De Zerbi 'happy' with Tottenham's preparations

Italian manager Roberto De Zerbi expressed his happiness “for many reasons” as his team, Tottenham, returned to London from three pre-season friendlies without suffering a single defeat. The manager spent more than two weeks in New Zealand and Australia with his squad to prepare for a new campaign in the English Premier League, following their 17th-place finish last season.

Tottenham began their tour with a 2-0 victory over Auckland FC, then advanced past Sydney FC on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regular time, before beating London rivals Chelsea on Saturday, despite playing most of the second half with only 10 men.

De Zerbi said: “I am happy for many reasons. First, because we spent ten important days together. We worked hard.” He added: “I am happy to work with these players. I look forward to working with others in London, such as Argentine Rodrigo Bentancur, Senegalese Pape Matar Sarr, Argentine Marcos Senesi, and Ghanaian Mohammed Kudus, after the end of their World Cup participation leave, and Kudus, who continues to recover from an injury.”

On the other hand, De Zerbi indicated that he was unsure about the future of Brazilian striker Richarlison, stating: “As a player and as a person, he has amazing behavior and mentality, but ultimately we must respect what he wants to do.” He added: “For me, he is still an important player, because it is not easy to find a striker like him; he scores goals and knows the way to the net.”

When asked whether the player would leave, he replied: “I don’t know; I haven’t understood it well, because sometimes he says he will stay, and sometimes he talks about leaving. We will have to talk anyway, and there is no problem. He is a wonderful person.”