Roberto De Zerbi reveals he sent angry text to Jan Paul van Hecke before Tottenham transfer
Roberto De Zerbi has given a colourful account of how personally he gets involved in Tottenham Hotspur’s recruitment. He revealed he sent Jan Paul van Hecke an expletive-laden text message straight after a Brighton game last season to push the defender towards Spurs.
Here’s the text via Football London.
“With Mateus Fernandes, I spoke with his parents. With JP [Van Hecke], after the Everton game, I sent the message ‘F*** off, you wanted to send down Tottenham for Brighton when you made the assist to Georginio Rutter, now you have to come to me, yes or yes, you have no choice!’.
“It was straight after the game, right in my dressing room, my office in the Tottenham stadium, I sent a message to my daughter, and then JP.”
Brighton colleagues!
It is a small anecdote, but a revealing one about how De Zerbi operates behind the scenes. He also disclosed that Mateus Fernandes’ move was smoothed along by conversations with the midfielder’s parents rather than the player himself, a detail that suggests De Zerbi treats these deals as relationships to be built rather than negotiations to be won.
Van Hecke eventually arrived for £52m, and De Zerbi’s framing of the pursuit as personal rather than purely transactional fits a wider picture he painted of last season, one where he insisted results were far closer than the final table suggested.
He specifically cited games against Brighton, a win over Wolves, a win over Aston Villa, a Leeds match Spurs could have won, a Chelsea defeat and a win over Everton he said was thoroughly merited as evidence that Tottenham deserved better than a relegation fight, even as they lost to Sunderland along the way.
For a club that has looked short of clear identity and direction in recent windows, having a manager willing to put this much personal effort into individual signings, and to speak about it this openly afterwards, is a good sign regardless of how entertaining the stories around it turn out to be.