Tottenham Hotspur have appointed their third head coach of the campaign, with the announcement that former Olympique de Marseille manager Roberto De Zerbi has signed a five-year deal, with the immediate objective of preserving Spurs’ Premier League status.
This SBOTOP writer said only last week that Spurs are in big, big trouble, not the most difficult conclusion to work out I’ll admit, and it seems the Tottenham hierarchy was already there, as they moved quickly to put their latest manager, Igor Tudor, out of his misery.
A truly shocking set of results in Tudor’s 44-day reign means that, with seven games to play, Tottenham are precariously placed in 17th in the Premier League table and staring down the barrel of a first relegation to the second flight since 1977. De Zerbi comes with a strong CV, having managed Brighton and Hove Albion and OM to relative success, but his arrival has not been met with universal approval, with the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust particularly vociferous in their concerns over the manager’s association with disgraced star Mason Greenwood.
The former Manchester United and England man left Old Trafford under a cloud after he was the subject of serious allegations in 2022, relating to domestic assault, with all charges dropped in 2023. But they certainly damaged the player’s reputation and standing in the game. De Zerbi gave the 24-year-old a chance in Marseille and the forward has responded well. Greenwood is the second top scorer in Ligue 1 with 15 goals and he’s become an integral part of the Ligue 1 side’s European push, but the door to an England return has been closed.
The Supporters Trust said De Zerbi’s appointment ‘raises serious and far-reaching concerns’ and they have warned of a strong feeling among fans, after De Zerbi, while manager at Marseille, said that Greenwood was ‘a good guy’ who had paid ‘a heavy price’.
Those comments are sure to be divisive and the club is reported to have carefully considered the issue, and expect De Zerbi to address it at some point. But in Spurs’ current predicament, heading for the Championship unless a rapid turnaround is achieved, survival has to be the number one priority and, for that to be achieved, the club needs to pull together.
When the season began, under new manager Thomas Frank, the optimism was soaring at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after they began the campaign with a 3-0 win over Burnley, and the Premier League 2026 betting odds pitched them as a top seven club. But Frank failed to replicate the success he had at Brentford, in terms of galvanising a group, and he struggled to find consistency; though he was hampered by serious injury issues, notably to centre-back Micky van de Ven, and the departure of talisman Heung-min Son.
Spurs fought hard in the Champions League, exiting to Atlético Madrid very recently, but at least giving Tudor a home win in the second leg. But now it’s all about Premier League 2026 results and De Zerbi has a week to prepare before he leads his new team in a tricky away fixture to Sunderland. The Black Cats have exceeded all expectations this term and are already safe and, while they have been on the slide recently, Sunderland have been brilliant at home in front of a raucous Stadium of Light crowd.
It’s the type of game Tottenham fans would normally expect to win, but in the current circumstances, one point above the drop zone, it is full of danger; and anything other than a victory could see the Londoners slip into the bottom three with just six games remaining. With Wolverhampton and Burnley all but mathematically relegated, Spurs need to finish higher than one of West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United.
My guess is, with West Ham on their heels and picking up points regularly De Zerbi needs to find at least eight points from a set of fixtures which could be tougher, but there is plenty of peril. After they visit Sunderland, Spurs will return home to face De Zerbi’s old mates from Brighton and Hove Albion, currently tenth and with four wins from five league games and on the Euro hunt, before heading to Molineux to meet Wolverhampton Wanderers, who have suddenly woken up and recently beat Aston Villa 2-0.
May starts with a trip away to Villa, still chasing a Champions League place and then there’s a six-pointer against Leeds United. I’d say by that point Spurs need to be clear of the bottom three, because their last two games are against Chelsea and Everton, who will both be trying to nail down European spots.
De Zerbi has sent his first message to Tottenham fans, saying he intends to stay at the club for a long time, but they will only be focused on the next seven weeks, and everyone at the club will need to have nerves of steel.
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