Spurs\u2019s training ground, has made tactical tweaks. Under him, the team have pressed more effectively and forced more turnovers in the final third. He has fixed the midfield, using Gallagher to good effect as a No 10. But his biggest trick has been to restore the players\u2019 self-belief.<\/p>\n

Roberto De Zerbi celebrates after Tottenham\u2019s Premier League survival is confirmed. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

It has been particularly pronounced with Gallagher, who was signed by Tudor\u2019s predecessor, Thomas Frank, from Atl\u00e9tico Madrid in mid-January. Gallagher struggled under Frank before his form nosedived under Tudor. He was dropped from the starting XI by Tudor but has thrived since being reinstated by De Zerbi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obviously really tough for me and the whole team,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cI was in and out, no confidence, didn\u2019t feel great physically and then he [De Zerbi] came in and showed belief and gave me my confidence back. It just shows you how important confidence and rhythm is. And feeling physically as good as you can. Because I was low on confidence, the last manager wasn\u2019t having me, the fans didn\u2019t think I was any good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such bad times. We were losing most of our games, I wasn\u2019t playing and when I played I didn\u2019t do very well. I was playing out of position. I\u2019d just moved back to England and I wanted to hit the ground running back and none of it was happening. I had to stay mentally strong and focused and have belief in myself, which I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallagher mentioned how De Zerbi had shown him a video on YouTube to boost him. \u201cIt was titled \u2018Bossing the midfield, Conor Gallagher\u2019 \u2013 or something like that,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it before and he\u2019s just there showing me in this meeting room. I found it really funny! He did a similar thing with a few of the other lads. That\u2019s been one of his many ways to get players\u2019 confidence back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maddison also offered an insight into how De Zerbi has worked. \u201cHe\u2019s just so passionate,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s been living at the training ground with his team. I go and stay there the night before every home game just to get a good night\u2019s sleep. I\u2019ve got too many kids and I can\u2019t risk not getting a good night\u2019s sleep. And he\u2019s there at 9pm with all his staff. They\u2019ve got the tactics board out. There\u2019s six of them. It\u2019s 9pm. We\u2019ve already had like four or five meetings on each game. He\u2019s just obsessed with football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maddison\u2019s season was wrecked by an anterior cruciate ligament rupture; he played only in the last three matches as a substitute. For the second campaign in a row, the club carried a massive injury list and it is plain they need to look into why.<\/p>\n

A broader concern is a culture that has lacked accountability; one which is perhaps a little too comfortable. Is the five-star training facility somehow too nice? Frank and Tudor lamented how the team would fold when the setbacks came. De Zerbi knows he must instil greater resilience.<\/p>\n

Tottenham\u2019s Conor Gallagher takes a shot against Everton. Photograph: Dylan Martinez\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Conor gallagher<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be responsible for holding ourselves to higher standards and demanding more from each other individually,\u201d Maddison said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like looking in the mirror. \u2018Have I been good enough? I should be better.\u2019 And most weeks of the season I think that would have been the case. Lads need to kind of look at themselves \u2026 instead of blaming and whatnot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spurs nonexecutive chair, Peter Charrington, has criticised the previous regime, which was led by Daniel Levy, saying it did not put football success at the heart of everything. Levy, was ousted last September<\/a> as the Lewis family trust took control and embarked on a radical overhaul of executive-level positions. Charrington, whose appointment was announced in March of last year, described the current situation as \u201cnot acceptable\u201d but promised \u00adbetter times ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast September, we recognised that something seismic had to change at Spurs,\u201d Charrington wrote in an open letter to supporters<\/a>. \u201cThe Lewis family stepped in and authorised a full reset. That decision was not taken lightly and it came later than it should have. But what has been put in motion is real and it marks a genuine break from what had come before.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of that process, we discovered some uncomfortable truths. The qualities that make Spurs distinct \u2013 our football, our ambition, the connection between the team and its supporters \u2013 had been allowed to fade. Football success had not been driving our decisions. We did not have the right expertise in key roles. We did not build squads good enough to compete in the most demanding league in the world. Two 17th-place finishes in a row is not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charrington, who insisted the Lewis family had no plans to sell up, made it clear that investment via the transfer market would be forthcoming. \u201cWe will build a squad, led by Roberto, with the right blend of experience, youth and leadership to compete at the highest levels of the Premier League and European\u00a0football,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will invest across multiple transfer windows.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tottenham would probably have \u00adsuffered the disaster of relegation from the Premier League if it were not for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-693504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}