Roberto De Zerbi's Aggressive Tottenham Rebuild

Roberto De Zerbi is not easing his way into Tottenham. He is tearing into the transfer market with his teeth bared.

“In the transfer market when I want one player I become like a shark, no chance to say no!” he told Football London – and the numbers already back up the image.

Spurs have spent heavily, reshaping an attack that has swallowed an £85m deal for Mateus Fernandes and still isn’t close to being finished.

De Zerbi estimates the rebuild is only “60 per cent” complete. That remaining 40 per cent? He calls it “another bomba”.

Savinho pressure and a ruthless blueprint

That “bomba” is widely expected to be Savinho. The Brazilian is pushing from his side, reportedly putting pressure on Manchester City to clear a move to north London. If Spurs get him, they add yet another expensive piece to an attacking puzzle that De Zerbi is building with almost obsessive precision.

This is not just about stacking forwards. It’s about how they move around his full-backs.

“A winger can be a very wide winger, one able to come inside, a winger without a full-back, a winger able to play with the full-back,” he explained, laying out the tactical menu. Everything starts from the players already in place on the flanks.

“We have four great full-backs at the moment, maybe the four most important full-backs in the world,” he said, before going even further. Pedro Porro? “The best right-back in the world,” in his eyes, with Destiny Udogie, Andy Robertson and Djed Spence completing a group he clearly sees as fundamental.

“Before bringing in a winger, we have to consider the full-back, because we start from the full-back, from the player we already have, no?” he added.

He wants another deal done quickly, but he knows the market rarely bends on command. Asked if the next signing was close, he kept it blunt: “I hope, but it’s not finished for sure.”

Romero exit looms as promises come due

While De Zerbi hunts new blood, one of his biggest figures is edging towards the door.

Cristian Romero, Tottenham’s captain and one of the most aggressive centre-backs in Europe, is pushing for a return to Serie A. Inter sporting director Piero Ausilio has already confirmed that talks are active over bringing the 2026 World Cup finalist to San Siro.

De Zerbi isn’t fighting it.

“Romero as a player is one of the best centre-backs in the world, but at the end I said I want to respect the will of the players,” he said.

He then revealed the pact he made with his squad back in April, when the club were battling to stay afloat.

“I said: ‘Help me to stay up, and then I help you to leave’. If you don’t help me to stay up, you stay underwater with me!”

Romero, he insists, kept his side of the bargain.

“With me was unbelievable. Top. In his behaviour, his respect, he suffered when he did not play the last game,” De Zerbi said. Any suggestion that Romero angled for an early exit to prepare for Argentina and the World Cup was dismissed out of hand. “It is not true that he wanted to leave for Argentina to prepare for their World Cup. It’s not true.”

So if Inter find the right number, Tottenham’s leader at the back walks away with the manager’s blessing – and another hole appears in a squad already in flux.

Young talent, hard lines

De Zerbi’s stance softens for no one, not even the club’s brightest prospects.

Lucas Bergvall and Djed Spence are both drawing interest, both seen as part of a new generation that could grow with Spurs. De Zerbi wants them around. But only on his terms.

“If they stay, they have to stay following my rules, decisions on the pitch,” he warned. The message is clear: talent is welcome, entitlement is not.

He then aimed directly at the kind of dressing-room drift that can derail a season.

“After two games, three games, if one player is not playing and he starts to be sad or not correct with the other players, the coaches, staff, the club, we would make a big, big mistake because we didn’t learn from the past season.”

Under him, the hierarchy is simple. The team comes first, the system second, and individual frustration a distant third.

Chelsea up next as the shark circles again

For now, the noise of the market pauses for 90 minutes. De Zerbi’s new-look squad turn towards a pre-season meeting with Chelsea on Saturday, a first real glimpse of how this aggressive rebuild might look on the pitch.

The spending is high, the rhetoric even higher, and the promises to his players are already being honoured. The shark is still circling the transfer market.

The real question is how dangerous Tottenham will look once it finally stops feeding.