Roberto De Zerbi walks into his Friday press conference with a squad almost unrecognisable from the one he inherited, and a club still catching its breath after one of the most frantic windows in Tottenham’s modern history.
Ten new first-team signings. Fifty-four deals completed across the senior side and Wayne Burnett’s U21s. The doors at Hotspur Way have barely stopped swinging.
The headline arrivals came late. Mykhailo Mudryk and Tosin Adarabioyo, both from Chelsea, slipped through before the deadline to complete a recruitment drive that has seen Tottenham commit £394million in fees. That figure could climb to £469million if the club trigger the £75million option in Mudryk’s deal next summer.
This was not just a buying spree. It was a reset. As players streamed in, others were ushered out, with agreements in place that could eventually bring in as much as £264million in sales and related clauses. For a club accused in recent years of hesitating in the market, this was a decisive, ruthless pivot towards De Zerbi’s vision.
Richarlison saga hangs over the room
Yet money spent and money recouped are not the only themes shadowing this press conference.
Richarlison’s failed move to Everton lingers awkwardly in the background. The Brazilian, desperate to revive his career with a return to his former club, saw the transfer collapse before the deadline. His frustration spilled onto social media, and the fallout has been immediate and stark: he has been left out of Tottenham’s Premier League squad for the coming season.
De Zerbi will be pressed on that. Was this purely a football decision? A disciplinary stance? A consequence of the window’s late chaos? Whatever the explanation, the omission of a player of Richarlison’s profile is a statement, and not a quiet one.
Injuries, selection calls and a trip to Forest
There is at least one piece of good news for De Zerbi to share. Dejan Kulusevski is back in full training, a timely boost after a stuttering start to the league campaign that has brought two defeats from two.
Nottingham Forest away is rarely a gentle fixture, and certainly not when a new manager is still stitching together an almost entirely rebuilt squad. Spurs travel north with pressure already building, expectation sky-high after such heavy investment, and questions swirling about how quickly this group can gel.
Inside the press room at Hotspur Way, Alasdair Gold and the rest of the media pack are ready to probe all of it: the spending, the exits, the Richarlison rift, the tactical plan, the mood in a dressing room reshaped in a single summer.
Tottenham have paid for change. Now De Zerbi must show what that revolution looks like when the whistle blows at the City Ground.
