Tottenham's Disappointing Start: De Zerbi's Warning After Brentford Loss
Tottenham’s lavish summer rebuild lasted all of 90 minutes.
On an opening day that was supposed to signal a new era, Roberto De Zerbi watched his remodelled Spurs side taken apart 3-0 by a ruthless Brentford, who exposed all the old frailties in brutally familiar fashion.
De Zerbi’s warning siren
De Zerbi did not sugar-coat what he had seen.
"For many reasons I think we are not (a) team yet. We are not at the right point in physical condition," he admitted after the game, his assessment as stark as the scoreline.
Spurs handed debuts to five new signings and are on course to smash through the €350million barrier once deals for Savinho and Omar Marmoush are finalised. The spending is extravagant. The structure is not.
"But no excuse," De Zerbi insisted. "When you are building a new project I don’t want time, but we have to pass through these problems.
"I believe in my players, my club and myself. I think we are working well but we are late for the start of the Premier League.
"It’s a step we have to improve quickly. We could fight stronger than we did today and we lost too many duels.
"The target is to become (a) team. To find the spirit, the soul, is a process."
On this evidence, that process is only just beginning.
Same old Spurs, new cast
The names on the back of the shirts have changed. The issues have not.
Keane Lewis-Potter struck, Vitaly Janelt followed, and Michael Kayode added a third as Brentford sliced through a disjointed Spurs side that looked undercooked, underpowered and overwhelmed.
De Zerbi, parachuted in last season to drag Spurs away from the relegation scrap, now faces a different kind of pressure: turning big spending into basic cohesion. His side lost individual battles all over the pitch and never found a collective pulse.
For a club that has thrown vast sums at a reset, this was a jarring reminder that money cannot buy rhythm, intensity or edge.
Sangare steals the stage
While Spurs paraded their expensive overhaul, it was Brentford’s own marquee signing who dictated the afternoon.
Mamadou Sangare, the €48m midfielder Brentford prised away from a queue of suitors, looked immediately at home. He set up two of the three goals and drove the hosts with the authority of a player who has been in the Premier League for years, not minutes.
"It’s pretty impressive on a lot of fronts. You never truly know from pre-season what you’re going to get," said Brentford manager Keith Andrews. "But it felt like we were in a good spot and we produced a pretty good performance."
Andrews could barely have asked for more from his new lynchpin.
"More of the same from him, hopefully," he said. "It’s been nice working with him and the club deserves a lot of credit for getting that deal done because he could have gone elsewhere.
"He adds to an already quality midfield that we have. I really enjoyed his performance today."
"You never truly know in a different league, with a different language, but he’s a humble young man who looks very hungry."
Hungry was the word. Sangare snapped into challenges, demanded the ball, and picked passes that split Spurs open. While Tottenham’s new arrivals searched for each other, Brentford’s found their leader.
Brentford’s quiet rise
Last season Brentford missed out on European football only on goal difference. Still, they continue to operate slightly out of the spotlight, their progress often framed as a curiosity rather than a sustained project.
Andrews knows the narrative, and he is not fighting it.
"That’s the beauty of this game," he smiled. "It’s about journeys, it’s about stories, it’s about narrative. You’ve just got to go with it, haven’t you?"
Brentford’s story, once again, is of a club punching without fear and landing cleanly. Tottenham’s, for now, is of a lavishly assembled squad still searching for that "spirit" and "soul" their head coach demands.
The money has been spent. The ideas are clear. The question now is how long De Zerbi gets to turn this expensive collection into the team he keeps talking about.
