Tottenham’s start to life under Roberto De Zerbi has hit a brutal, simple truth: they cannot score. Four Premier League games, zero goals. A side rebuilt at vast expense is already searching for a stopgap, and that search has led them to a familiar name.
Mauro Icardi.
The 33-year-old Argentine, a free agent after leaving Galatasaray, has emerged as a serious short-term option as Spurs scramble for answers in the final third, according to Cronache di Spogliatoio. It is an admission of where they are. Not in control of a project. Firefighting.
A free-scoring past for a toothless present
Icardi arrives on the market with a record that still commands attention. His four-year stay at Galatasaray yielded a prolific spell in the Super Lig, adding to a career that already includes two Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain and four Turkish league crowns.
Experience, goals, a penalty-box predator’s instinct. Exactly what Tottenham do not currently have on the pitch.
De Zerbi’s side sit 17th in the Premier League, with just two points from two draws and two defeats, and eight goals conceded. At the other end, nothing. The Carabao Cup briefly offered a distraction with a 5-1 win over Charlton Athletic, but Liverpool’s midweek elimination of Spurs underlined the gulf between De Zerbi’s men and the division’s elite.
The numbers are stark. The mood around the club even more so.
Big money, small return
The interest in Icardi lands awkwardly against the backdrop of a lavish summer. Tottenham did not enter this season quietly.
- Sandro Tonali arrived for £100 million.
- Mateus Fernandes followed for £85 million.
- Winger Savio cost another £85 million.
- Omar Marmoush came in from Manchester City on loan, with a £60 million obligation to buy attached.
These are not the signings of a club expecting to be scrambling for a free agent in September.
Marmoush, entrusted with starts against Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and in the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool, has yet to score. There have been flashes – movement, link play, the occasional sharp touch – but no finish, no release of pressure, no moment to tilt a game.
Dominic Solanke has fared no better. Five appearances, no goals, and little in the way of cutting edge to justify his place as the central figure in De Zerbi’s attack. Spurs are creating little and finishing even less.
The most explosive subplot sits off the pitch. Richarlison, once expected to be a key figure in any post-Harry Kane rebuild, has been frozen out after what is described as a disastrous fallout with the club. He has not played since the 3-0 opening-day defeat to Brentford, exiled from the first-team picture at a time when Tottenham are desperate for anyone capable of breaking their drought.
A squad built at enormous cost, yet the manager now looks towards a 33-year-old free agent to steady the ship.
Competition and complications
Tottenham’s interest does not come in a vacuum. Icardi’s availability and profile have attracted attention elsewhere.
Journalist Nahuel Ferreira reports that Olympiacos have already made formal contact to try to bring the former Argentina international to Greece, moving early last week in an attempt to close a deal. The talks have not produced an agreement, and the reason is familiar to anyone who has followed Icardi’s career at the top level: wages.
The striker is reportedly on around £8.6 million per year, a figure that would test the resolve of any club weighing the risk-reward balance of a short-term fix. For Tottenham, already heavily committed financially after their summer business and with a squad that needs minutes for expensive new arrivals, that decision carries an extra layer of complexity.
Do they add another big earner, in his mid-thirties, to a dressing room already under strain? Or do they gamble that De Zerbi can coax goals from a misfiring, but undeniably talented, attacking unit?
De Zerbi under the spotlight
The pressure on De Zerbi is growing quickly. Four league games is not a full verdict on any manager, but the manner of Spurs’ start has raised alarms. They look disjointed, blunt, and short of belief every time they approach the opposition penalty area.
The Italian was hired for his aggressive, front-foot football, but at the moment his side are stuck between ideas and execution. The build-up play lacks tempo, the final pass is missing, and when chances do appear, his forwards are snatching at them.
That is where the appeal of Icardi becomes obvious. He does not solve the system. He does not transform the structure. What he offers is something more basic: a history of turning half-chances into goals, of punishing mistakes, of thriving in the chaos of the six-yard box.
For a team that has forgotten what it feels like to celebrate a league goal, that kind of ruthless simplicity can be intoxicating.
Yet it also poses a question about Tottenham’s direction. Is this a project built around a long-term core of Tonali, Fernandes and Savio, or a team already drifting into short-termism after four frustrating matches?
Olympiacos wait. Icardi waits. De Zerbi waits, knowing that every goalless performance tightens the vice.
If Spurs decide to move, they will not just be signing a striker. They will be making a statement about how quickly they are willing to bend their grand plans in the face of an early-season crisis.
