Davies or De Zerbi: Can Spurs Find Salvation With A Player-Manager or A Fiery Italian?

Tottenham Hotspur have managed to arrive at a peculiar crossroads where appointing an injured backup left-back to manage the club might genuinely represent progress. Strange as it sounds, it could actually be their most realistic path away from the drop.

Credit where it's due to everyone who's steered the ship into these treacherous waters. Particularly chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange, both seemingly operating on the assumption that the other fellow has some semblance of a plan.

Igor Tudor wasn't that plan—never looked remotely capable of being one either. Yet more than a week after the Croatian's departure became inevitable, Spurs remain adrift. They haven't merely failed to identify a replacement; they appear genuinely uncertain what they're even looking for. A manager familiar with the club? Someone who understands the Premier League's survival mechanics? Or perhaps just someone who can distinguish between different sections of a tactics board?

Enter Roberto De Zerbi, the recently departed Marseille manager, who Spurs are apparently desperate to convince. A move that feels rather overdue, assuming it happens at all.

Then there's Ben Davies. Or, put another way, letting the players run the show themselves.

Handing control to the squad sounds absurd on paper. Plenty of Tottenham supporters would rather see these players publicly humiliated than rewarded for their failures with near-total autonomy. Yet it represents the one thing the club hasn't already attempted.

This particular group clearly resists traditional management. Tudor couldn't manage it. Thomas Frank couldn't manage it. By the end, even Ange Postecoglou couldn't manage it. As his high-octane football lost its novelty and fatigue set in, the players essentially took matters into their own hands—deciding that full-throttle Ange-ball, however thrilling, wasn't the answer. Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero effectively orchestrated a more pragmatic approach in Europe, where they thrived, though their defensive masterclass didn't translate to the Premier League.

Davies carries symbolic weight as perhaps the last remaining connection to a period when Spurs weren't completely dysfunctional. A 100-cap international—the kind of bloke you'd trust with your sister—he'd provide a respectable public face for whatever direction the club wants to project. But realistically, Davies as manager means committee-led football. Which might actually rank among Tottenham's least terrible options.

De Zerbi could theoretically work. At virtually any other club, an intense Italian with his pedigree might reasonably galvanise a talented-yet-flawed squad to scrape together enough points to survive. But this is Spurs. De Zerbi demands discipline and abhors non-conformity. The fit could work in summer, when a demanding authoritarian might reshape an underperforming group.

The immediate problem? De Zerbi isn't particularly composed in emergencies. He's an accelerant, not a firefighter. Right now, Tottenham might be pouring gasoline onto a burning dumpster.

His track record during crisis moments also raises questions. Tudor lasted five games without a win before getting sacked. De Zerbi managed just one point from his first five games at Brighton when arriving mid-season in 2022.

This Spurs squad resists easy management. De Zerbi's methods demand time to flourish, ideally with cooperative players. With neither currently available, perhaps the moment calls for unconventional solutions—and a squad-driven, instinct-based approach might be precisely what this particular emergency demands.