Roberto De Zerbi has revealed that another Tottenham Hotspur transfer “bomba” is incoming and has also acknowledged that captain Cristian Romero is eager to depart the club.
Spurs have already splashed out £237 million($319.2 million) in the window, with Sandro Tonali becoming their first £100 million ($134.7 million) player just days after they invested £85 million ($114.5 million) on Mateus Fernandes.
The North London club are now poised to bolster their attacking options with yet another marquee signing. Tottenham are expected to finalize a deal for Manchester City winger Savinho in the coming weeks, but De Zerbi hinted that another high-profile addition could arrive beforehand.
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“In the transfer market when I want one player I become like a shark, No chance to say no!
“The transfer market, it’s not finished for sure, but we completed 60 percent of our project in the transfer market. Now we have another bomba!” the Italian told football.london with an excited look in his eye.
Spurs have been linked with the likes of Liverpool‘s Cody Gakpo, AC Milan‘s Rafael de Leao, Paris Saint-Germain‘s Bradley Barcola and England star Marcus Rashford among others this summer, while football.london understands De Zerbi holds strong admiration for Savinho’s City teammate Omar Marmoush.
De Zerbi confirmed the incoming signing would be an attacking player and when pressed on whether a deal was imminent, he added: “I hope, but it’s not finished for sure.”
The Tottenham manager revealed that his list of transfer targets was drawn up during his negotiations with sporting director Johan Lange prior to agreeing to take on the position.
To listen to the latest episode of ‘All Out Soccer’ – Roberto De Zerbi teases another Tottenham
“A lot of players you are watching now on the pitch started from mid-March,” admitted the 47-year-old. “The plan was clear at the beginning. The big problem was to stay up and play in the Premier League again.”
Players will continue to depart Tottenham this summer as part of the overhaul, and De Zerbi told football.london that he will honor Romero and Guglielmo Vicario‘s desires to leave North London, with the pair linked with Inter Milan and Juventus respectively.
“At the beginning of my time, in April, I had, I don’t know, one million individual meetings!” he said. “And [the players] told me what was their idea. I said: ‘Yes, 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!
“But Romero with me was unbelievable. Top. In his behaviour, his respect, he suffered when he did not play the last game. It is not true that he wanted to leave for Argentina to prepare for their World Cup. It’s not true.
“After the semifinal [against England] we text a message, but I never called him to convince him to stay. I respected what he told me. Like for Vicario, like for every player.”
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De Zerbi added: “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.”
Another FIFA World Cup standout linked with a potential departure is England full-back Djed Spence, who will compete with Pedro Porro — whom De Zerbi regards as the finest right-back on the planet — for playing time in a season without European soccer.
The Spurs manager hinted that Spence, along with midfielder Lucas Bergvall, could seek regular first-team soccer elsewhere, though he expressed a desire to retain both players.
“What I say to you, is the same I said to Djed and to Lucas – ‘I would like you to stay,'” he explained. “Not ‘I want you to stay. I would like you to stay if you want to stay.’
“‘If you don’t want to stay, if you want to leave, you have to leave.’ If you want to leave, speak with Vinai [Venkatesham] and Johan, because I don’t manage the price, the sale.
“I can speak with Vinai and Johan about the best strategy, but I don’t decide £30 million, £40 million, that’s not my position and I don’t want to change my position. It’s tough enough to be a coach and I want to stay as a coach.
“But I respected the player’s ideas and opinions or projects. But if they stay, they have to stay following my rules, decisions on the pitch.
“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.”
De Zerbi also revealed to football.london that any wingers recruited this summer will be selected to complement his full-backs. “No two players are the same. 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 said.
“We have four great full-backs at the moment, maybe the four most important full-backs in the world, because I think Pedro Porro is the best right-back in the world, with [Destiny] Udogie, [Andy] Robertson, and Djed Spence can play right and left.
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“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: “And then we have to consider the number of goals. We have to increase the number of goals with the play, with the quality of the play, with the midfielders, the attackers, but we have to bring in players able to score goals. We have to think about the set pieces, increase also the height.
“But the idea in the transfer market is 24 hours per day you think what is the best player to put inside.
“I love working in the transfer market. It’s not a pressure, it’s one of the nicest parts of my job.”
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