Guglielmo Vicario Reflects on Tottenham's Premier League Survival

Guglielmo Vicario did not celebrate survival like a man on the fringes. He sprinted, he roared, and when Joao Palhinha’s goal against Everton finally dragged Tottenham clear of the trapdoor, he almost wrapped Roberto De Zerbi in a chokehold of relief.

This was not just a club staying up. For Vicario, it was the end of a season that had pushed him, and Spurs, to the edge.

This is the minimum

The Italian goalkeeper has spent the last month as a spectator, recovering from hernia surgery, feeling every minute more acutely than those on the pitch.

“A lot of emotion. It has been a very long season. We suffered a lot as a team. Also individually I suffered a lot for many reasons, different reasons,” the 29-year-old said. “So of course [staying up] was something we were looking for and what we worked for, especially when Roberto came in.

This club deserves at least to stay in the Premier League. This is the minimum you can get at this football club.”

Tottenham had lost their way. Confidence drained, hope frayed, basics slipping. Players lost focus, belief, and, as Vicario put it, “a lot of stuff”.

Then De Zerbi walked in.

He did not just tweak a system or shuffle a formation. He rebuilt the mood.

“Fortunately Roberto came in and gave us a lot of confidence,” Vicario said. “A lot of patterns, a lot of football. It was not the main focus though. He gave us a lot of confidence, good vibes, good feelings and we got the result.”

Eleven points from the final six matches dragged Spurs off their knees and out of danger. The numbers tell one story. The dressing room tells another.

De Zerbi’s message: play for the badge

Vicario was desperate to help but could not. His contribution came in corridors, meeting rooms and training pitches rather than on matchdays.

“He had a lot of talks with the players. I spoke a lot with him,” he explained. “I was not able to help him on the pitch but I tried to do it behind the scenes. It was important for everyone to get everyone around the environment, very focused and to play for this badge.

That was his first message. Get behind the people to try to follow us and to stay close to us in these tough moments and they did it brilliantly today. The response from the crowd was unbelievable. We felt it.”

The connection between team and supporters, frayed over months of struggle, snapped back into place in those closing weeks. De Zerbi’s Spurs did not just survive; they fought, pressed and believed like a side determined to prove a point.

“We went through this tough period and we got the result, that is the most important thing,” Vicario said. “From next season there will be a different Tottenham Hotspur for sure.”

Kinsky’s redemption

If De Zerbi provided the blueprint, one of the most striking symbols of the turnaround stood between the posts.

Antonin Kinsky’s season should have been broken in Madrid. Hauled off after just 17 minutes against Atletico by interim boss Igor Tudor, the young Czech goalkeeper looked crushed on one of the biggest stages of his career. That kind of night can scar a player.

Instead, it became the prelude to a revival.

With Vicario sidelined, Kinsky stepped in and produced a series of outstanding performances against Wolves, Leeds and Everton, his saves worth points and, ultimately, survival.

“He has been incredible, impressive, he did unbelievably well,” Vicario said. “In every game it was not easy. Now it’s easy to say but I was sure of his mental strength and ability.”

De Zerbi had gone straight to the senior goalkeeper for an assessment of his understudy.

“When I spoke to Roberto the first day he signed he asked me how Toni was and I said ‘I think he is fully recovered from what happened because in football it can happen’, and he showed it,” Vicario revealed.

“That’s the biggest strength he can put on the pitch. I’m very proud of him, he made some really important saves to keep us in the league and he deserved his moment. Sometimes football is downs, I think he had the brilliance to show his ups. Especially in the last two, three games. He did unbelievably for us.”

From Madrid humiliation to Premier League saviour. Kinsky’s arc mirrors the club’s: battered, written off, then defiantly still standing.

A different Tottenham on the horizon

Vicario’s own future has been the subject of speculation, with talk of a return to Italy and interest from Inter Milan. For now, his focus is recovery and what comes next under De Zerbi.

He is not fully fit yet – “not 100 per cent fit but in a better place” – but the surgery is behind him and the outlook is clear.

He is “confident and I have a break now to be ready for next season”. And he is convinced Spurs fans have every reason to look ahead with anticipation, not anxiety.

“Yeah of course we are [excited]. Roberto has been massively important for us. He changed everything. He changed all the mood, all the vibes, all the football as well, because we needed also the football on the pitch because we were struggling to play good football,” Vicario said.

De Zerbi’s reputation is built on his attacking patterns, his bold possession play, his insistence on brave football in tight spaces. Yet what struck Vicario most was what happened when Spurs did not have the ball.

“He is probably known very well for the football he wants to play but also the defensive phase since he came in has been unbelievably good,” he pointed out. Against Everton, with everything on the line, Spurs were solid, controlled, almost serene.

“[Against Everton] we conceded just one shot where Toni did this big save at the end of the match but for 95 minutes we didn't concede any shots. Both on the ball and off the ball I think he did an unbelievable job.”

That did not happen by accident. It came from buy-in.

“Also the boys, everyone who was playing or not playing followed him in a great way,” Vicario said. “That is of course the credit he deserves, and I can say without him this result would not have been possible. I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart because we were suffering a lot and he gave us a lot of joy in every aspect.”

From suffering to joy. From fear of the drop to talk of “a different Tottenham Hotspur”.

The great unknown now is not whether Spurs belong in the Premier League. It is how far De Zerbi can push a group of players who have just discovered how powerful survival can feel.