RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesTottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi before the pre-season friendly match at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia. Picture date: Wednesday July 29, 2026. (Photo by Robbie Stephenson/PA Images via Getty Images) | PA Images via Getty Images
I already wrote about the biggest talking point from Roberto De Zerbi’s recent interview with Alasdair Gold on football.london — the announcement of the mystery, unfinished transfer “bomba” that supposedly is coming in the next week. But there’s a lot more in RDZ’s chat with Gold, particularly in the area of transfer departures. Several Spurs players have been linked with an exit from Tottenham this summer, including some heavyweights like Cuti Romero, Guglielmo Vicario, Lucas Bergvall, and England World Cup cult hero Djed Spence.
Initial fan reaction (for most of them) was dismay that we would let these players, some of whom are fan favorites, depart the club when there are obvious holes in the squad that they could patch. In the case of Bergvall, it’s an unwillingness to let a player with an obviously high ceiling leave in pursuit of regular playing time. But in his interview with Gold, De Zerbi says he’s not here to convince players to stay and play for Tottenham Hotspur — he’s here to make sure the players who ARE here are fully committed to the project. And if you’re not, then you’re free to go.
“At the beginning of my time, in April, I had, I don’t know, one million individual meetings! 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 semi-final [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.
“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 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 £30m, £40m, 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.”
The quotes about Cuti are illuminating. It’s clear now Romero is ready for a fresh start, but it’s equally clear that one of the biggest catalysts for fan discontent against Romero — Cuti’s supposed unwillingness to return from Argentina for Spurs’ final match of the season — was complete fiction. At some level that doesn’t matter — the fans turned against him and still believe the background chatter that Romero only turned up at the last match because he was “forced” to rather than because he had always planned to be there. That will always annoy me — the fan-based supposition that Romero cared more about Argentina than he did about Tottenham. It’s been dis-proven over and over again, but I suspect the narrative will persist. We’ll have more about Cuti and his rumored exit later today.
But in general principles, I don’t have too many objections to how De Zerbi has handled himself here with regards to the players who supposedly want out. RDZ is showing himself, like Ange Postecoglou and Mauricio Pochettino, to be a manager who desires full buy-in to his tactics and ideas. Would he like players like Romero and Bergvall to stay and fight for a place in his squad? Absolutely. But if the player doesn’t have that desire, he’s willing to let them go to make space for players that do. I can’t fault the reasoning, even if I wish players like Romero, Spence, and Bergvall would stick around. But that’s on them. If they want out, they want out and De Zerbi isn’t willing to let uncommitted players hang around just because they’re good.
I suspect most of the players rumored for an exit will eventually leave, as they’ve come to the determination that they’re better served at a club that can offer them more playing time. They’re not necessarily wrong to make that determination! Players want to play and are often willing to fight to put themselves in the best possible position for their careers. I can’t fault them for that, even if it means a few players that I’ve come to love over the past few years depart for other pastures.
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