Tottenham made informal approaches to both Aston Villa and Fulham about their respective managers before eventually landing Roberto De Zerbi, according to The Independent.
Lilywhites were pursuing move for Unai Emery and Marco Silva as alternatives after De Zerbi initially turned them down.
The report confirms that Spurs officials have attempted to hire De Zerbi on multiple occasions, including following the sacking of Thomas Frank two months ago. When he declined having just departed Marseille, the club moved to explore other options.
An informal approach to Fulham about Silva was made, while Tottenham also investigated the possibility of bringing Emery to north London. Aston Villa quickly made clear they had no intention of releasing their manager, shutting that avenue down entirely.
With Mauricio Pochettino unavailable until the conclusion of the World Cup, De Zerbi remained the primary target and was eventually persuaded to take the job.
How the Roberto De Zerbi appointment actually came together
The sequence of events paints a picture of a club that was determined to land their man but faced real obstacles along the way. De Zerbi is described by The Independent as someone Tottenham had tried to hire “several times,” reflecting the level of conviction Spurs sporting director Johan Lange had in the Italian as the right person for this specific rebuild.
The patience ultimately paid off, with De Zerbi arriving to take charge of a team winless in the league for over three months and facing a genuine relegation fight with seven games remaining.
The appeal of both Emery and Silva as alternatives is instructive. Both are experienced Premier League operators who have shown they can stabilise and improve clubs in difficult circumstances. Emery took Aston Villa from mid-table mediocrity to Champions League contenders in the space of two seasons.
Silva has quietly built Fulham into one of the most consistent mid-table sides in the division. Either would have represented a competent, relatively low-risk appointment. That Tottenham were targeting them says something about the urgency of the situation and the need for a manager who knew the Premier League environment already.
What De Zerbi’s early impact tells us about Spurs’ chances of staying up
The early signs from Hotspur Way are encouraging. The Independent reports that players at the club “love” working with De Zerbi, that he has made the squad feel genuinely engaged and that enthusiasm has returned to the training ground after a prolonged period of tension and dysfunction under his predecessors.
Perhaps most strikingly, some people connected to the club are described as “conspicuously confident” that De Zerbi will keep them up.
Seven games is a short window to turn a three-month winless run around. The task begins at the Stadium of Light against Sunderland on Sunday. But if the dressing room has genuinely bought into what De Zerbi is building, that shift in atmosphere can translate into points quickly.
The manager has done this kind of turnaround before (most notably at Brighton), where he inherited a solid squad and made them one of the most compelling teams in Europe almost immediately. Whether he can replicate even a fraction of that at Tottenham in seven games will define whether this appointment is remembered as inspired or simply too late.
