De Zerbi Praises Spurs' Summer Work Amid Savinho Signing

Roberto De Zerbi insists Tottenham are only halfway through their summer work – even as the club stands on the brink of an £85 million statement signing.

On the eve of Spurs’ 2026-27 Premier League opener away at Brentford, the Italian cut a satisfied but sharp figure, delighted with what has been done yet clear that the rebuild is far from complete.

The London club are closing in on a huge deal for City winger Savinho, a move that would make the Brazilian the latest headline act in a lavish recruitment drive. The fee, the profile, the noise around it – everything screams game-changer.

De Zerbi refused to be drawn into specifics. He didn’t deny. He didn’t fuel the fire either. He simply parked the names and focused on the process.

"It's not right to speak about the players until they are official," he told reporters. "Just to say, I'm very happy. We have not finished yet in the transfer market.

"It's an important part, I think, because so far we have had a great summer of signings – great players, great behaviour, great spirit, great personality."

That last word – personality – kept surfacing. For De Zerbi, the story of Spurs’ summer is not only about price tags and reputations. It is about what walks into the dressing room at Hotspur Way when the cameras are gone.

He praised the character of the new arrivals and the way they have slotted into his demands behind closed doors. The spending spree might grab the headlines, but he is clearly fixated on something less glamorous and far harder to measure.

As talk of the £85m Savinho swoop swirled around him, De Zerbi pushed back against the idea that Tottenham can simply buy their way up the table. Big names, he warned, are just that – names.

"You know better than me in the Premier League, you don't win the game with the names, with the big players," he said. "There are a lot of examples in the last years in the Premier League.

"We have to deserve to win the game and to deserve to win the game, we have to reach a high level in character, in passion, in value and in the style of play as well."

That is the challenge now. The recruitment team can deliver Savinho and the rest. De Zerbi’s job is to turn a summer of bold spending into a team that can go to Brentford on opening day – and every day after – and prove it actually belongs among the elite.