De Zerbi wrong fit for sliding Spurs

When Tottenham Hotspur visits Sunderland on Sunday (8:00 a.m., FuboTV), the North London outfit and Europa League holders will have gone 105 days without a win in the Premier League.

Count them back, and it takes you into last year. Thomas Frank was still in charge when, three days after Christmas, Archie Gray delivered a 1-0 triumph away to Crystal Palace. That was two managers and a lifetime ago. Back when there was hope, even if just a bit.

Oh, to be 11th again.

When the opening whistle blows at the Stadium of Light, Spurs will be in the relegation places — leapfrogged by West Ham, which beat dead-last Wolves on Friday.

For a team that seems to trip on each adversarial pebble, this latest setback — suffered before a ball is kicked – could well be insurmountable. The latest manager, Roberto De Zerbi, will spend today attempting to rouse a group of players already braced for a drop to the second tier.

Not that many of them will stick around for a scenario that grows more inevitable by the hour. Victor Romero, father of club captain Cristian, this week discussed his son’s rumoured release clause on Argentine radio. You know things are desperate when the dads start talking.

Should Tottenham go down, it will doubtless want to shave the salary of not only Romero, who is on about £10 million per season, but also of James Maddison, Conor Gallagher and top-earner Xavi Simons, among others. A recent report by The Athletic lists 15 first-team players likely to leave the club if the worst comes to pass.

But the wage bill is small potatoes when compared to a debt of more than £800 million, loaded against the Premier League’s second-largest stadium and one that would look ridiculous in England’s second-highest division.

The financial ramifications of relegation would be catastrophic, but they’re also no mystery. Neither are the reasons that have brought the club to the precipice, which is why the fanbase isn’t so much devastated as enraged.

Their fury extends into last spring, when Vinai Venkatesham was appointed Tottenham CEO — the same Vinai Venkatesham who had previously served as Managing Director at archrival Arsenal.

Even so, that previous affiliation might have been forgiven had he done a job in the transfer market and positioned the squad to take advantage of its unlikely Europa League triumph and Champions League qualification.

Well, he did a job all right, blowing more than £50 million to acquire Simons, a slightly bluer blue-chipper than Joao Felix and Bojan Krkic once were. He also took a £30 million punt on ex-Bayern Munich prospect Mathys Tel. Then there was the baffling winter acquisition of Gallagher for a further £35 million.

All told, what Venkatesham produced was a very expensive, very speculative team that, even on paper, wasn’t a top-half proposition. He as much as anyone else knows that, in the cutthroat Premier League, you’re either making meaningful improvements to your squad at every opportunity, or you’re being left behind.

Beyond the price tags and salaries, the Spurs XI that will turn out on Sunday is simply not as good as Sunderland’s. And when you take it out of its dazzling High Road arena, its line-up is comparable to, or slightly worse than, the line-ups of Nottingham Forest, Leeds and Bournemouth that rank above it in the table.

None of this is mystifying, at least it shouldn’t be, and nor is the quite inevitable tailspin that starts to turn when inflated expectations meet the realities of ability, or lack thereof. Just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs. Little wonder Venkatesham can’t sit through a match without being heckled by his own supporters.

But let’s return to De Zerbi, who’s about to make his Tottenham debut.

On the face of it, the 46-year-old Italian is a sensible hire — or, he would have been, had he arrived at the start of the season. Principled to the point of fundamentalism, the former Marseille, Brighton and Sassuolo boss has exacting fitness standards and demands a high and ongoing level of intensity.

In other words, he’s exactly the wrong manager for a Spurs side that was coddled by Frank and confused by Igor Tudor, who took one of a possible 15 points from a brief and pitiable spell at the club.

What Tottenham’s semi-fit, injury-prone and psychologically brittle players are about to get is a hyped-up drill sergeant, intent on bringing his brand of up-tempo, possession-based football to a team that has neither the legs nor the mentality to put his plans into action.

De Zerbi is a manager who needs a training camp to whip his players into shape, physically and tactically. When he arrived mid-season at Brighton in 2022, his Seagulls started winless in five. Needless to say that a similar record at Spurs would seal relegation with at least a game to spare.

This was always going to be a challenging assignment, and it was complicated further when the boardroom decision-makers opted to keep a number of assistant coaches from the Frank and Tudor staffs.

Exactly what they’re wanting to retain from personnel that helped get them into this mess is anyone’s guess. Friendly faces, maybe? Doubtful, as the vibes have been off since September.

Now, there’s always a chance that De Zerbi will somehow whisper magic into the ears of Simons, Tel, Richarlison and Dominic Solanke, who will take to his offence-first approach and knock in a few goals.

Fine, but even if they do it’s in defence that Spurs have been wobbly this term. And while De Zerbi’s teams have been known for their impressive, even brilliant, attacking flair, they’ve similarly had reputations for conceding far too easily and much too often.

We’ll know how this is going to go within the first 45 minutes.

Nevermind trailing, if Tottenham doesn’t lead Sunderland at half-time it’s as good as over. This group doesn’t have the fortitude to emerge from the restart and meet the moment. Those 105 days will become 111 going into next weekend, when Brighton will visit.

Well, 133 actually. It’s been even longer since Spurs won at home.

winnipegfreepress.com/jerradpeters