De Zerbi's Blunt Assessment: Only 10-12 Spurs Players Worth Keeping as Overhaul Begins

Tottenham's dramatic escape from the Championship trap is barely dry and Roberto De Zerbi is already wielding the axe. The Italian manager has made it abundantly clear that a wholesale clearout awaits at Spurs this summer, with only a small core of players deemed worthy of remaining.

De Zerbi arrived at the north London club last month tasked with the unenviable job of keeping them afloat, and they managed it in the most nerve-shredding fashion imaginable. Spurs needed nothing less than a point from their final fixture against Everton and delivered a 1-0 victory, which proved crucial as 18th-placed West Ham's 3-0 demolition of Leeds meant every goal mattered in the survival lottery.

Yet there was no time for champagne celebrations in the De Zerbi dugout. Immediately following the Everton win, the manager turned his focus to the monumental task ahead.

"From tonight, we have to start to organise and to build a new team," De Zerbi announced to reporters. "I think we have now to change too many players. We have 10, 11, 12 players good enough to stay. Good enough. Like players. Especially like people. And then we have to complete the squad with the first level of players."

The message was unsparing: the suffering has to end. De Zerbi made clear that Tottenham cannot continue to flirt with disaster in such a fashion, and that wholesale reinforcement at the highest level is non-negotiable.

"First level of players because we suffered too much," he continued. "I suffered a lot but I think the fans, the club, the board, the players, they suffered too much. We are Tottenham and we can't suffer like this until the last second of the last game to stay up. And I will be stronger. I will be stronger."

The manager's ambition is crystalline: he wants his dream squad assembled and ready to go before pre-season kicks off. Whilst acknowledging that squad building is a collaborative effort involving the sporting director, scouting team, and chief executive, De Zerbi has made his intentions plain.

"My target is to start the pre-season with the team I have in my dream," he said.

Among those De Zerbi will be keen to retain is Micky van de Ven, according to former Spurs defender Alan Hutton. The Dutch centre-back, Hutton believes, is precisely the type of player around whom a recovery can be built—particularly if Cristian Romero departs, as expected.

"That's one guy that I think they have to keep," Hutton told GOAL. "If they want to build and be stronger for next season, he's your captain in waiting because I think Romero will probably be off. So they need to keep these kind of guys to build around."

Hutton stressed the practical reality facing Spurs: losing a player of Van de Ven's calibre would necessitate expensive replacement, and such a move could prove counterproductive to a club desperate to climb back towards respectability. The challenge, however, is acute—rebuilding to genuine competitive level will take multiple transfer windows, and ambitious players may grow impatient.

For now, De Zerbi must work with what he has and reshape accordingly. It's a monumental undertaking, but one that begins immediately.