There’s more coaching news today — on the same day that Tottenham Hotspur announced that one of their academy coaches is leaving for Ipswich Town, there’s new reporting from Sami Mockbel at the BBC that Roberto De Zerbi is adding another assistant. Mockbel writes that longtime Brighton assistant Andrew Crofts is joining De Zerbi’s coaching staff.
I really can’t
tell you much about Crofts — he had a 20 year career as a player, retiring in 2021 at Brighton where he was a player/coach for the Seagulls academy. Afterwards, he continued coaching in Brighton’s academy and has worked his way up the Brighton coaching ladder. He even served as interim head coach in 2022 after the sacking of Graham Potter. He was promoted to first team assistant coach under Roberto De Zerbi when he was at Brighton, so we know that RDZ knows Crofts and what he can bring to his staff. As of last season, Crofts was assistant head coach under Fabian Hurzeler. He also serves as an assistant for the Wales national team.
There’s no real indication that I’ve seen as to what Crofts will be doing on De Zerbi’s staff at Spurs, but I can’t think of a reason why hiring an assistant who’s worked under De Zerbi before could be construed as a BAD thing. He’ll be one of several new faces in Tottenham’s coaching ranks.
Spurs play their first preseason friendly this coming Wednesday against MK Dons at Spurs’ Hotspur Way training center. The match is not televised, but will be streamed on SpursPLAY, Tottenham’s in-house subscription video platform.
