Roberto De Zerbi’s reputation precedes him.On one hand, he is recognised as one of the most brilliant minds in coaching. Pep Guardiola, who is arguably the best coach the Premier League has ever seen, hailed the Italian as “one of the most influential managers of the last 20 years”. Chelsea’s new head coach, Xabi Alonso, has said De Zerbi’s teams are among those he enjoys watching most, and Jurgen Klopp praised his work at Brighton and Hove Albion as “incredible”.For the 47-year-old, who started in Serie D — the fourth tier of Italian football — with Darfo Boario after a relatively unremarkable playing career, listening to such strong praise from some of the game’s most celebrated figures is “embarrassing”.“It is one of the few things I feel a bit embarrassed about,” De Zerbi tells a group of reporters, including The Athletic, during Tottenham’s pre-season tour. “I am sure about myself, always fully charged. But when I started to be a coach, I couldn’t imagine ever coaching in the Premier League, a coach in the Premier League with Tottenham, or a coach in the Premier League with Tottenham and the biggest coaches in the world speaking well about me. Or that some coaches said that I am a reference for them.“I become shy. I am not used to that, and I don’t think I will ever get used to it. Last season, when I went into the big stadium, I spoke with my assistant and said we are not used to working in this kind of stadium with this atmosphere. We are lucky because we started from the sh*t of football.”On his way from ‘the sh*t’ to one of the biggest clubs in England, De Zerbi built up another side to his reputation. At Brighton and Hove Albion and Marseille, his last two jobs before Spurs, De Zerbi left under a cloud after public disagreements with players and staff. For all his undisputed brilliance as a coach, there is an outside perception that you’re never far away from a crisis with the Italian.Roberto De Zerbi gives instructions to his Spurs players on their pre-season tour (Saeed Khan/Getty Images)However, he has a different view.“Yesterday evening I spoke with the CEO of Juventus (Giovanni Carnevali),” he says. “(He was) my former CEO at Sassuolo, my friend. I have a great relationship with (Brighton CEO) Paul Barber.“With Benevento, my first experience in Serie A, with the owner I stay like this, ” he adds, crossing his fingers.“But if the owner doesn’t respect me, it doesn’t matter if you’re an owner or not. In my life, I always thought like this. Sometimes I have had bad ends of relationships, but with 80-90 per cent we have a great relationship. Sometimes it can happen that there are two different ambitions: the owner wants one thing, and I push to go for more or higher. But the owner is the owner, and I have to respect the owner, for sure, also the owner has to respect me. Owner, director or the board.”After a dramatic seven-game spell to close last season, in which Tottenham came closer to relegation to the Championship than at any time in their Premier League history, De Zerbi kept the north London club in the top flight with a 1-0 win over Everton on the final day. Over that time, English fans saw a different side to the Italian: one that sacrificed free-flowing football for a more pragmatic style than he is accustomed to coaching.