Pulis says international break has arrived at worst time for De Zerbi and Spurs
Tony Pulis told BBC Sport on 24 September 2026 that an international break has come at the worst possible moment for Tottenham Hotspur and manager Roberto De Zerbi after a difficult start to the Premier League season. He pointed to Tottenham's heavy summer recruitment — around £400m spent on new players — and a lack of time together as central problems.
Tottenham had finished 17th in each of the two previous seasons and De Zerbi took over with seven games remaining last term when the club sat 17th; three wins and two draws under his stewardship were enough to keep them up. The board's substantial backing raised supporters' expectations, but early results and performances this season have been disappointing. Spurs, Fulham and Bournemouth are the only top-flight teams yet to win a league game this season.
Pulis argued that buying large numbers of players in one window creates selection and compatibility headaches, noting Spurs brought in 10 new signings in a single transfer period. He said each incoming player carries a different personality and varying time needed to settle, and that a consolidated pre-season together would normally accelerate integration.
The manager has limited time to establish his methods on the training ground and through social interaction, and Pulis emphasised that the international break removes the majority of De Zerbi's squad for another three weeks on international duty. He also highlighted Spurs' existing issues such as poor home form and difficulty recovering after conceding first in matches.
Because Tottenham were still adding to their squad after the season began, Pulis said De Zerbi has been playing catch-up and missed an early opportunity to assess his group and impose his principles. The club's recruitment and timing of arrivals contributed to that, and De Zerbi was interviewed after Spurs' 3-2 home loss to Aston Villa as those problems were under scrutiny.
Drawing on his own managerial experience, Pulis recalled signing Gerry Taggart and Michael Duberry at Stoke and needing extensive training work to get two very different centre-halves to function as a partnership. He described a separate example in which he replaced a full-back in training after repeated positional issues when the player insisted "this is not what he believed was right." Pulis also cited off-pitch interventions at West Brom, including taking South American players and their families out to dinner with his assistant David Kemp, to build trust and aid integration.
Pulis noted that time is the essential element for a coach to knit a squad into a team, and that managers today have less of it; he observed that the season was only five games old when criticism of De Zerbi was already apparent. He described De Zerbi as a "very passionate, straight-talking and ambitious manager who demands total commitment and backing from his board," and said that backing has been forthcoming at Spurs.
Integrating the substantial number of new arrivals into a coherent team will remain De Zerbi's primary challenge, but progress will be interrupted while the majority of his squad are on international duty for another three weeks. Tony Pulis was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.
