Guglielmo Vicario on Tottenham's Premier League Survival
Guglielmo Vicario did not play a minute of Tottenham’s great escape, but he lived every second of it.
Fresh from hernia surgery and still short of full fitness, the 29-year-old sprinted from the sidelines on the final day, grabbed Roberto De Zerbi in a wild embrace and almost put his head coach in a chokehold of relief when Joao Palhinha’s goal against Everton helped secure Spurs’ Premier League status. It was the physical release of a season that had dragged the club to its knees.
For Vicario, there is no doubt who changed everything.
This is the minimum
"A lot of emotion. It has been a very long season. We suffered a lot as a team. Also individually I suffered a lot for many reasons, different reasons," Vicario admitted, still not “100 per cent fit but in a better place”.
Tottenham had been drifting, drained of belief and rhythm, staring at the unthinkable. Relegation talk had stopped being hypothetical. Inside the dressing room, the mood matched the table.
"This club deserves at least to stay in the Premier League. This is the minimum you can get at this football club," he said. "Sometimes there are situations that happen that are not more in your control. You lose the focus, you lose hope, you lose a lot of stuff but fortunately Roberto came in and gave us a lot of confidence."
De Zerbi arrived to find a squad shot through with doubt. The football improved, yes, but Vicario is adamant the real transformation started before a ball was kicked.
"A lot of patterns, a lot of football. It was not the main focus though. He gave us a lot of confidence, good vibes, good feelings and we got the result."
Eleven points from the final six matches dragged Spurs away from the trapdoor. Behind that surge lay a barrage of conversations.
De Zerbi’s message: play for the badge
Vicario, sidelined but not silent, became one of De Zerbi’s lieutenants.
"He had a lot of talks with the players. I spoke a lot with him. I was not able to help him on the pitch but I tried to do it behind the scenes," the Italian goalkeeper explained. "It was important for everyone to get everyone around the environment, very focused and to play for this badge."
That was the first demand from the new head coach: reconnect the players with the shirt and the supporters, and drag everyone through the storm together.
"Get behind the people to try to follow us and to stay close to us in these tough moments and they did it brilliantly today. The response from the crowd was unbelievable. We felt it."
The atmosphere turned. The tension did not disappear, but it was shared rather than suffocating. As the final whistle blew on survival, Vicario knew this was not just an escape. It was a line in the sand.
"We went through this tough period and we got the result, that is the most important thing. From next season there will be a different Tottenham Hotspur for sure."
Kinsky’s redemption arc
No player embodied that shift more than Antonin Kinsky.
The 23-year-old Czech keeper had been scarred by a nightmare in Madrid against Atletico, hooked after just 17 minutes by interim boss Igor Tudor on a brutal Champions League night that threatened to define him. Under De Zerbi, and in Vicario’s absence, he became one of the unlikely heroes of the run-in.
A series of outstanding performances against Wolves, Leeds and Everton helped keep Spurs afloat. The saves were spectacular, but the resilience behind them impressed Vicario even more.
"He has been incredible, impressive, he did unbelievably well. In every game it was not easy," Vicario said. "Now it’s easy to say but I was sure of his mental strength and ability."
De Zerbi wanted to know too. On day one, he turned to Vicario for an assessment of his young understudy.
"When I spoke to Roberto the first day he signed he asked me how Toni was and I said 'I think he is fully recovered from what happened because in football it can happen', and he showed it."
Kinsky did more than recover. He rewrote the narrative.
"That's the biggest strength he can put on the pitch. I’m very proud of him, he made some really important saves to keep us in the league and he deserved his moment," Vicario said. "Sometimes football is downs, I think he had the brilliance to show his ups. Especially in the last two, three games. He did unbelievably for us."
A new defensive edge
Vicario’s own future has been the subject of speculation, with talk of a return to Italy and interest from Inter Milan, but his focus is fixed on getting fully fit. "Confident" and armed with a summer break to complete his recovery, he is already looking at what De Zerbi’s Spurs might become rather than what almost happened this year.
"Yeah of course we are [excited]. Roberto has been massively important for us. He changed everything. He changed all the mood, all the vibes, all the football as well, because we needed also the football on the pitch because we were struggling to play good football," he said.
De Zerbi’s reputation has long been built on attacking patterns and bold build-up play. At Tottenham, survival demanded something more rugged. The Italian delivered that too.
"But he is probably known very well for the football he wants to play but also the defensive phase since he came in has been unbelievably good," Vicario pointed out.
The Everton game was the clearest snapshot of that steel. Under enormous pressure, Spurs allowed almost nothing.
"[Against Everton] we conceded just one shot where Toni did this big save at the end of the match but for 95 minutes we didn't concede any shots. Both on the ball and off the ball I think he did an unbelievable job."
The players bought in, including those left out of the starting XI.
"Also the boys, everyone who was playing or not playing followed him in a great way. That is of course the credit he deserves, and I can say without him this result would not have been possible. I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart because we were suffering a lot and he gave us a lot of joy in every aspect."
Tottenham have not been talking about joy for a long time. Survival is no trophy, and nobody at the club will pretend otherwise. But from the wreckage of this season, De Zerbi has given them something they had almost lost entirely: a reason to believe that next year really can look different.
