Roberto De Zerbi's Tottenham Rebuild: A Troubling Start

Roberto De Zerbi will soon be nudging the £400m mark on his Tottenham Hotspur rebuild. On this evidence, he might need a different currency entirely.

One game into the new Premier League season and Spurs collapsed in west London, looking less like a side reborn and more like a bad rerun. All that money, all those new faces – and the same old fragility.

A new era, same old Spurs

De Zerbi admitted last season that, in his seven‑game firefighting mission to keep Spurs up, he worked more as a psychologist than a coach. He kept them in the division on the final day against Everton. Barely.

The club responded by opening the vault. Big names, big fees, big talk about a new project. This was supposed to be the hard reset after back-to-back 17th-place finishes and a campaign that scarred everyone involved.

Instead, this was a throwback. And not the kind anyone at Spurs wanted.

At The Gtech Community Stadium, Brentford didn’t just beat Spurs. They exposed them. Pulled at every loose thread. Found a team that still folds at the first sign of pressure and tore into it.

The scoreboard read 3-0 when Michael Kayode struck just after half-time. The exodus from the away end had already begun.

De Zerbi’s diagnosis

De Zerbi did not sugar-coat it.

“Bad game. We lost and suffered the difference in the duels. It was the key of this game. We didn't fight in the right way,” he told BBC Sport’s Match of the Day. “Our physical condition was not in the right level for all players because many came later after the World Cup and there were many new players in the squad and first XI. But we have to analyse this game better because we can't play this way in this type of game.”

He pointed to fitness. Players returning late from the World Cup. Others still adapting. But that only explains so much. Brentford were stronger in the tackle, sharper in thought, clearer in purpose. They won every type of contest that matters in a Premier League game.

This was not about rust. This was about resolve.

Optimism drowned out

The day had started with noise and colour in one corner of the Gtech. Spurs fans roared in the new signings, desperate to believe this was the start of something different.

By full-time, the applause from the pitch was aimed largely at empty plastic seats. Some supporters had seen enough by the 49th minute, when Kayode’s finish made it three and turned the afternoon into a humiliation.

It might have been even uglier. Igor Thiago, usually so reliable from the spot, smacked a penalty against the post. The miss spared the scoreline, not the embarrassment.

Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi watched on from the stands. Spurs handed him the soundtrack: a 90-minute collection of sad power ballads, heavy on the minor chords and defensive collapses.

Big fees, small impact

De Zerbi threw four of his new signings straight into the starting XI: Andrew Robertson, Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke and Sandro Tonali.

On paper, that’s a statement. On grass, it was a struggle.

None of the debutants emerged with credit, but then neither did the old guard. The collective performance sank so low that the only consolation for the newcomers is that they can hardly dip beneath this level again.

Tonali, a £100m arrival from Newcastle United, was supposed to dictate, dominate, drag Spurs into a new era of control. Instead, Brentford’s record signing Mamadou Sangare ran the midfield and the match. Sangare was outstanding; Tonali was overwhelmed.

The Italian’s most notable contribution came with a first-half effort that ballooned high and wide, drawing gleeful chants from Brentford fans questioning Spurs’ spending.

Matheus Fernandes, an £85m buy from West Ham United, came on from the bench. Savinho and possibly Omar Marmoush will soon join the mix. On this showing, the issue is not numbers. It is nerve.

Brentford smell weakness

From the opening minute, Spurs’ “brave new world” looked eerily like the old one. One press, one mistake, one wobble – and the doubts flooded back.

Brentford sensed it immediately. They hunted Spurs down, closing space, forcing errors, playing with the conviction of a team that knew their opponents could be bullied.

They should have led even before Keane Lewis-Potter struck after 12 minutes. When Vitaly Janelt doubled the advantage before half-time, the contest felt close to done.

On the touchline, De Zerbi raged and gestured, demanding intensity that never truly arrived. On the pitch, heads dropped, challenges were lost, and panic became the default setting. There was no hint of a comeback, no spark, no belief.

Conor Gallagher and Lucas Bergvall did not reappear after the interval. They could argue they had plenty of company in underperforming.

Kayode’s goal early in the second half merely confirmed what the pattern of play had already shouted: Brentford were superior in every department.

A pattern Spurs cannot escape

De Zerbi knows this is bigger than one bad day.

“I am surprised for the result and performance. I knew we were not in the right condition. We can't find an excuse,” he said. “I am sorry for the result and performance. We are starting a new project and we couldn't find the principle.

“Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke and Sandro Tonali are not in the best physical condition. We knew that before the game. We have to improve on that and many other things like organisation and pressing.”

He spoke of organisation, pressing, fitness. All valid. None of them fully explain why, when the temperature of the game rises, Spurs still melt.

This is not a one-off. The club has lurched through seasons defined by late collapses and bleak runs, overseen by Ange Postecoglou – who at least left with a Europa League title – then Thomas Frank, and the fleeting Igor Tudor stint that barely left a footprint.

Now it is De Zerbi’s turn to face the same question: how do you rip out a losing culture that has taken root?

Money can’t buy mentality

More arrivals are likely before the window closes. De Zerbi, though, refused to hide behind the transfer market.

“I don't want the excuse that the first XI was not enough to compete and get a result. Brentford's spirit on the pitch was great, it has to be the right example for us,” he said.

That spirit is exactly what Spurs lack. It cannot be signed for £100m or flown in from another league. It has to be built, demanded, enforced.

This was only the first game of the Premier League season. Big clubs have stumbled on opening weekends before and gone on to achieve plenty.

But this did not feel like a stumble. It felt like a continuation – another chapter in a story Spurs are desperate to stop telling.

De Zerbi has the budget, the backing, the badge. What he doesn’t yet have is a team that believes in itself when it matters. Until he changes that, not the squad list but the culture, how many more days like this are waiting just around the corner?