Spurs have made their second desperate last-ditch managerial gamble of the season.<\/p>\n
In a hilarious and adorable attempt at showing hints of permanence and long-term thinking, they are actually going to appoint a permanent manager in a season when they\u2019ve already just had to get rid of an interim one<\/a>.<\/p>\n That manager is going to be Roberto De Zerbi<\/a>. It\u2019s going to be\u2026 interesting.<\/p>\n The long-term problems of chucking an eight-figure salary and five-year deal at a volatile manager who has blown up within two years at every club he\u2019s been at \u2013 most of those clubs being less intrinsically ridiculous ones than Spurs \u2013 are obvious enough.<\/p>\n Even if he does keep Spurs up, the idea that there would at long last be some sense of long-term security and permanence at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium appears laughable. Even in the very best version of how the remainder of this season plays out, we are still surely no more than 12 months away from calls for Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s return again.<\/p>\n But the very best version of how the remainder of this season plays out is also not the likeliest version of how the remainder of this season plays out.<\/p>\n Spurs do appear determined to pile up further long-term footballing and financial problems with this appointment, but those are concerns for quite literally another day.<\/p>\n Here are 10 immediate \u2013 and in some cases entirely unsolvable \u2013 problems Spurs and De Zerbi now face. TL;DR \u2013 those problems are De Zerbi, his current players, and one former one.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Mason Greenwood<\/p>\n This was inevitably coming. From the moment De Zerbi left Brighton it\u2019s felt certain he would one day be back in Our League. And from the moment he started praising Mason Greenwood as a \u2018good guy\u2019 who\u2019d paid a \u2018heavy price\u2019 and suggesting that doing good football could absolve everything anyone had ever done, it was thus inevitable that De Zerbi\u2019s prophesied return to the Premier League would bring Greenwood back to the Premier League.<\/p>\n Not literally. Not even Spurs are that f**king mental. But his name is back in Premier League conversation by virtue of being so indelibly linked with De Zerbi for the role the former Marseille manager has played in Greenwood\u2019s \u2018rehabilitation\u2019. Which has consisted of showing zero remorse or growth but scoring several goals.<\/p>\n We suppose if it was as inevitable as it\u2019s always felt, then grimly this might be the least bad way for it to happen. De Zerbi was going to rock up somewhere in the Premier League with all his Greenwood baggage, but at least this way it\u2019s with a club that might well f**k off in seven games\u2019 time.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Explaining himself<\/p>\n Nevertheless, one of the very first things De Zerbi will have to do as Spurs manager is attempt to explain himself. Whatever your views on Greenwood, you must at least acknowledge the divisiveness of the situation. It isn\u2019t just utter woke nonsense. Multiple Spurs fan groups have expressed genuine dismay at this appointment<\/a> and it is no idle concern.<\/p>\n You can call it \u2018virtue signalling\u2019 and not care, but it doesn\u2019t make it all magically disappear. De Zerbi will be asked about it the first time he speaks as Spurs manager, and his answer will have to be spectacularly good and unbelievably convincing to satisfy anyone at all.<\/p>\n Admittedly, we\u2019re not quite sure exactly what he could say or how he could say it that could be both good and convincing given all the other crass and unpleasant things he\u2019s said on the subject in recent years<\/a>, but that is also kind of his fault and kind of the point.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Togetherness<\/p>\n And, to reiterate, the crucial thing with that is that it matters whether you think it should or not.<\/p>\n It\u2019s obviously unscientific, but one prominent Spurs fan\u2019s yes-or-no X poll on De Zerbi produced the obvious split decision right down to achieving the exact cursed ratio of 48:52 at one point.<\/p>\n Do you want De Zerbi in?<\/p>\n \u2014 Flav (@Flav_Bateman) March 30, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n More significant even than the split result were the split replies. Again, social media isn\u2019t real life but the replies are an almost perfect combination of \u201cWho are these f**king idiots saying no?\u201d and \u201cWho are these f**king idiots saying yes?\u201d with the occasional \u201cI am now numb to Spurs bullsh*t and have checked out\u201d ballot-spoilers who are, in truth, probably the only sane ones among us.<\/p>\n At a time when Spurs are in desperate need of unity and clarity of purpose they really might have now stumbled into appointing \u2013 at eye-watering cost \u2013 just about the most divisive and baggage-heavy manager possible.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Firefighter?<\/p>\n It\u2019s not even like all those opposing De Zerbi\u2019s appointment were consumed by moral concerns, either. There are clear footballing issues with this appointment at this time.<\/p>\n While it was a relief to have it confirmed by the estimable Football Cliches that De Zerbi does at least meet the minimum height requirements to be a for-real firefighter, his credentials as a footballing one remain severely open to question.<\/p>\n Spurs have just got rid of a manager who took one point from his five Premier League games. Igor Tudor leaves English football \u2013 and our hunch is that unlike De Zerbi he won\u2019t return \u2013 as one of the worst Premier League managers ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet De Zerbi took just one more point from his first five games at Brighton than Tudor did in his first five games at Spurs. They even both had a chaotic draw at Anfield.<\/p>\n Of course coming into Brighton in September and Spurs in late March are not the same situation. Not even close. But only because this one is much, much worse. De Zerbi took two points from his first five games at a club that had just taken 13 from their first six games of the season.<\/p>\n Tottenham\u2019s last 13 points have taken them nearly five months and 21 games to achieve.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The timeframe<\/p>\n Of course, De Zerbi did then start getting a very decent tune out of that talented Brighton squad. A total of 47 points from the remaining 27 games of that season after De Zerbi\u2019s sticky start propelled Brighton all the way to sixth place and European football by the end of May.<\/p>\n So the question here becomes whether De Zerbi is older and wiser enough to condense that bedding-in period. When he took over at Marseille with a pre-season, all was well. He won four of his first five Ligue 1 games. If he can do that at Spurs, then an awful lot of other things will be forgiven by an awful lot of currently angry sorts.<\/p>\n But can the mini-pre-season De Zerbi will have between now and a trip to Sunderland next weekend be enough?<\/p>\n Can De Zerbi squeeze what took him five weeks with an in-form and confident Brighton squad into five days with a shellshocked, doom-addled, checked-out Spurs one?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The goalkeeper<\/p>\n Does feel like if you strip away every other ethical or footballing concern, De Zerbi\u2019s chances of short-term success at Spurs rest massively on this hugely problematic position.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that De Zerbi\u2019s preferred tactics in possession involve building up short from the back, drawing the opposition on to them and then playing through or round them.<\/p>\n This does generally require a goalkeeper who has enormous confidence as well as the faith and confidence of those around them. Spurs have Guglielmo Vicario and Antonin Kinsky.<\/p>\n