Tottenham’s Rebuild Exposed in 3-0 Defeat to Brentford
Tottenham’s grand rebuild lasted all of 90 minutes.
On an opening day that was supposed to showcase a new era, Roberto De Zerbi watched his expensively assembled side torn apart 3-0 by a ruthless Brentford team that looked sharper, hungrier and far more coherent.
De Zerbi’s Spurs exposed
The Italian did not bother dressing it up. Spurs, he admitted, are not a team yet. They did not look like one either.
The same old problems resurfaced despite the new faces. Spurs were soft in the duels, disjointed out of possession and repeatedly overrun as Keane Lewis-Potter, Vitaly Janelt and Michael Kayode struck to give Brentford a fully deserved victory.
"For many reasons I think we are not (a) team yet. We are not at the right point in physical condition," De Zerbi said afterwards. "But no excuse. When you are building a new project I don’t want time, but we have to pass through these problems."
He was parachuted in last season to drag Spurs away from relegation trouble. This summer was supposed to be about ambition, not anxiety. Yet his assessment was brutally honest.
"I believe in my players, my club and myself. I think we are working well but we are late for the start of the Premier League," he said. "It’s a step we have to improve quickly. We could fight stronger than we did today and we lost too many duels.
"The target is to become (a) team. To find the spirit, the soul, is a process."
Spurs handed debuts to five players and are on course to sail past the €350million mark in transfer spending once deals for Savinho and Omar Marmoush are completed. The money is real. The chemistry is not, at least not yet.
Brentford’s big signing delivers
While Tottenham’s glittering rebuild stuttered, Brentford’s headline arrival hit the ground running.
Mamadou Sangare, signed for €48m and already looking like a bargain in this market, drove the game from midfield and finished with two assists. Everything Brentford did well seemed to run through him.
"It’s pretty impressive on a lot of fronts. You never truly know from pre-season what you’re going to get," said manager Keith Andrews. "But it felt like we were in a good spot and we produced a pretty good performance."
The club had beaten a string of rivals to land Sangare. On this evidence, that battle was worth the effort.
"More of the same from him, hopefully," Andrews added. "It’s been nice working with him and the club deserves a lot of credit for getting that deal done because he could have gone elsewhere.
"He adds to an already quality midfield that we have. I really enjoyed his performance today."
"You never truly know in a different league, with a different language, but he’s a humble young man who looks very hungry."
His hunger matched the mood of a Brentford side that once again punched above their weight. Last season they missed out on European football only on goal difference. Still, skepticism lingers in some corners.
Andrews, though, seems content to let the football do the talking.
"That’s the beauty of this game," he said with a smile. "It’s about journeys, it’s about stories, it’s about narrative. You’ve just got to go with it, haven’t you?"
On this evidence, Brentford’s story is gathering pace. Tottenham’s, for now, is still trying to find its first coherent chapter.
