Tottenham's Rebuild Falters in 3-0 Defeat to Brentford

Tottenham’s lavish rebuild lasted all of 90 minutes.

Roberto De Zerbi watched his new-look side taken apart 3-0 by a ruthless Brentford, then admitted what the performance had already screamed: this is not a team yet.

De Zerbi’s blunt verdict

The Italian, who was dropped in late last season to drag Spurs away from relegation trouble, did not hide behind excuses.

"For many reasons I think we are not a team yet. We are not at the right point in physical condition," he said, before cutting off any suggestion of mitigation. "But no excuse. When you are building a new project I don’t want time, but we have to pass through these problems.

"I believe in my players, my club and myself. I think we are working well but we are late for the start of the Premier League.

"It’s a step we have to improve quickly. We could fight stronger than we did today and we lost too many duels.

"The target is to become a team. To find the spirit, the soul, is a process."

On this evidence, that process is only just beginning.

Spurs handed debuts to five players and are on course to smash through the €350million barrier in transfer spending once deals for Savinho and Omar Marmoush are completed. Yet for all the new faces, the old frailties were laid bare again.

Keane Lewis-Potter, Vitaly Janelt and Michael Kayode all struck as Brentford dominated, outworked and out-thought a Tottenham side that looked exactly as De Zerbi described: undercooked, short of cohesion and lacking bite in the duels that matter.

Sangare steals the spotlight

While Spurs’ money burned a hole in the narrative, it was Brentford’s headline signing who lit up the pitch.

Mamadou Sangare, brought in for around €48m, looked every inch a Premier League midfielder from the first whistle. He pulled strings, drove the game forward and, crucially, delivered end product, setting up two of Brentford’s three goals.

"It’s pretty impressive on a lot of fronts. You never truly know from pre-season what you’re going to get," said Brentford manager Keith Andrews. "But it felt like we were in a good spot and we produced a pretty good performance."

Brentford beat a queue of clubs to land Sangare, and on this evidence they knew exactly what they were doing.

"More of the same from him, hopefully," Andrews added. "It’s been nice working with him and the club deserves a lot of credit for getting that deal done because he could have gone elsewhere.

"He adds to an already quality midfield that we have. I really enjoyed his performance today.

"You never truly know in a different league, with a different language, but he’s a humble young man who looks very hungry."

Hungry was the word. Sangare set the tone, and Brentford followed it, snapping into challenges, flooding forward in numbers and exposing the gaps between Tottenham’s disconnected lines.

Brentford’s quiet rise, Spurs’ noisy reset

Last season Brentford missed out on European football only on goal difference. They still arrive in these fixtures slightly under the radar, still fighting for respect in some corners of the game.

"That’s the beauty of this game," said Andrews with a smile. "It’s about journeys, it’s about stories, it’s about narrative. You’ve just got to go with it, haven’t you?"

Their journey looks upward. Their story has continuity, clarity and, now, the added quality of Sangare.

Tottenham’s is more chaotic. A huge spend, five debutants, a coach demanding intensity and identity, yet a team that currently exists only on paper and in theory.

De Zerbi insists the soul of this side will come. The question, after an opening day like this, is how quickly Spurs can find it in a league that rarely waits.