Tottenham's final-day survival did not cool Roberto De Zerbi's mood. He said only 10, 11 or 12 players are good enough to stay, and pushed for first-level signings to avoid another season like this one. Tottenham finished 17th for the second straight season, which tells you why the summer conversation has moved so quickly from relief to overhaul.

Why De Zerbi wants a reset

De Zerbi was blunt about the size of the job. "I don't think we have now to change too many players. We have 10, 11, 12 players good enough to stay. Good enough. Like players. Especially like people. And then we have to complete the squad with the first level of players," he told mirror.co.uk.

He was just as direct about the stress of the season. "First level of players because we suffered too much. I suffered a lot but I think the fans, the club, the board, the players, they suffered too much. We are Tottenham and we can't suffer like this until the last second of the last game to stay up," he told standard.co.uk.

That is why he said he wanted to start pre-season with the team he has in his dream. The message is not subtle: keep a core, clear out the rest, and raise the level around them.

Which players he appears to trust

De Zerbi's praise points to the players he wants around that core. He singled out Radu Drăguşin, Rodrigo Bentancur, João Palhinha, Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven, calling Van de Ven "the best centre-back, left-centre-back in the Premier League, with Levi Colwill."

The numbers around a couple of those players make the praise easier to understand. Van de Ven made 35 Premier League appearances, while Drăguşin made 10. De Zerbi's comments also fit the wider point of the article, which is less about one match and more about how thin the squad looked across the season.

Tottenham's 9 wins, 11 draws and 17 losses in 37 league games explain the scale of the problem. They survived, but not by enough to stop the rebuild debate from becoming the story.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →