Tottenham Hotspur fans have already witnessed Roberto De Zerbi drag their side clear of relegation trouble in the Premier League. They have seen the passion in his touchline demeanour and warmed to the energy he brings. But the true De Zerbi identity, the one built on relentless ball-playing courage, has been kept in reserve. Now Spurs supporters must brace themselves for the genuine article.
Everything begins at the back for De Zerbi, and the player best placed to translate his ideas onto the pitch is Jan Paul van Hecke. The Dutch defender arrived from Brighton for £52m, and the fee reflects more than raw ability. Van Hecke already understands De Zerbi's methods intimately, having worked under him before.
According to Reuters, De Zerbi has said that fixing mentality and spirit is the key to reviving Tottenham's fortunes, and he confirmed that Van Hecke was among the summer signings already integrated into pre-season training. The same report noted that Spurs are attempting to bounce back after two seasons stuck near the bottom of the Premier League table.
The depth of the relationship between manager and defender runs deeper still. The Athletic reported on 7 August that De Zerbi had described Van Hecke as his \"son\" while discussing bringing the centre-back to north London, a telling sign of how highly the Italian rates him. BBC Sport has since confirmed Van Hecke has already been involved on Tottenham's pre-season tour alongside the club's other high-profile new arrivals.
That matters because the unfiltered version of De Zerbi's football is notoriously demanding, even for seasoned professionals. Lewis Dunk, Van Hecke's old centre-back partner at Brighton, has admitted he felt completely disorientated in the opening weeks of De Zerbi's reign on the south coast.
Anatoliy Trubin, De Zerbi's goalkeeper during his time at Shakhtar Donetsk, described a similar experience when he spoke about team-mates having to almost strip away everything they thought they knew about the game.
"He opened a new way of playing," Trubin told Sky Sports.
James Milner believed he had encountered every kind of football education imaginable. He was schooled by Terry Venables and Sir Bobby Robson as a teenager, then lifted the Premier League title under Manuel Pellegrini and later Jurgen Klopp. Yet De Zerbi still offered him something new.
Milner told Sky Sports that De Zerbi helped him grasp "how a team plays and why it happens" in a way no previous manager had managed.
"He wanted each player in this exact position and to time their movements," Milner said.
"Finding that free man and how you do that is something that you have maybe done a lot in your career but not realised you were doing it. And then, [working with De Zerbi] pieces together exactly how that works and gives you a deeper understanding again."
Spurs players will have endured an intense pre-season as a result, particularly those tasked with building attacks from deep. What looks like spontaneous, free-flowing football is in fact the result of carefully drilled patterns, repeated over and over on the training ground until they become instinctive.
De Zerbi does not tolerate deviation from the plan. Trubin recalled one particular flashpoint from his own experience under the Italian.
"I remember one situation, I played a good ball, but it was not the way how we need to do it and he screamed a lot," Trubin said. "So he demands, he wants, that everyone knows their role, how we need to play, one idea from the team."
It is not merely about making the correct movement but making it at precisely the right moment. Dunk has explained that Brighton's players were coached to anticipate every scenario, know exactly where pressure would come from, and understand how to open passing lanes that would unlock that pressure before it arrived.
All of which explains why Van Hecke, now 26 and with more than 100 Premier League appearances behind him, is far more than simply a talented player entering his peak years. He is a crucial piece if De Zerbi hopes to embed his philosophy quickly.
Van Hecke's transfer history and Brighton roots
The Athletic reported that Van Hecke's move to Tottenham was agreed in June, despite the defender having a Brighton contract that was not due to expire until June 2027. The same report noted that he was expected to be reunited with De Zerbi, having played under him at Brighton between 2022 and 2024.
BBC Sport also noted that Tottenham had missed out on other defensive targets before eventually landing Van Hecke, which only underlines just how important this particular signing was considered within De Zerbi's rebuilding project.
Adapting to the bravery on the ball that De Zerbi demands is no simple task, but it happens to be one of Van Hecke's greatest strengths. In last season's Premier League he ranked second for passes attempted from open play and second for accurate switches of play, combining volume with genuine range.
His progressive passing, driving the ball through the pitch as well as across it, is something De Zerbi has praised repeatedly, highlighting the balance Van Hecke strikes between arrogance and control in his distribution. He is not afraid to attempt the difficult pass that splits opposition lines.
"He is a strong, intelligent centre-back who is brave in possession and plays with personality," De Zerbi said upon completing the signing. "Those are important qualities for the way I want our team to set up."
But it is the way Van Hecke gets himself into those advanced positions that sets him apart. In terms of raw output, he is arguably an even bigger statistical outlier than Erling Haaland, and it all comes down to a single metric.
Van Hecke is, above all else, a ball carrier, and not just by the modest standards typically expected of a centre-back. He carried the ball forward on 597 separate occasions in last season's Premier League. His closest rivals across the entire competition were Declan Rice, Bernardo Silva and Jeremy Doku.
When it comes specifically to carries made under pressure from an opponent, Doku edged narrowly ahead of Van Hecke, which is understandable given that defences are far more willing to let a centre-back advance with the ball than a winger operating in dangerous territory.
Yet this only widens the gap between Van Hecke and every other defender in the division. He completed 315 pressured carries last season, a full 133 more than any other centre-back in the Premier League. He simply approaches the role differently to his peers.
The end result was that Van Hecke carried the ball a staggering 10.66 kilometres with it at his feet across the course of last season. That is more than four kilometres further than anyone else in the competition, and roughly double the distance covered by everyone bar England's Marc Guehi and Ezri Konsa.
Spurs supporters should notice the difference quickly. With Marcos Senesi similarly progressive in his passing, and Van Hecke committing opponents unlike any other defender in the league, De Zerbi finally has the raw material to build a team capable of playing through all three thirds of the pitch. Having already kept Tottenham up, De Zerbi ball is back in business.
Van Hecke is not the only significant arrival this summer. Alongside him, Tottenham have also brought in Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Andrew Robertson and Martin Dubravka, according to Reuters, as De Zerbi looks to overhaul a squad that has struggled near the foot of the table for two consecutive seasons. Fernandes, signed for £85million from West Ham, has already made an eye-catching impact, scoring on his Tottenham debut with a volley against MK Dons in a match Manchester United reportedly watched despite deciding against bidding for him themselves, as detailed in our earlier coverage of Mateus Fernandes's stunning Tottenham debut.
What happens next for Tottenham
Tottenham begin their Premier League campaign away at Brentford on 22 August 2026, according to Reuters and ESPN. That will be followed by a Carabao Cup tie against Charlton Athletic on 26 August 2026, before Spurs return to Premier League action at home to Newcastle United on 29 August 2026, both fixtures confirmed by ESPN's schedule.
Watch Brentford vs Tottenham Hotspur live on Saturday Night Football on Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm; kick-off 5.30pm.
