Tottenham are set to announce the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi as their head coach after agreeing the framework of a five-year deal, sources have told ESPN.
The Italian was initially reluctant to join the club immediately but talks have progressed in the past 48 hours with Spurs now increasingly confident of providing formal confirmation in the coming days.
Sources have told ESPN that the proposed deal with De Zerbi includes a substantial bonus for keeping the club in the Premier League. It is currently unclear if any provision is made for the club’s potential relegation.
Spurs are 17th in the Premier League, just one point and one place above the relegation zone after a run of one win in seven games across all competitions saw the club part company with Igor Tudor on Sunday.
De Zerbi is expected to be in place at Spurs’ training ground later this week to meet the Spurs players returning from international duty.
Roberto De Zerbi guided Brighton to their first ever European campaign and is highly-regarded in England Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images
He will have more than a week’s training with the group before their next game at Sunderland on April 12.
Spurs will consider De Zerbi’s imminent arrival as something of a coup given his reputation in England remains high from his time at Brighton and he attracted interest from other clubs in Europe.
The 46-year-old is a renowned tactician who left Marseille by mutual consent last month with the club fourth in Ligue 1, winning more than half of his 69 games in charge.
In a two-year spell at Brighton between 2022 and 2024, De Zerbi guided Brighton to European qualification for the first time in their history with a sixth-place finish in the Premier League.
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He left a year later, after an 11th-place finish, amid disagreements with the board over the club’s transfer strategy, hinting at a potentially volatile character that some Spurs supporters have expressed concerns over.
Three Spurs fans groups – Proud Lilywhites, Women of the Lane and Spurs Reach – also opposed De Zerbi’s appointment due to his public support for Mason Greenwood, the ex-Manchester United forward who was charged with one count of attempted rape, one count of controlling and coercive behaviour and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in October 2022.
The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges in February 2023 after key witnesses withdrew and “new material came to light.”
Greenwood subsequently joined Marseille in 2024.
De Zerbi later praised Greenwood as “a good guy” who had paid a “heavy price” because “I know a totally different person than the one who was described.”
Tottenham had also held an interest in former coach Mauricio Pochettino but the Argentine is committed to leading the USMNT into the World Cup.
Several interim options including Sean Dyche, Harry Redknapp, Glenn Hoddle and Tim Sherwood had been linked with the role but Spurs were keen to make a permanent appointment to provide stability to the head coach position after Thomas Frank was sacked in February having only taken charge last summer, before Tudor lasted just 44 days in the role.
