Former Tottenham Hotspur forward Ronny Rosenthal has told his former club what they need to do this summer in order to give Roberto De Zerbi the tools he needs to compete at the top end of the Premier League next season.
While Spurs are still not assured of their place in the Premier League next season, the club are in a much better position than they were a week ago.
The Lilywhites now have their fate in their own hands after winning back-to-back matches against Wolves and Aston Villa, but the shortcomings of their squad have been exposed over the last two campaigns.
Reports indicate that Roberto De Zerbi and the Tottenham hierarchy have already started planning for the summer window, and one former Spurs star believes that the club’s priorities should be very clear.
Ronny Rosenthal reveals he told Tottenham to sign Cristiano Ronaldo
Rosenthal has now claimed that Tottenham’s main issues this season are down to a lack of pace in their forward line, urging the Lilywhites to address that in the summer.
The former Israel international also shared that he had alerted the North Londoners to Cristiano Ronaldo’s talent in his Sporting Lisbon days, but the club never followed up.
Rosenthal told Flash Score: “Tottenham don’t have wingers or players with electrifying pace, and that’s precisely what they do need. Even Manor Solomon would be better than what they have now. Xavi Simons is doing some amazing things, and yes, he scored a crazy goal two weeks ago, but look at his numbers. He can’t do it throughout the whole season.
“They’re the reasons why Tottenham are struggling. In the Premier League, you have the biggest combination of explosive players. When I retired from football, I already understood that speed would be the name of the game.
“It’s why I discovered players like Samuel Eto’o, Cristiano Ronaldo, Vincent Kompany, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and many more, because I was looking for the top sprinters in football. I saw Cristiano in his second or third game for Sporting’s first team, and I immediately alerted Tottenham, but they didn’t follow it up.”
Rosenthal urges Spurs to hold onto Micky van de Ven
Several of Tottenham’s big-name stars, including Micky van de Ven, have been linked with moves away from N17 at the end of this campaign.
While Rosenthal admitted that Spurs need at least four more signings to challenge for the European places next season, he made it clear that holding onto the likes of Van de Ven is also crucial.
When asked if De Zerbi can get the best out of the squad next season if he manages to keep Tottenham up, the 62-year-old responded: “It’s still early days. I want to see what he does during the games. Two of the previous managers (Postecoglou, Thomas Frank) played good football, but that’s not the way, in the end, to win games.
‘There’s a lot of expectation that Tottenham need to always be in the top six, so he (De Zerbi) will need to bring in four new players, but really top, top stars.
“He has the main players there already; Van de Ven… Spence is important, Maddison is important, and Kudus, but there are too many mediocre players. I don’t know the club’s financial situation, so you hope that the big names in the squad can make an impact on the rest of the players.
“As for Igor Tudor, there was one game in which I didn’t quite understand what he was doing when he took off Van de Ven. I said to myself that maybe he was injured, but after the game, I understood that Tudor just wanted to replace him with another player for no reason.
“For me, this is the best defender in the world. He’s the quickest central defender in the world, and at the end of the season I’m sure that whether Tottenham stay up or go down, the two or three biggest clubs will be looking to try and sign him.”