De Zerbi tells unhappy Tottenham players to leave after £300m summer overhaul

Roberto De Zerbi has delivered a blunt ultimatum to Tottenham’s players: accept the competition brought by the club’s £300 million-plus summer spending spree or find a new club. Speaking on 21 August, the Italian head coach made clear that squad depth — not sentiment — will define his project at Spurs.

“I love speaking clearly,” De Zerbi said. “If one of them doesn’t want to accept the competition inside the pitch, inside the dressing room, they can leave.”

Tottenham have already broken the £100 million barrier to sign Italy midfielder Sandro Tonali and have added defender Jan Paul van Hecke and winger Mateus Fernandes. They are now closing in on an £85 million deal for Brazilian winger Savinho from Manchester City, with City teammate Omar Marmoush also set to follow — though for a lesser fee. City paid £59 million for Marmoush in January 2025, and his former club Eintracht Frankfurt are entitled to a share of any future profit on the deal.

The arrivals are expected to squeeze out fringe players, with Richarlison and Pape Matar Sarr among those unlikely to command regular starting berths. De Zerbi, however, framed the investment as a necessity rather than a luxury, pointing to back-to-back 17th-place finishes and two near-relegation battles as the context that demanded drastic action.

“If you analyse the teams — Liverpool two years ago, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Milan — the squad there is a big competition inside the dressing room,” he said. “We have to move on and stay focused on this.”

The manager was equally direct about his ambitions, insisting that 15 players are not enough to challenge at the top of the table and that the mental shift required from the group is as important as the transfer activity itself.

“In sport or football, every day is a different challenge — you can’t keep the memories with you,” De Zerbi added. “The memories are nice at the end of your career when you stop and look at what you have done. But now we have to push. We have a big challenge to rise up the table.”

With Savinho and Marmoush still to be formally confirmed, Tottenham’s summer rebuild stands as one of the most aggressive in the Premier League this window — and De Zerbi has made it plain that anyone unwilling to fight for their place will not be accommodated.