Tottenham spent more than £300m this summer, the biggest war chest in the club’s history, and it has bought them precisely this: bottom of the Premier League after five games, two points, two goals, and a 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa to take into the international break.
Sky Sports’ analysis is blunt about it – this was supposed to be different. Roberto De Zerbi arrived with proven Premier League pedigree and near-total control of the market, yet Spurs are bottom for the first time in 18 years, and their struggles for consistency now stretch into a third consecutive season after back-to-back 17th-place finishes.
A summer of spending, a squad still learning itself
Over half of Saturday’s starting line-up against Villa were not at the club last season, and that turnover has a cost. The summer’s business included Sandro Tonali for £100m, Savio for £85m, Mateus Fernandes for £85m, Jan Paul van Hecke for £52m, Tosin Adarabioyo for £10m, plus Mykhaylo Mudryk and Omar Marmoush on loan, and free transfers for Martin Dubravka, Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi.
None of it has solved the recurring problem: Tottenham haven’t won a league game after conceding first in close to two years, managing only nine draws from losing positions since. Sky Sports notes Spurs’ average xG per shot is the lowest in the league, with their overall total better only than Coventry’s – hardly a surprise with Dominic Solanke still short of full fitness and Marmoush yet to find his scoring boots.
De Zerbi didn’t dodge it after the Villa defeat: “leaders have to be leaders,” he said, adding “we can’t lose games in this way.” Pushed further on the pattern, he admitted, “In my 14 years as a coach, I’ve never seen a team like us, so fragile and inconsistent” – which says plenty about a squad assembled around a recruitment plan that got him most of what he asked for, bar a top-class left-winger.
What comes next
Even one win lifts them out of the bottom three, and Sky Sports points to Manchester United at Old Trafford on October 10 as the obvious opportunity when the Premier League resumes. There’s still quality in this squad and no shortage of belief in De Zerbi’s methods – but as this wretched start has already proven, £300m alone was never going to be an overnight fix.
