Guardiola Loves Him: Tottenham Must Hire Eddie Howe if Roberto De Zerbi Leaves

· GiveMeSport

The pressure is mounting on the Italian after a disappointing start to Tottenham's season

Tottenham Hotspur's disappointing start to the season continued as they were beaten 3-2 at home by Aston Villa on Saturday, increasing the pressure on Roberto De Zerbi.

After a £300m+ summer spend and following a positive end to the 2025-26 campaign in terms of performances and results, Tottenham were expected to be fighting towards the top end of the Premier League table again.

Instead, they have taken two points from their opening five matches, with their only two goals coming against Villa on the weekend, and they lie bottom of the top flight standings just months after they escaped relegation to the Championship on the final day of the campaign.

With the club also knocked out of the EFL Cup by Liverpool, the pressure is already mounting on De Zerbi, with Spurs showing little sign of making progress under the Italian this term.

There is no doubt that there were some misses in the summer transfer window despite 10 new faces arriving, with the main one being Liverpool's Cody Gakpo, who ended up staying at Anfield after Manchester City looked to have hijacked the north London outfit's move for the Netherlands international.

Elsewhere, De Zerbi appeared to largely land all the players he wanted, and now he is tasked with getting them to gel together and start performing as quickly as possible.

So far, the likes of Savinho, Mateus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali and Omar Marmoush simply aren't performing to the level they were expected to following big-money transfers.

Immediately after the three-week international break, Tottenham face another club who has made a poor start to the season in Manchester United, with pressure also mounting on Michael Carrick.

An update from former United chief scout Mick Brown claims that both clubs are 'very keen' on Brighton and Hove Albion boss Fabian Hurzeler if they do decide to make a change, with the 33-year-old German just masterminding an impressive 3-0 win against Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, who had a 100% record from their opening seven matches this term.

The young coach would be an intriguing choice, but there is potentially a much better option on the market who would make an immediate impact at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

What Eddie Howe achieved in five years as Newcastle manager was quite incredible.

He arrived at St James' Park in November 2021 with the club 19th in the Premier League table, and looking destined for relegation following a disappointing spell under Steve Bruce.

Magpies fans were furious with the direction of the club at the time and Howe, helped by the investment from PIF, galvanised the whole club.

He led them to safety in 2022 and then the following season, Newcastle finished in fourth position in the Premier League to return to the Champions League for the first time since 2023.

Eddie Howe Record at Newcastle

- Matches: 231 - Wins: 112 - Draws: 48 - Defeats: 71 - Win percentage: 48.5% - Points per game: 1.69 - Goals scored per game: 1.72 - Goals conceded per game: 1.27

The Tyneside outfit were playing exciting football on the front foot, but Howe also proved he knew how to set his teams up to get points in more difficult matches too.

Howe was responsible for some memorable European nights at St James', including beating Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 in 2023, with the French giants going on to win the whole competition since in 2025 and 2026.

Howe has drawn praise from his peers and pundits too, with former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola describing him as 'incredible'.

> "I think as a team, from outside, they make smart decisions. [Anthony] Gordon, Harvey Barnes, now Lewis Hall. They buy what they need in that moment and they know exactly what they have to do. > > Eddie Howe has done an incredible job and it’s a pleasure to watch them. They’ve arrived to stay."

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher clearly agrees with Pep, believing Howe should be the next England manager.

He said:

> "I've championed Eddie Howe as the next England manager. I think he's a wonderful coach, the best English coach by a million miles. > > "I love him to bits. But now that we're four years in, I don't think Eddie Howe can do any more than what he's done at Newcastle."

Howe has proven he can take a big Premier League club from the bottom to the top, and get them performing at the top level in Europe too, and he is the man that Spurs club chiefs must go and appoint if De Zerbi is to leave in the coming weeks.

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