Image Credit: @FabrizioRomano Twitter

2 days after the news broke of Igor Tudor’s departure, Tottenham Hotspur have already found a long-term solution for the situation in the form of Roberto De Zerbi. Roberto De Zerbi has signed a 5-year deal with Tottenham Hotspur and will be one of top 3 highest earning head coaches currently in the league. The former Marseille manager has quite a difficult task ahead of him as De Zerbi has taken the job as Tottenham’s permanent head coach near the end of the season with Tottenham only having 7 Premier League games left of the season remaining. A reminder that Spurs are just 1 point above the relegation and are out of every possible cup competition so De Zerbi’s prime focus is to ensure Spurs do not get relegated this season.

Any special clauses in De Zerbi’s contract?

There were some reports that came out suggesting that Roberto De Zerbi has a special relegation clause in his contract on top of his new large salary. The speculated clause claims that if Tottenham Hotspur were to get relegated at the end of the season, De Zerbi would be allowed to leave the club without compensation. The claims have been reported to be false however and it has been confirmed that Roberto De Zerbi is fully committing his future to the club whether they get relegated or not as the once Brighton & Hove Albion manager is eager to start a fresh new project with the club.

Long Term Future in doubt?

Even though De Zerbi has just signed a 5-year deal, his history speaks for itself as the Italian Head Coach in his entire managerial career has never spent more than 2 full seasons at a football club except for one tenure at Sassuolo where De Zerbi spent 3 seasons at the club. De Zerbi has managed 8 clubs before Tottenham and only 1 club has had his services for more than 2 seasons which may raise some concerns for Tottenham fans as the new head coach’s own recent history has shown that it does not take a lot for De Zerbi to walk away from a club. With Brighton & Hove Albion, De Zerbi left due to disagreements on transfer strategies and with Marseille, De Zerbi left due bad results as well as reported tensions with the Marseille players. Tottenham’s culture and management have been called into question many times over the years by many previous managers, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes before De Zerbi will get into any disagreements with his new players or management if at all.

Brighton and Marseille Tenures

In Roberto De Zerbi’s managerial career, he is best known for his time in the English Premier League managing Brighton & Hove Albion from 2022 up until 2024 and most recently being a controversial manager at Olympique de Marseille from 2024 up until February of this year. During his time at Brighton, De Zerbi had quite a memorable run with the seagulls:

  • Games – 86
  • Wins – 38
  • Draws – 20
  • Losses – 31
  • League Finishes – 6th, 11th
  • Europa League – Top of Group B and Round of 16 Finalists

The 2022/2023 season was the highlight to De Zerbi’s time at the club as the Italian Head Coach had gained Europa League qualification with the Seagulls with a 6th place league finish however unfortunately the momentum did not continue onwards into the next season as Brighton finished in 11th in the league as well as were knocked out of the Europa League in the Round of 16 stage.

Roberto De Zerbi’s most recent run in Marseille has a similar pattern as the Italian Head Coach came into the club and helped the team get back into UEFA Champions League positions:

  • Games – 69
  • Wins – 39
  • Draws – 8
  • Losses – 22
  • League finishes – 2nd, 4th (Left mid-season)
  • Champions League – 25th in the League Phase

Similarly to Brighton, De Zerbi had a fantastic first season in charge of Marseille coming 2nd in Ligue 1 and gaining UEFA Champions League qualification. The current 2025/2026 did go as planned for De Zerbi’s men as they were eliminated from the Champions League during the league phase as well as in the Ligue 1, Marseille were sitting in 4th nowhere near the title race especially after suffering a 5-0 defeat to the reigning champions Paris Saint-German. That defeat signalled the end of De Zerbi’s time at the club as both the head coach and club decided to part ways. De Zerbi’s time at the French club would also be remembered for his infamous altercation with Canadian midfielder Ismaël Koné during a training session which resulted in the midfielder leaving the club on loan before an eventual full departure. It will be interesting to see if his time at Tottenham will mirror any of his previous tenures.