Roberto De Zerbi's Bold Transfer Strategy at Tottenham

Roberto De Zerbi is not easing his way into Tottenham. He is tearing into the transfer market with teeth bared.

“In the transfer market when I want one player I become like a shark, no chance to say no!” he told Football London, a line that lands like a warning to every selling club in Europe.

Spurs have already spent heavily, but their new head coach insists this is only the middle of the story, not the end.

“The transfer market, it's not finished for sure, but we completed 60 per cent of our project in the transfer market. Now we have another bomba!” he added.

That “bomba” is widely expected to be Savinho. The Brazilian is understood to be pushing Manchester City to green-light a move to north London, a deal that would add yet another expensive piece to an attacking unit already reshaped by the £85m signing of Mateus Fernandes.

Building from the full-backs

De Zerbi’s vision is clear: the forwards come after the full-backs. Everything else bends around that idea.

“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 explained, laying out the menu of profiles he wants in wide areas. The point is not just to collect attackers, but to find those who fit the complex choreography he demands from his flanks.

“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.

“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?”

It is a revealing line. At a club long associated with flair players further forward, De Zerbi is building his Tottenham from the outside back.

Asked if the next deal was close, he kept the pressure on the board without blinking. “I hope, but it's not finished for sure.”

Romero’s exit and a promise kept

While the shark hunts new signings, one of Tottenham’s biggest names is swimming for the exit.

Cristian Romero, the club captain and one of the most formidable centre-backs in the game, is pushing for a return to Serie A. Inter sporting director Piero Ausilio has already gone public on discussions to bring the 2026 World Cup finalist to San Siro, and De Zerbi has no intention of blocking the move.

“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,” he said.

He then pulled back the curtain on a pact made months ago. Back in April, with Spurs fighting to stay afloat, he held individual meetings with his squad.

“I said: ‘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!”

Romero, he insists, kept his end of the bargain.

“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.”

The message is double-edged: loyalty will be rewarded, rumours will be challenged, and even star names are not bigger than the code he is trying to install.

Stay, but on De Zerbi’s terms

That code will also define the futures of Tottenham’s younger talents. Lucas Bergvall and Djed Spence are attracting interest as the club reshapes its squad, but De Zerbi is not offering any halfway houses.

“If they stay, they have to stay following my rules, decisions on the pitch,” he warned, a clear statement to anyone on the fringes who might expect guarantees.

“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.”

It is a blunt assessment of a dressing room that, in his view, cannot afford to repeat old fractures. Spurs will be younger, more aggressive, more expensive. They will also be governed by one voice.

For now, that evolving squad turns towards its first real test of the summer, a pre-season meeting with Chelsea on Saturday. The shark is still circling the market, the “bomba” is still to land, and Tottenham are being rebuilt in real time, under a manager who has already made it clear: you are either all in, or you are out.