Manager Watch: De Zerbi says misfiring Spurs need time — 'not Football Manager'

Two matches into the season, Tottenham Hotspur are 19th in the Premier League table: played two, lost two, no goals scored, five conceded. FanTribe's match data shows how it happened — a 2-0 home defeat by Newcastle United, then a 3-0 reverse at Brentford. Only Aston Villa, bottom of the pile, have an identical record, and it is the sort of start that fills the wires quickly.

'Not Football Manager'

BBC Sport reported on Saturday that De Zerbi said his misfiring Spurs side need time — and that this is, in his words, 'not Football Manager'. The phrase carries the argument: in the simulation, a broken club can be rebuilt in an afternoon, and the manager's point is that reality does not work that way.

The Richarlison question

A second BBC Sport report, published on Friday, added an awkward footnote: De Zerbi said Richarlison's omission was 'not my decision'. Nothing in the wire copy says whose call it was — only that it was not the head coach's. For a manager asking for patience, it is an uncomfortable distinction: the results are his problem, but at least one selection, on his own account, belonged to somebody else.

Two home games to reset

FanTribe's fixture list offers a runway. Everton visit on Saturday 12 September, with Aston Villa following on Saturday 19 September, and the odds carried on FanTribe still make Spurs favourites in both — 2.08 against Everton (3.65 the draw, 3.75 the visitors) and 2.30 against Villa (3.50, 3.20) — even after two league games without a goal. According to the table, Everton arrive eighth with four points; Villa are bottom, pointless and goalless.

FanTribe's own club data shows exactly one registered Tottenham fan on the platform at the time of writing — a small crowd for a club of this size, and one that will want De Zerbi's promised time to be spent well.

None of the wire reports suggest De Zerbi's position is under immediate threat; the conversation, so far, is about timescales rather than the manager's future. Two home Saturdays will decide which way it turns — and the next Manager Watch will tell us whether the reset arrived.