Tottenham have confirmed Roberto De Zerbi as head coach on a five-year contract

Tottenham have confirmed the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi as their new head coach. He has been handed a five-year contract but all eyes will be on the rest of the season as he is charged with keeping the club in the Premier League.

Spurs are one point and one place above the relegation zone with seven games to play – next up is Sunderland on Sunday week. There is no break clause in De Zerbi’s deal if Tottenham are relegated.

“I am happy to be a member of this great football club, one of the biggest and most famous in the world,” said the Italian.

“In all my discussions with the club’s leadership, their ambition for the future is clear – to build a team capable of achieving great success and to do so playing the kind of football that excites and inspires our supporters. I am here because I believe in that ambition.”

Spurs knew they had to part with their interim manager, Igor Tudor, after losing at home to Nottingham Forest on Sunday before the final, although the situation came about because of a personal crisis. Tudor found out about the death of his father, Mario, after the match between Forest and Spurs and had to show his sensitivity as he began to grieve. The club waited until Sunday before announcing his departure by mutual consent.

Tudor has picked up one point from his five league games since coming on as a substitute for Thomas Frank on March 14. Tottenham had begun to assess the circumstances of Tudor’s departure after his side fell to a crushing home defeat against Crystal Palace on 5 March, and at the time, De Zerbi was adamant he would not return to management until the summer, having left Marseille on 11 March. He needed a break after the chaos in the French team.

Spurs had considered signing De Zerbi on several previous occasions, including in the summer of 2023 when they finally turned to Ange Postecoglou after sacking Frank on March 11. At the time, it wasn’t just De Zerbi’s refusal to return to work that stirred things up.

Spurs were worried about the optics of his support for Mason Greenwood, who he signed from Marseille. The attacker was charged with attempted rape, control and coercion and assault in 2022. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case after key witnesses withdrew their involvement and “new material came to light”. Spurs supporter groups made it clear they did not want De Zerbi – a position that endured. At that time Spurs indicated that De Zerbi would not be selected. They made a U-turn.

The same goes for De Zerbi about returning to work in the spring. He accepts that the situation at Spurs is far from ideal but he was convinced of the strength and passion of their game for him, the financial package and the extent to which he will be allowed to create a club in the transfer market.

De Zerbi decided that it was too good an opportunity to quit; given the keys to one of the richest clubs in Europe.

Perhaps it also crossed his mind that Tottenham might want to replace their former manager Mauricio Pochettino in the summer. Pochettino is under contract with the USA side until after the World Cup qualifiers. By going to Spurs De Zerbi has now left him, although the club’s sporting director, Johan Lange, said that De Zerbi “was our number 1 target in the summer and we are very happy to be able to bring him now”.

De Zerbi has a reputation as a top-class coach, admired by many of his peers – particularly for his bold and aggressive style of possession and creative ability. Towards the end of De Zerbi’s first season at Brighton in 2022-23, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola described him as “one of the most influential managers of the last 20 years”.

Guardiola said: “It’s like a Michelin star restaurant. You know when you were in Catalunya it was El Bulli… [with] Ferran Adrià, the best chef of many, many years; he changed his diet completely. The way Brighton play is something special. It’s special. They walk the way they walk. ”

De Zerbi enjoyed success at Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk before moving to Brighton, where his first season was impressive. He led the club to sixth in the Premier League – their highest ever finish – and qualification for the Europa League; another group first. They lost in the FA Cup semi-final on penalties against Manchester United.

In 2024-25, his first season at Marseille, De Zerbi finished second in Ligue 1 and qualified for the Champions League. When he left, his winning percentage of 57% was the highest of any coach in this century.

De Zerbi’s reputation for inconsistency also gets him ahead, though it’s part of the way he energizes the dressing room. Spurs have done their due diligence on his time at Brighton and have been told how he struggled towards the end of his second spell, after publicly questioning the club’s ambitions. It was as if he had made his own departure. His performance at Marseille was held up by the fans.

The immediate question for Spurs will be whether De Zerbi can hit the ground running – because time is of the essence. At Brighton, he took over in September 2022 from Graham Potter and the fourth team. He failed to win any of his first five matches, taking just two points, before his streak began to return home.

It is interesting to consider the interview from Lewis Dunk, director of De Zerbi in Brighton. “If I’m being honest, the first few weeks were horrible… I wouldn’t actually say horrible, they were amazing,” Dunk said in September 2023. “You know, we talked about it.

“The training changed a lot, we worked on a lot of different things and the first few weeks were a very difficult transition. We had seen when Graham left and we were flying with him and it was an amazing time for him to go. Then Roberto came in and [it was] a two-week massacre. ”