There are already signs of Roberto De Zerbi being doomed to fail at Tottenham Hotspur.
Whether it’s the hangover from last season in terms of results, performances and just general vibes, or the prickly head coach has been particularly querulous to reporters when making excuses for Tottenham‘s current situation, not all is rosy for De Zerbi at the north London club.
You also can’t help but feel that Tottenham *should* gradually improve as their new-look squad builds cohesion and returning key players potentially return to fitness, but De Zerbi’s comments to the press and Tottenham’s performances on the field have done little to inspire fan optimism that everything will be rosy again in a couple of months.
Whether he likes it or not, that is largely down to the work done by De Zerbi after he has been backed more than any other Tottenham manager, with a summer spend on signings that ended up being worth well over £300m.
But it is hard to point blame at De Zerbi for the Richarlison situation.
Richarlison finds himself in self-inflicted exile at Tottenham Hotspur
After a flurry of new attacking signings at the end of the window, Richarlison was among those deemed surplus to requirements after De Zerbi claimed he decided at the start of the summer window not to extend his current Spurs contract beyond 2027.
Richarlison was used as a pawn in Tottenham’s chase for Iliman Ndiaye, which ultimately proved unsuccessful, before the experienced striker has since missed out on moves to Trabzonspor and Vasco Da Gama.
On Monday, De Zerbi did not mince his words when asked about Richarlison. He said: “At the start of this season, I spoke to him many times to convince him to stay and he didn’t want to.
“I can’t go every day to pray for him to stay.
“What I have done at the beginning of this season has been to speak with him and to propose an extension of the contract. If he said, ‘no thank you,’ I finished my job.
“I know what happened in the last 45 days. It’s not right if I explained. It’s not my behaviour. The relationship, the problem is between the player and the club.”
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De Zerbi is defending the club as any manager should, but he and the club are unlikely to be wholly innocent in how this situation has unfolded, and there could be an element of some defamatory truths being left unspoken so Tottenham can save face.
But Richarlison still only has himself to blame for being cut adrift at Tottenham after being left out of their Premier League squad and with De Zerbi confirming that he won’t feature in the Carabao Cup.
The 29-year-old’s reaction to De Zerbi’s confirmation of his status for the Carabao Cup was to take to social media to make a petulant post, simply writing “why?” accompanied by a sad face emoji.
This alone justifies De Zerbi’s call to continue snubbing him, with the Tottenham boss not one to tolerate this sort of behaviour from a man-child like Richarlison.
And it is hard to have sympathy for Richarlison after he had more than enough time to find a new home to avoid being in this situation.
Tottenham reportedly rejected offers from Trabzonspor, but they did their part by agreeing to terms with Everton and Vasco da Gama only for Richarlison not to settle on personal terms with the two clubs.
He is now reportedly lobbying to have his Tottenham contract cancelled, but it would be the least he deserves if he ends up being stuck at Spurs until January at least.
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