LONDON, March 31 : Tottenham Hotspur have appointed Roberto De Zerbi as their manager on a long-term contract, the Premier League club said on Tuesday, and the Italian coach has seven games to steer the North London side to safety.
Tottenham have turned to former Brighton & Hove Albion manager De Zerbi to salvage a dreadful season which is in danger of ending in relegation from the top flight for the first time since 1977.
“Roberto was our number one target for the summer and we are very pleased to be able to bring him in now,” Spurs Sporting Director Johan Lange said in a club statement.
“He is one of the most creative and forward-thinking coaches in world football, and brings with him a wealth of experience at the highest level, including in the Premier League.”
The London club, who won the Europa League last term, are one point and one place above the Premier League relegation zone after 31 games, having not won in the league since December.
De Zerbi’s first game will be at Sunderland on April 12, by which time Spurs could have slipped into the bottom three.
He succeeds Croatian Igor Tudor, who departed by mutual agreement on Sunday after seven games as interim manager following the sacking of Thomas Frank.
“In all my discussions with the club’s leadership, their ambition for the future has been clear – to build a team capable of reaching great achievements, and to do that playing a style of football that excites and inspires our supporters,” De Zerbi said.
“Our short-term priority is to climb the Premier League table, which will be the complete focus until the final whistle of the last game of the season.”
DE ZERBI’S LAST ROLE
The 46-year-old joined Marseille in 2024 following a relatively successful spell at Brighton, guiding the French club to a second-place finish in Ligue 1 in the 2024-25 season.
However, he left by mutual consent in February after a 5-0 defeat by Paris St Germain and had indicated that he would wait until the close season to resume his career.
De Zerbi had previously spent two seasons at Brighton, leading them to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League and the club’s first-ever qualification for European competition before departing at the end of the 2023-24 campaign.
During his time at Brighton, De Zerbi gained a reputation for his progressive passing style with an emphasis on high energy, pressing and his players being adaptable.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola described De Zerbi’s Brighton systems as ‘unique’ and once labelled the Italian as one of the most influential coaches of the last 20 years.
De Zerbi’s first managerial role at Palermo in 2016 lasted less than three months, and his next job ended in relegation with Benevento.
He came to prominence at Sassuolo, where he spent three seasons, taking the club to two consecutive eighth-place finishes in Serie A, before leaving to join Shakhtar Donetsk.
SAFETY BATTLE
While Tottenham are clearly looking at laying a foundation for yet another new era, the club’s immediate priority is earning enough points from their last seven games to avoid sliding into the second-tier Championship.
Spurs’ form in 2026 is worse than all the clubs around them in the relegation battle and their confidence took another battering with a 3-0 home defeat by fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest, Tudor’s last game in charge.
De Zerbi, Tottenham’s sixth permanent manager since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in 2019, will have little time to get his ideas across with a tricky visit to Sunderland followed by a home clash against his old club Brighton.
One of his priorities will be addressing the club’s woeful home form which has resulted in only two Premier League wins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium all season.
