Man Utd legend Rio Ferdinand sends message to Roberto De Zerbi over Tottenham job offer

Rio Ferdinand says he would turn down Tottenham if he was in Roberto De Zerbi’s position, warning the Italian about the club’s apparent lack of ambition and refusal to ‘spend like a big team’.

De Zerbi has emerged as the clear frontrunner to pick up the pieces following Igor Tudor’s dismissal just 44 days into his disastrous reign in north London.

Relegation-threatened Spurs are keen for De Zerbi to take over on a permanent basis and the former Brighton head coach has reportedly been offered a five-year contract.

According to Sky Sports, talks are progressing at a pace and the 46-year-old is open to the prospect of taking charge despite previously underlining his preference to wait until the summer to consider his options after leaving Marseille.

De Zerbi had been among the leading candidates to manage Tottenham after Ange Postecoglou’s departure at end of the last season, only for Thomas Frank to take over the reins.

The Europa League holders are hovering just one point above the relegation zone following a dismal 3-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest before the international break.

Club bosses are determined to tie down a new manager before the side return to Premier League action away to Sunderland on April 12.

‘Imagine going into a club like Spurs with the stadium, the training ground… imagine the walk-around of the facilities, it’s like the best in class,’ Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel when addressing the messy situation at Spurs.

‘But obviously on the pitch in looks very different.

‘Listen, at the moment I’d be more worried about the hierarchy, I’d be looking into that. Why has it gone so wrong for so many? Big names, new ones… why has this place not been able to kick on?

‘I don’t understand it because they’ve got it all sitting there… are they [the hierarchy] going to be a hinderance to me [Tottenham’s next manager] behind the scenes? Are they going to ruin my reputation even more now? What’s the situation here?’

Though an admirer of De Zerbi, Ferdinand questioned whether taking the Tottenham job would be the right move for the ex-Brighton boss considering the desperate situation the club find themselves in.

‘I’ve always championed De Zerbi, I think he’s a great manager. He’s a thinking manager, he’s always looking for new, innovative ways to build his teams.

‘This might be the perfect time to get him but are Spurs in the right situation for him?’

According to Ferdinand, Tottenham can only be considered a ‘big club’ if they start spending and recruiting on the same scale as their rivals at the opposite end of the Premier League table.

‘I’ve got to be honest, I wouldn’t go to Spurs right now,’ he added.

‘I just think it is a club that’s in such a bad way and there have been far too many managers that have failed there.

‘That’s not the only thing because we can look at lots of clubs like that. But they call themselves a big club or wanting to be a big club, they’re bemused when they’re not mentioned in the big club bracket.

‘But they don’t spend like a big club to attract the biggest players and then they wonder why they’re not in the top echelon of football clubs in that sense, when you look at them on the pitch and their output.’

Asked which members of Tottenham’s current squad could thrive under De Zerbi’s management, Ferdinand replied: ‘I actually couldn’t tell you, I couldn’t tell you.

‘I thought [Micky] van de Ven was going to be a top centre-half. Is it him or is it the lack of stability at the football club or the tactics, the way the team is being set up that’s making him look bad? I don’t know.

‘I can go through so many players… I spoke to Carlo Ancelotti when he was the Everton manager and he had Richarlison there and he said this kid would play for a Real Madrid or a team like that, a category A club in Europe at some point.

‘He couldn’t be further away from it if he tried right now. Is that down to him [Richarlison] or is that down to the environment that he’s in at Spurs?

‘There are far too many players that are underachieving with their quality from what we’ve seen before.’

Ferdinand picked out Xavi Simons as another example of a player who has regressed at Tottenham, saying the Dutchman ‘looks a shadow of himself’ since arriving in English football.

‘Look at Xavi Simons at the Euros, he was brilliant for the Netherlands and his club football, he was flying,’ the ex-Manchester United and England defender went on.

‘He’s gone to Spurs and he looks a shadow of himself, confidence has dropped, the environment is sucking the life out of these players.

‘James Maddison has obviously had a lot of injuries but he wasn’t the Maddison of Leicester, pulling up trees and getting them out of situations consistently all the time.’

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