The dust has settled on the 2025-26 Premier League season and it’s not one Spurs fans are going to forget for a while, even if they don’t want to really remember it all that well. With Roberto De Zerbi in charge and Tottenham securing their place in the 2026-27 Premier League (even by the skin of their teeth), there’s a massive opportunity for the club to take stock and make some significant changes, not only to the squad but to their entire field of operations.
Tottenham Hotspur just released a lengthy
in-house interview with De Zerbi now that the season has ended. In-house interviews are obviously crafted for specific narratives and can sometimes be a lot less informative than an interview given to a news outlet or paper. But there are some interesting answers here, specifically when it comes to De Zerbi’s plans for the future. Specifically, if you read through the lines you can see that RDZ sure seems to be wanting improved midfield passing, one of the biggest holes in the squad last season under Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor.
Tell me what comes now in terms of recruitment. How soon do you look at what you want player-wise in the summer? And do you feel the club are there to support you in that?
Roberto: “Listen, we have a great relationship with Johan and Vinai and the whole board. I have no doubt, but it’s right because I came to start a new plan, a new project, and the plan was not in Sunderland. It was after Everton, staying in the Premier League. My target was very clear at the beginning. I gave all my best. I pushed to arrive at today. From today, we have to start to work. Look, my target when I came was today, to arrive today, after the last game and planning the next Premier League. I’m sure we have not to change too many players. It’s not right. It’s not right because we are lucky to have a lot of good players, a lot of good guys. I think we have to complete the squad in the best way, with the first level of players, with the right behaviour of the players, because now the qualities of the players are important, but more important is the spirit, the mentality of these players – and now the job starts.”
Do you have a priority in terms of the work you would like to do with the players?Roberto: “I want to improve the quality of the play, for sure. I want to improve build-up because normally you are focused on the last 30 metres, but you can improve the last 30 metres if you play better in the first 70 metres. In build-up, we have to improve in the ball possession, we have to improve in the control of the game, for sure in the finishing, the last pass, the assists, a lot of things. We have time now to organise the improvement of the play.”
What will summer look like for you?
Roberto: “I’m looking forward to build a new team. I’m looking forward to call these players, to speak with them and to introduce the new season and to speak with the new players we have to bring. We are lucky to stay here and we have to compete in the best way we can.”
Fascinating. De Zerbi says both that he’s fortunate to already have a bunch of quality players at his disposal and he’s not anticipating making wholesale changes to the squad, which contrasts to his earlier comments about “10-12 players” forming the core of his squad. Maybe that’s a club line, or maybe he was lying either before or now, but it’s certainly interesting.
More interesting are his comments about “quality of play.” He doesn’t come out and say it, but his references to improving build-up play sure does suggest that he wants better possession and passing in central midfield, to which I wave my hat and yell “YEE-HAW.” Spurs’ biggest flaw was how it was seemingly constructed to progress the ball solely up the flanks through the fullbacks and wide midfielders — something that went off the rails very quickly this past season, especially once the injuries started to hit. But Frank’s U-Ball tactics were flawed to begin with, and it sure seems like De Zerbi is planning a different approach. I welcome that change, for sure.
We know we’re not going to get better passing from the midfielders Spurs currently have at their disposal, so it will be very interesting to see how Spurs approach this. I would suggest this is a clear preference for adding new players to midfield, but some players will have to go to make room for new signings, and I don’t have a strong sense yet of who De Zerbi prefers and who he’ll try and jettison. He’s spoken highly of Rodrigo Bentancur and Conor Gallagher, but players like Pape Matar Sarr, Yves Bissouma, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall have been used much more sparingly in the season run-in. Part of that might have been survival tactics, but it’s not a great sign for any of them.
There’s a lot more in the interview about securing survival, earning the players’ trust, and starting to instill a new attitude within the club that’s worth reading, but I found the tactical and recruitment bits to be the most interesting parts. What do you think? Put your feelings and reactions in the comments.
