Liam Duckstein
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Tottenham’s toothless start to the 2026-27 Premier League season has turned a summer of heavy spending into an early crisis. Spurs sit among just three top-flight clubs yet to score a league goal, joined by Aston Villa and Coventry City. A trip to face Everton this weekend now carries the threat of an unwanted club record: four league matches without a goal to open a campaign.
Tottenham icon Brad Friedel has weighed in on the situation, speaking exclusively to Tribal Football via Jackpot City Casino. His verdict cuts through the noise surrounding a squad that received a £308million overhaul this summer under manager Roberto De Zerbi.
De Zerbi Faces Pressure After Record Outlay
Names like Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Savio, Jan Paul van Hecke and Tosin Adarabioyo arrived at the club with plenty of expectation attached. None of them have found rhythm yet, and Friedel believes the scale of investment guarantees scrutiny on the manager regardless of long-term plans.
“I’m pleased to see Spurs spending. I think they overspent on transfer fees and some wages, but the players they’ve brought in have obviously helped the squad. I think the poor start to the season won’t be a reflection on how the actual season goes in its entirety. I think if they don’t finish in European places, the board will be upset.”
“I’m sure the manager will come under some pressure because of the amount of money they’ve spent. They’re over the £300m mark, so when you spend that amount of money, and I’m sure De Zerbi had a lot of say in the background on the players coming in, of course if results aren’t coming, he’s going to be under pressure, but he knows that.”
Friedel argues that squad overhauls of this magnitude rarely click instantly. He points to De Zerbi’s track record as a reason for patience rather than panic.
“I think he’s a proven manager. I think he knows what he wants from his system. Sometimes when you make a lot of player changes, it takes a little while for them to click. Other times it happens quite quickly, but I think you increase the risk of it taking just that little while longer.”
Money Alone Doesn’t Guarantee the Right Signings
Friedel’s sharpest analysis concerns the structural problem Tottenham has wrestled with for years: competing against clubs with deeper pockets and bigger prestige for the same targets.
“One of the things Tottenham has a hard time with, and they’ve had it all the way back from when I was there, is competing financially on a big stage with the top clubs. But when push comes to shove, most of the players still would rather go to Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, or Chelsea. So what would tip the scales most of the time is paying a bigger pay packet.”
He raises a pointed question about motivation once wages become the deciding factor in a transfer.
“That’s fine if the player is 100% committed to the cause, but you run into this conundrum, is the player only coming here for the money? And don’t get me wrong, players wherever they go, are going to want a good pay packet. But if you’re overpaying, are you getting the right attitude in the changing room? That’s one of the conundrums they’ve had for a long time.”
Friedel contrasts this with the model that built Tottenham’s most successful era under Daniel Levy, recruiting Kyle Walker, Luka Modrić, Gareth Bale and Harry Kane before they hit their peak, then selling high. That approach becomes harder once a club is bidding directly against PSG, Bayern Munich and Europe’s other superpowers for the same names.
“It’s a lot different when you’re going into the market and competing against PSG, Bayern Munich, the top Italian clubs, the top German clubs, and then the other top Premier League clubs for the same player. Now you get into a completely different type of negotiation. So sometimes you’re not always going to get the player for the right reasons when you do that.”
Despite the concern, Friedel expects Spurs to remain in the mix for continental football this season, even if the margins stay thin.
“I still think they’ll be fine. I still think they’ll be on the cusp of whether it’s the Champions League places, on that last spot, or the Europa League or Europa Conference. I still think they’ll be there or thereabouts with De Zerbi’s track record, but I don’t think it’s ultimately as easy to recruit players as people think just because you have the cash.”
Osimhen Links Highlight the Cost of a Striker
Asked why Tottenham’s attack has stalled specifically, Friedel points to the price of top forwards. He references Victor Osimhen, now at Galatasaray, whose wage demands he became familiar with during his time as sporting director at Besiktas.
“I believe Arsenal were after Osimhen as well, and I saw some rumours that Tottenham may have been. He’s at Galatasaray now, I was at Beşiktaş as sporting director there, so I know what he was earning. It’s an enormous amount of money, so that gets into a completely different level of conversation.”
Friedel suggests De Zerbi prioritized the defensive and midfield foundations of his team before addressing the forward line, a sequencing choice that may explain the current drought.
“I think De Zerbi wanted to build the backbone of his team. He likes to build out from the back and likes his center-backs to be able to drive into midfield if he needs them to, so he likes them to be comfortable. I think he was trying to sort out the relationship between his back four and the midfield before he went up front, unless they were trying for strikers and just couldn’t get the deals over the line.”
He does not dismiss the scale of the problem. Three games without a goal is one thing, but the pattern needs correcting fast.
“But that is an area of concern at any time through the season. If you go three, four, or five games without scoring a goal, it’s something you need to address. I’m sure they are trying to address it in training and building confidence in the players they are going to put up front.”
Missing Out on Europe Would Hurt Beyond the Table
Friedel pushes back on the idea that the Europa League or Conference League are unwelcome distractions. Squads like Crystal Palace have shown that thinner rosters can still thrive in continental competition when the club commits to it properly.
“There’s a whole host of reasons you don’t want two years away from Europe. Over the years, people have come up with comments like the Europa League and Europa Conference are a nuisance. I’ve always disagreed with that. I think you always want to be in European competition. Sometimes your squad gets a little bit thin, look at Crystal Palace, who have actually had great success in Europe recently, but you could have a much thinner squad than, let’s say, Man City going into these competitions.”
The financial argument is where Friedel gets most direct. European football is one of only a handful of revenue levers a Premier League club can pull, and losing access to it for multiple seasons would choke Tottenham’s ability to compete in future transfer windows.
“There are only a couple of ways that you can increase your revenue streams as a Premier League club, European competition is one of them, and matchday revenue is another. The thought of not being in Europe for X amount of years, let’s just say three, four, or five, that’ll affect Tottenham’s ability to buy more players in the future and invest more into the club, because when you get into the Champions League especially, it’s an incredible financial resource to be able to invest back into the club.”
He also flags a subtler cost: the type of player a club can attract shifts once European qualification is no longer guaranteed.
“Also, regarding the type of player that you recruit when they expect to be playing in European competition, you are recruiting winners, players that are used to winning, expect to win, and know how to conduct themselves to win. So I think missing out on Europe for another season would not necessarily be a disaster, but I don’t think it would be welcome from the board, put it that way.”
Tottenham face Everton on Saturday sitting 17th, the same slot they occupied at the end of each of the last two campaigns. Twenty years ago almost to the week, Spurs endured a similar four-game scoreless run during the 2006-07 season, a stretch that included a 2-0 home loss to the same opponent. Spurs beat Everton both home and away last term without conceding, and they enter this fixture as favourites to end the drought.
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