Roberto De Zerbi has barely walked through the doors at Hotspur Way and already the walls feel like they’re closing in.
The new Tottenham head coach, appointed on a five-year deal on Tuesday, has inherited a team one point above the Premier League relegation zone, winless in the league in 2026 and stripped by injury. Now one of the few midfielders he could truly build around, Pape Sarr, is a fresh concern.
Sarr scare deepens Spurs’ injury crisis
Sarr linked up with Senegal during the international break and played in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Peru. He did not make the squad for Tuesday’s friendly against Gambia. Local reports in Senegal put his absence down to a shoulder injury.
For most clubs, that would be a worry. For this Tottenham, it feels like another brick on an already teetering pile.
De Zerbi arrived to find an infirmary, not a dressing room. Guglielmo Vicario, Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel and Mohammed Kudus have all been sidelined or are currently unavailable. Seven league games remain. No wins in the competition this calendar year. No relegation release clause in his contract. The stakes could hardly be clearer.
Any spell without Sarr, one of the few energetic, press-resistant midfielders in the squad, strips more control from a coach whose football relies on exactly that.
A turbulent welcome
If the injury list was not enough, De Zerbi has walked into a political storm before taking a training session.
Sections of the fanbase made their opposition clear even before his appointment was confirmed. Three supporters’ groups issued “No to De Zerbi” statements last Friday, focusing on his past comments about Marseille forward Mason Greenwood.
Greenwood, formerly of Manchester United, was charged in October 2022 with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm after images and videos were posted online. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges in February 2023, citing “a combination of the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material that came to light” which left “no realistic prospect of conviction”. Greenwood, who denied the charges, resumed his career and joined Marseille in 2024.
In November, De Zerbi publicly described Greenwood as a “good guy” who had paid a “heavy price”, adding: “It saddens me what happened in his life, because I know a totally different person than the one who was described.” Those remarks have not faded with time; they have followed him into N17.
Tottenham are understood to have raised those comments directly with De Zerbi during negotiations and weighed the reaction around Greenwood carefully before pressing ahead. The club still chose this path. The supporters have not fallen into line.
Supporters’ groups stand their ground
On Tuesday, the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust set out its position in stark terms, saying it had “serious and far-reaching concerns” over the appointment. This was not framed as a brief social media backlash but as a structural unease with the club’s decision-making.
Later in the day, Proud Lilywhites, Spurs’ LGBTQI+ fan group, issued their own statement. They did not soften their stance on the choice of coach.
“Whilst we disagree with the managerial choice, in terms of culture and competence, we will continue to support the players without pretending to be comfortable with the appointment,” they said. “Staying silent is not the answer. But choosing when and where to be vocal matters.
“Managers come and go. Executives come and go. Players come and go. Fans remain. We are the constant in this club.
“We will continue to represent the views of our members to the club, alongside the other supporter associations.
“This is not noise or reaction. It is a considered position and it is not going away.”
Spurs Reach, another fan group, echoed that discomfort.
“As a group of fans who care about inclusion, representation and how people are treated, this one doesn’t fully sit right with us, both culturally and in the bigger picture,” they said. “That said, we’re Spurs through and through… our support for the club we love, the community and each other goes way beyond any one appointment.”
The message is clear: support for the badge, not blind endorsement of the boardroom.
A club on edge
So De Zerbi starts his reign with a squad stretched to breaking point, a fanbase split over his arrival and a league table that leaves no room for a slow burn.
He has been hired as a visionary, a coach whose football can lift a club. Right now, Tottenham need a firefighter, a unifier and a tactician capable of squeezing results out of a patched-up side in a hostile climate.
Seven games, an injury crisis, and a manager already under scrutiny before his first team sheet. How quickly can he turn this from a debate about his past words into a story about his team’s future?
