Tottenham Sit Bottom of Premier League After Record £300m Spending
The short version
- Tottenham are 20th in the Premier League and winless after five matches despite a record £300m summer spend.
- Spurs were the last team in England to score a league goal this season, ending a 445-minute drought against Aston Villa.
- Sandro Tonali joined for a club-record £100m, while Mateus Fernandes cost £85m and Savio an initial £75m plus add-ons.
- De Zerbi, in charge since late March, has been criticized for team selection and for excluding Andy Robertson from the leadership group.
- The club finished 17th in each of the previous two seasons.
Roberto De Zerbi's rebuilt Spurs are winless and last in the table after five league matches despite the biggest outlay in the club's history.
Tottenham are bottom of the Premier League after five matches without a win, despite spending around £300 million on new players this summer, the biggest outlay in the club's history. Roberto De Zerbi, appointed on the last day of March, oversaw a major rebuild following back-to-back 17th-place finishes.
Spurs were the last side in the country to score a league goal this season, ending a 445-minute drought through Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke in an eventual defeat to Aston Villa. The campaign opened with a 3-0 loss at Brentford, in which a front three of Mikey Moore, Richarlison and Mathys Tel featured only one player currently eligible for Spurs over the next three months.
Questions have been raised about the midfield, where £85m signing Mateus Fernandes has begun two of five league games on the bench and been substituted at half-time in another, despite the £100m arrival of Sandro Tonali breaking the club's transfer record. In attack, Omar Marmoush has been used in two league games as a striker and two from the left, while Richarlison remains at the club but out of favor.
De Zerbi has also faced scrutiny over decisions beyond recruitment, including leaving Andy Robertson out of the club's new leadership group after publicly bemoaning a lack of leadership. Given the level of spending, anything short of European qualification would be considered a failure, yet the club's start has raised concerns about another relegation struggle.