Roberto De Zerbi can come across spiky. He is a little rough around the edges. But, in football terms, he brings gentrification.When he moves into your club, nice things tend to follow. All of a sudden the neighbourhood changes. It gets a new hipster coffee shop, an organic wine bar, a restaurant critics adore. De Zerbi probably won’t appreciate the comparison. His father used to organise away days for Brescia’s ultras. He is who he has always been. It’s his ideas that attract. They have a romance and an allure that continue to lead players into temptation.This remains one of the principal reasons to hire him. Making signings for a club, providing they’re ones De Zerbi approves of, becomes significantly easier. If you get a player in front of De Zerbi either in person or on a Zoom call, all that’s left to do for the clubs is to agree a fee. He has a pull few coaches possess. High profile players will join relegation battles for him. They’ll take a step down for him. They’ll move to the middle of nowhere for him.This obviously isn’t exactly what Matheus Fernandes, Jan Paul van Hecke, Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Sandro Tonali are doing. One escapes the Championship where West Ham will play next season. The others move to London, which is a big draw in itself. All of these transfers are illustrative of De Zerbi’s powers of persuasion. Manchester United were Tottenham’s competition for Fernandes.Traditionally this would only end one way, with the player going to Old Trafford. The difference this time was ENIC’s willingness to change transfer policy. Prudent under former executive chairman Daniel Levy, Tottenham are unrecognisable this summer and went higher for Fernandes than United presumably expected.Mateus Fernandes is one of several high-profile signings for Tottenham this summer (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)De Zerbi finds himself in a position of tremendous influence. When he accepted the mission to keep the club in the Premier League at the end of March, the risk he took was reflected in how much Tottenham were prepared to pay him in order to make it worth his while. After keeping the club up and avoiding a Tottenham relegation in the same season Arsenal won the Premier League, the owners cannot be seen to hold back in assembling a team for a coach this popular, particularly after back-to-back campaigns were trending towards the drop. The value of the club, it must also be said, came under threat by the prospect of Championship football. As such Tottenham are satisfying their saviour.Newcastle fans will be looking at Tonali joining a club that finished below them last season and wonder what’s the appeal? After all, Tottenham have only been marginally more successful than they have this century. Financial sacrifices aside, the answer is obvious: it’s De Zerbi. One grew up in Brescia. The other, more or less, started his playing career there. These Italians have a great deal in common, more than just a shared language and cultural affinity. One doubts Tonali would have settled on Tottenham as the next best step in his career without the presence of De Zerbi.Tonali knows his reputation. De Zerbi opens players minds. He changes how they see the game. Wherever they go, they only see football. They don’t see Benevento. They don’t see Sassuolo. They don’t see Brighton. They see themselves on an adventure of discovery and betterment.“I only went to Italy to be coached by De Zerbi. No one understood my decision to go to Benevento,” Bacary Sagna said. “But now I think the people have their answer. I was coached by one of the best coaches in the world. Even if the infrastructure was different, at that time in Benevento it felt to me like I was still at Manchester City.”This was when Benevento were no-hopers. They were the worst promoted team in history, losing their first 14 games of the season in Serie A. Then De Zerbi came in. It was the impossible job. Nevertheless in January De Zerbi still managed to convince Sagna and the former Tottenham midfielder Sandro to join.At Sassuolo, De Zerbi charmed Kevin Prince Boateng into signing for a small-town team. Boateng had played for Milan, Dortmund and Tottenham. He’d worked with Jurgen Klopp and Max Allegri. But De Zerbi blew him away. “He called me five or six times a day and told me you have to come here,” Boateng told me. “I met him one time in Milan and we had a good talk and I said I want to work with this guy because he’s a crazy genius. He is the only coach, who I have ever worked with who has solutions for every single player on the field.” Within months of working together Boateng, late in his career, got a move to Barcelona.Sassuolo were able to sign Kevin Prince Boateng despite being a smaller club (Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)Guys like Manuel Locatelli also revived their fledgling careers, trading Milan for De Zerbi’s Sassuolo. Three members of Italy’s European Championship-winning team in 2021 came from Sassuolo. At Brighton, De Zerbi loaned Ansu Fati. Not so long ago, he was the next big thing at Barcelona. While injuries took their toll and Brighton offered a shot at the Premier League, De Zerbi was crucial in Fati’s decision. De Zerbi gave a club a chance, a way to access players you wouldn’t ordinarily consider gettable. At Marseille, he made Adrien Rabiot, a former PSG player, want to play for a rival.Not all of these signings worked out. Benevento didn’t stay up. Sassuolo missed out on Europe on goal difference. Marseille were seconds away from winning the Trophee des Champions.At Tottenham, it feels like De Zerbi has been allowed to shop as he wants this summer. Results will determine how long that lasts in future windows. Without European football, he will have time on the training ground. He is moulding this team in his image.The Premier League at the moment feels in flux with the likes of Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea under new management. Right now it is, of course, premature to talk of Champions League qualification and a tilt at one of the cups. But after a transfer spend like this expectations are raised. This charming man needs to win something if his CV is to sync with his out-sized brand and standing in the game.De Zerbi’s gift for landing talent his clubs shouldn’t otherwise get near still buys him a chanceJul 2, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms