Tottenham’s Ambition Renewed: Van de Ven on De Zerbi's Impact
Tottenham’s summer hasn’t just been expensive. It’s been confrontational. A statement to the dressing room as much as the rest of the league.
After back-to-back 17th-place finishes and a season Micky van de Ven simply calls “unacceptable”, Spurs have torn up the script. A new manager, a new style, a record spend of £237m – and, crucially, a new tone from the boardroom.
“You can see the club has made some changes,” Van de Ven told BBC Sport on the club’s pre-season tour in Australia. “You can see the club has a new ambition. It's something that's really important for players who have been here for a long time.”
Last season drained them. The fight against the drop, the tension, the constant sense of a club shrinking rather than growing. Van de Ven doesn’t dress it up.
“Last season was a stressful season, unacceptable from our side, so to leave all of that behind and go into the new season fresh means a lot.”
From survival to possession
The hinge point came in late March with the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi. Tottenham have spent years drifting between philosophies, often defaulting to pragmatism and damage limitation. De Zerbi represents the opposite instinct.
He has walked in with the ball at his feet and refused to put it down.
“It's going to be different compared to the manager we had last season,” Van de Ven explained. “It's going to be more with the ball, I think, more about playing football. I think it's also going to be more enjoyable for people to watch because we'll be playing offensive football.”
The Italian has wasted no time stamping his ideas on a squad that looked emotionally exhausted by the end of last year’s relegation scrap. Sessions in pre-season have revolved around building play, bravery in possession, and committing numbers forward.
You can hear the relief in Van de Ven’s voice.
“You can see he has brought a lot of passion into our group, a lot in terms of mentality and passion on the pitch. It is something we needed because everybody was a little bit down. He brings a lot of good energy and, from pre-season, we have really had the time to bring his football into the team. That's really enjoyable.”
This isn’t just a tactical refresh. It’s a mood shift.
Record fees, clear message
If De Zerbi’s arrival hinted at change, the transfer window has shouted it.
Spurs have smashed their transfer record twice in 48 breathless hours. Mateus Fernandes arrived from West Ham for £85m, only for that fee to be eclipsed almost immediately by the £100m signing of Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United.
Those are not the moves of a club planning for another year of survival.
They have reinforced again at the back, paying £52m to prise Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton, while adding experience and depth with free transfers for Andrew Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka.
It is a squad being rebuilt at speed – but not at random. Technical quality, personality, and a willingness to play on the front foot all sit at the heart of De Zerbi’s demands.
Van de Ven has already felt the impact of the influx.
“The feeling of the team is really good, to be honest,” he said. “I have really enjoyed working with him. That's what we have been doing in this pre-season, and the guys who are coming in have been unbelievable as well. They have fit in well to the group.”
The money matters, of course. Yet the defender keeps coming back to something less tangible: belief. The sense that the club is finally pushing in the same direction as the players who have lived through the chaos.
De Zerbi draws the line
With the chequebook open and the squad reshaped, the focus now falls on what De Zerbi does with it all once the real football starts.
The Italian has already made one thing crystal clear: anyone not on board with the new direction can leave. No passengers, no bystanders, no sulkers on the fringes.
That stance has sharpened minds. A squad that staggered through last season now knows there are consequences. There is also opportunity – for those willing to embrace the intensity and the ball-dominant style their manager demands.
For Van de Ven and the core of the group, the message has landed. The excuses of the past two years have gone. So has the safety net.
New horizons in Oceania
Right now, all of this is playing out far from north London. Tottenham are on a pre-season tour of Oceania, a world away from the tension that gripped the club last spring.
They have already beaten Auckland FC in New Zealand and next face Sydney FC on Wednesday. The results themselves are secondary. What matters is the work: the patterns, the pressing triggers, the understanding between new signings and old hands.
On those training pitches in Sydney, you can see the outlines of something different. A team trying to remember how to attack, a club trying to remember what ambition feels like.
The spending has set the stage. De Zerbi’s football will decide whether this is a genuine turning point or just another expensive false dawn for Tottenham Hotspur.
