Tottenham ‘owe’ Roberto De Zerbi after he ‘saved them from disaster’
Roberto De Zerbi deserves time to get things right at Tottenham Hotspur this season.
That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that his ability to keep Spurs in the Premier League last season should give him a chance to turn things around despite an awful start to the new campaign.
Two games into the 2026-27 Premier League season, Tottenham find themselves bottom of the division, after conceding five goals and not scoring once.
As a result, the pressure is already on De Zerbi, especially after their high-spending summer transfer window.
However, Wyness believes that Spurs “owe” their manager after he guided the club to Premier League survival last season.
Tottenham are in Roberto De Zerbi’s debut for survival campaign
Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that De Zerbi’s achievements at the club last season mean that Spurs are in his debt.
The manager took over at the end of March and won three of his seven matches to ensure that Tottenham avoided relegation by one point.
Therefore, despite their awful start to the new season, Wyness told the latest edition of Football Insider's Inside Track podcast that De Zerbi has to be given a chance this campaign.
He explained: “They’ve invested this much in this manager; we've got to let him mould the team together. They obviously believe in him.
“He did what he had to do last year and kept them up. They owe him because he saved their heads.
“Let's be clear about last year, they were in deep trouble, and Spurs in the Championship would have been a disaster. So they have backed him. There's no doubt they have really backed him, and he's got to be given a chance."
Where are Tottenham currently predicted to finish?
According to Opta on 3 September, Tottenham are currently predicted to finish 14th in the Premier League.
Their odds of relegation sit at 20.6 per cent, while their chances of getting Europe sit at 6.09 per cent for the Champions League and 3.23 per cent for the Europa League.
It remains to be seen if a bottom-half finish would be enough to satisfy the board after their big spending this summer.
However, the one thing that is clear is that Spurs will have to start picking up results soon to achieve this.