De Zerbi's Stance on Bergvall and Tonali at Tottenham

Roberto De Zerbi is not in the business of begging players to stay. Not even the gifted ones.

Lucas Bergvall, handed his first start of Tottenham’s preseason tour in the penalty shootout win over Sydney FC on Wednesday, remains at the centre of a quietly simmering saga. Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest have already had approaches rebuffed, the 20-year-old Sweden international weighing up his next move while his head coach makes his stance brutally clear.

“I would like that he stays with us — I think he's a potential top, top, top player,” De Zerbi said. “But in the end I don't want to convince anyone to stay.”

That line cut through the polite noise of preseason. Tottenham, he insisted, are not a club that pleads.

“I think Tottenham is already, without me, a top club, and we are not to convince anyone to stay,” he continued. The message was sharp: the badge sells itself; the project stands on its own. If Bergvall wants in, he must truly want it.

De Zerbi’s position on the midfielder has been shaped over months, not days. He spoke to Bergvall before last season ended, checked in twice during the World Cup, and is now working with him face to face, away from the heat of competitive fixtures. Only now, he says, does he fully understand the player in front of him.

“I think his position is very clear for me now also because I needed time to understand the characteristic of the players,” De Zerbi explained. Last season, with games coming relentlessly, his work with the squad leaned heavily on mentality and preparation rather than embedding his full tactical blueprint. This summer, the detail is different. So is the level of scrutiny.

What hasn’t changed is his belief in Bergvall’s ceiling.

“He's a very young, very good player, good guy, and it's not so easy and so fast to find a young player of that level,” De Zerbi said. Opportunity, he insists, will be there if Bergvall commits.

“I think he can find the space because the competition between the players will be very strong. We are Tottenham and we have to build a strong squad, not just 11 players.”

That line goes to the heart of De Zerbi’s vision. Tottenham’s last two or three seasons have been scarred by injuries. Too often, campaigns have sagged when key players broke down. The Italian is adamant that must change.

“Football is going in a clear direction: to compete for the [highest] place on the table, you have to manage 22, 23, 24 players,” he said. This is the new reality: deep squads, rotating cores, young talents asked to grow quickly or be left behind.

While Bergvall’s future hangs in the balance, De Zerbi’s attention has already begun to shift toward the new pillar of his project: Sandro Tonali. The Italy international has arrived from Newcastle in a record-breaking move, and his coach reached for a jeweller’s language to describe him.

“A precious diamond.”

The phrase was deliberate. Tonali is expected to change the temperature of Tottenham’s midfield, yet De Zerbi is adamant that talent alone is not enough.

“We have to manage him like a precious diamond,” he said. “We have to help him to improve in the last decision, as [well] as physical work. He has to work hard to become stronger because this diamond footballer needs to be strong and to give space when there is the right moment.”

The standards are uncompromising. The tone, though, carries a hint of protection. De Zerbi has built his reputation on nurturing young players, and he stressed that Tonali, like Bergvall and the rest of the emerging core, will not be rushed without purpose.

“I usually give time to all my young players I work with in my career, and with his potential, he is a special player.”

So Tottenham move through preseason with a clear tension at the heart of their squad: one young midfielder pondering whether to stay and fight, another arriving as the club’s “diamond” around whom so much will be built. De Zerbi has laid out the rules. Commitment first, competition guaranteed, no promises made.

The question now is simple: who is willing to grow with him in a squad designed for 24, not just 11?