Djed Spence: Key Player in De Zerbi's Tottenham Rebuild

Roberto de Zerbi is reshaping Tottenham with a ruthlessness that leaves little room for doubt, but there is one player he is still determined to win over.

Djed Spence.

The Italian wants him to stay. Badly.

Spence, 25, is tied to a long-term deal and has Inter Milan and Everton circling, yet De Zerbi is pushing hard to keep the England defender at the heart of his rebuild. In a summer when Spurs have smashed spending records and ripped up the old order after back-to-back 17th-place finishes, that stance says plenty.

“I would like you to stay if you want to stay. If you don't want to stay, if you want to leave, then you have to leave,” De Zerbi said, placing the decision squarely on the player’s shoulders.

Last season Spence started 23 of his 30 Premier League games, a rare constant in a side that flirted with disaster and only dodged relegation on the final day. Now his position looks far less secure. Spain’s World Cup winner Pedro Porro has nailed down the right-back slot and De Zerbi has gone as far as calling him the best in the world in that role.

The message is clear: if Spence stays, he stays to fight.

A ruthless rebuild

Tottenham have already spent a club-record £237m this summer, and it shows. This is not tinkering. This is demolition and reconstruction.

• Mateus Fernandes arrived from West Ham for £85m.
• Sandro Tonali followed a day later from Newcastle for £100m, breaking the transfer record twice in 48 hours.
• Jan Paul van Hecke has come in from Brighton for £52m, while Marcos Senesi, Andrew Robertson and Martin Dubravka have all joined on free transfers, bringing experience and edge.

The churn does not stop there. Captain Cristian Romero is among those expected to move on. His decision to fly back to Argentina while injured before the final game of last season drew heavy criticism, even though he returned in time to play. De Zerbi pushed back against the backlash, calling the centre-back’s conduct during his tenure “unbelievable behaviour”, but he did not try to disguise the reality: it is “his will” to leave.

At the start of his reign in April, De Zerbi sat the squad down one by one.

“At the beginning of my time in April I had, I don't know, one million individual meetings. And the players told me if they are (staying) here (or not),” he recalled.

His response was blunt: help me keep this club up, and I’ll help you get the move you want. Fail, and you “stay underwater with me”.

They survived. Now the exits begin.

Italian goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is also expected to go after losing his place to Antonin Kinsky, another symbol of how quickly the hierarchy is shifting.

Hunting goals – and a ‘bomba’

All this upheaval has a clear purpose. Tottenham need more goals. De Zerbi has said it outright.

The club are deep in talks for Manchester City’s Brazilian winger Savinho, one of several attacking options being pursued for a move to north London. Another forward target remains under wraps, but the manager’s description of what comes next leaves little doubt about the scale.

“The transfer market is not finished for sure, but we have completed 60% of our project. Now we have another ‘bomba’,” he said in Sydney.

Asked whether that meant a winger or a striker, his answer was sharp and revealing.

“Attackers. I don't love working with plan A, plan B, plan C. It is plan A, full stop, because all players are not the same. We have to increase the number of goals.”

No safety nets. No compromise profiles. He knows exactly what he wants, and he is prepared to wait – or push – until he gets it.

He even described himself as a “shark” in this window, circling targets and striking when the moment is right.

In that context, Spence’s situation becomes a test case. Stay, and he must wrestle minutes from a manager who believes he already has the world’s best right-back. Leave, and he walks away from a project being built, aggressively, to drag Spurs out of mediocrity.

De Zerbi has laid out the terms. Tottenham’s summer is already explosive. The next decision, for Spence and for others, will decide just how far this “bomba” really shakes the Premier League.