Roberto De Zerbi is hopeful that Djed Spence will stay at Tottenham but will not stand in the way of any player that wants to leave the club.
Spence has been linked with a move to Serie A giants Inter after impressing for England at the World Cup.
The full-back appeared in all eight of the Three Lions’ games as they took bronze in North America, losing 2-1 to Argentina in the semi-finals before beating France 6-4 in the third-place play-off.
Despite four of his appearances coming as a substitute, Spence attempted (19) and won (11) the second-most tackles among Thomas Tuchel’s squad, with only Elliot Anderson (18/21) bettering those figures.
Spence also ranked joint-second among all England players for interceptions (six) and joint-third for successful dribbles (six).
And, speaking to reporters in Australia following Wednesday’s penalty shoot-out win over Sydney FC in a pre-season friendly, De Zerbi said his stance on Spence was the same as that he adopted regarding Lucas Begvall – who reportedly wants to leave for a new challenge.
“I repeat what I said to Djed, and to Lucas,” De Zerbi said.
“I would like you to stay if you want to stay. If you don’t want to stay, if you want to leave, then you have to leave.”
One player who does look set to leave is Cristian Romero, after Spurs added Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi to their list of defensive options.
Romero was criticised by Spurs’ supporters over his initial decision not to attend their final game of last season, which could have seen them relegated to the Championship, only to perform a U-turn following that backlash.
De Zerbi will not keep the Argentine against his will, saying: “At the beginning of my time in April, I had, I don’t know, one million individual meetings.
“And the players told me if they are [staying] here.
“I said, ‘help me to stay up, and then I help you to leave. If you don’t help me to stay up, you stay underwater with me.'”
Tottenham have been one of the Premier League’s busiest clubs in the transfer market, completing big-money deals for midfield duo Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes as well as signing Van Hecke, Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka.
But De Zerbi feels there is still more to come and has hinted that a big attacking signing is imminent, amid links to Bradley Barcola and Marcus Rashford, among other forwards.
He said: “The transfer market is not finished for sure, but we have completed 60% of our project. Now we have another ‘bomba’.
“I don’t love working with plan A, plan B, plan C. It is plan A, full stop, because all players are not the same. We have to increase the number of goals.”
Spurs’ next pre-season friendly is against Chelsea on Saturday, with Spence among the players yet to be reintegrated into their squad following the World Cup.
