Tottenham sent 'crazy' De Zerbi warning: It's a death spiral!
Tottenham suffered another damaging Premier League defeat on Saturday, and one pundit is worried that Roberto de Zerbi may be slipping into old habits.
Spurs have officially endured a horror start to the season. Despite spending €370 million on new signings in the summer, they have yet to beat Premier League-level opposition.
Their only win of the season came in the Carabao Cup against Championship outfit Charlton Athletic, but they didn't get much further in the competition after crashing out against Liverpool midweek.
On Saturday, Spurs welcomed Aston Villa to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and fell to a 3-2 defeat, although two late consolation goals - their first in league play - shouldn't paper over what was yet another disappointing performance.
The ground was half empty by the time Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke made the result look a little more respectable. De Zerbi is under huge pressure and now has three weeks to analyse this disastrous start - if he doesn't get sacked, that is.
De Zerbi at risk of going "crazy" again
Is De Zerbi the right man to turn things around? That's an eminently difficult question to answer because he is a notoriously combustible character and seemingly struggles to cope with adversity.
In 2024, he left Brighton when results began to turn sour. That was an amicable separation, with all parties recognising that he had done a decent job and that it was time for a change.
His explosive exit at Marseille in February was less pleasant, however. He quit his job in the middle of the night after a demolition at the hands of PSG in Le Classique, after he had previously threatened to resign.
The difference between Brighton and Marseille could hardly have been more pronounced. One was stable and hardly faced any media scrutiny, while the other was a gigantic, chaos-stricken club where the pressure was enormous.
The parallels between Marseille and Tottenham should concern supporters of the latter. According to journalist Daniel Riolo, the constant negativity at OM eventually drove De Zerbi "crazy."
"De Zerbi had good ideas, but in Marseille he went crazy, and even at Tottenham he has struggled," he explained in quotes relayed by Sport Witness. "In Marseille, they remember him as a 'mad' coach. At a certain point, he couldn’t handle the criticism."
De Zerbi, Riolo claims, was obsessed with negativity and let it consume him. It became a death spiral. "He asked his staff to only give him negative reviews. On TV, they might have spoken highly of De Zerbi’s football, but he only saw and heard negativity," the journalist said.
This should serve as a huge warning. De Zerbi already started musing over his long-term future after just two games. "This group with me or with another coach, nothing changed because these players are too good," he said after losing to Newcastle.
As Marseille know all too well, this isn't a good sign. Perhaps Spurs are also driving De Zerbi "crazy."
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