Roberto De Zerbi has reflected on his first two months in charge at Tottenham Hotspur and how the emotions he has experienced have affected his connection with the club.
Many eyebrows were raised when De Zerbi arrived through the door at the end of March at a time when Spurs were in a precarious position, having not won a league game in 2026.
However, the Italian managed to turn around their fortunes, with the Lilywhites securing safety after picking up 11 points in his seven games in charge.
Having achieved his first objective of keeping the club in the Premier League, the Tottenham boss is already preparing for his next challenge.
Roberto De Zerbi opens up on his connection with Tottenham
Spurs fans usually take their time to warm to managers, but they have quickly taken to De Zerbi, given the passion and the belief he has instilled since walking through the door.
The Tottenham boss confessed that the experiences of the last two months have helped him forge a connection with the club, and he has his sights firmly focused on next season.
When asked if it feels like day one for him at Tottenham again, De Zerbi told the club’s official website: “We closed one page, and we opened another page today, because we have no time, we have to organise the next season, we have to build a stronger team, but I’m very happy and very proud of what everyone of us did. It was incredible, I think, but it’s finished. Now we have to move on and to prepare the future of our club.
“I feel a great connection with this club, maybe because I came in a very tough moment. We went through a difficult period, and I think we became stronger. I think we can keep in our heads what was the situation last season and to become better, for sure – become better as a coach, as players, as a club. We can’t make the same mistakes, otherwise we can’t improve, we can’t become better.”
De Zerbi admits he was surprised by negativity when he walked into Spurs
Even after picking up just one point from his first two games in charge, De Zerbi remained confident that Tottenham would stay up, although that belief was not shared by many Spurs fans at the time.
The Italian has admitted that he was surprised by the negativity surrounding the club when he arrived, revealing that he never doubted that the team was capable of picking up wins.
De Zerbi continued: “By the beginning, I felt the connection with the players, with the club, but also with the fans. They need passionate people and they need maybe people who believe to stay up. I believed to stay up at the beginning in my time.
“I was surprised about the negative thoughts in that period, because I was focused on the qualities of the players. At the end, if you work well, if you believe in yourself, if you try to put the players in the right condition to play, I think the results are normally to achieve.”