Roberto de Zerbi has emerged with greater control over Tottenham’s recruitment after the club’s attempt to appoint a co-sporting director fell through, with Sebastien Kehl’s move from Borussia Dortmund collapsing before it was formalised, according to the BBC.
The plan had been to pair De Zerbi with a director-level figure who could sit alongside sporting director Johan Lange and manage the recruitment chain. That model never materialised. What Spurs are left with instead is a head coach who has earned, partly by default, a more direct line into the decisions that shape his squad.
What the Kehl Collapse Actually Means
The failure to land Kehl is worth taking seriously rather than filing away as administrative noise. Spurs had a clear structural intention – the co-sporting director model was a deliberate choice, not a stopgap – and its collapse leaves a gap that has been filled by giving De Zerbi more say rather than by finding an equivalent alternative.
That is either a sign of genuine trust in the head coach or a pragmatic response to circumstances. Probably both. It does shift accountability in a way that suits De Zerbi’s system-first approach to building a squad, where the tactical identity of the team drives profile selection rather than the other way around.
The Summer Business Reflects the Shift
The signings so far tell you something about who is driving recruitment. Jan Paul van Hecke played under De Zerbi at Brighton. Sandro Tonali – set to join from Newcastle in a deal worth up to £100m, according to the BBC – is a long-term admirer target of De Zerbi’s. These are not director-sourced names grafted onto a tactical framework; they are the framework.
Andy Robertson, 32, brings the leadership profile the ownership has explicitly pushed for. Marcos Senesi, 29, adds Premier League-seasoned depth at centre-back after four years at Bournemouth. Matteus Fernandes, 21, is the fifth summer arrival, flagged by Lange for his intelligence and maturity. The funding model has also shifted: Brighton’s £46m acquisition of Luka Vuskovic – a 19-year-old yet to play a Premier League minute who spent last season on loan at Hamburg – demonstrates the new remit to generate real money from outgoings.
The raised wage ceiling is the other structural signal. Under Daniel Levy, Spurs’ wage structure consistently priced them out of elite conversations. The pursuit of both Tonali and Fernandes, players who attracted interest from other big-six clubs, suggests that constraint has been lifted with some genuine intent behind it. Retaining Micky van de Ven while spending at this level is another indicator of a club trying to project stability rather than sell first and rebuild later.
Verdict
The structural model at Spurs is still being assembled in real time, and handing a head coach greater recruitment influence because the preferred hire didn’t come off is not exactly a masterplan. But De Zerbi’s fingerprints are visible across this window in a way that feels coherent, and coherence is not something Spurs have had much of lately. His declared faith in his first-choice goalkeeper is another small signal that decisions are being made with a clear hierarchy rather than by committee. Whether that holds when results get difficult is the only question that actually matters.
