There is a human element behind resistance to this hiring, too. On Friday, several Tottenham fan groups released statements speaking out against the club’s pursuit of De Zerbi on the basis of his relationship with Mason Greenwood.
De Zerbi signed Greenwood during his first transfer window at Marseille in the summer of 2024. The forward was put up for sale by Manchester United having not represented them in two-and-a-half years following an initial arrest in January 2022 after sensitive material was published online. Greenwood was charged with attempted rape, assault and coercive control, but these charges were later dropped following what the Crown Prosecution Service described as a “combination of the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material”. Greenwood was therefore not sent to trial, but what was published leading to his arrest was widely viewed and remembered.
Marseille’s decision to sign Greenwood stirred controversy in France, but De Zerbi threw himself in front of that storm. “I don’t know his background,” De Zerbi blindly said of the player, adding he would treat him and the rest of the squad as if they were his “sons”. De Zerbi sought to downplay knocks on Greenwood’s character at any given opportunity, commenting after his debut goal that he hoped that would become “less of a target for controversy”. He later said Greenwood was a “good person” and one “very different from the one portrayed in England”.
The messages from Spurs’ various supporters associations spoke of a desire to avoid a character like De Zerbi. ‘Proud Lilywhites’, Tottenham’s official LGBTQ+ group, said: “When someone in that position publicly defends a player like Mason Greenwood, and frames it in a way that downplays the seriousness of what happened, it matters, not just in isolation but in what it signals.
“We are proud of the progress that’s been made in making football more inclusive and welcoming. That progress matters, and it cannot be compromised or treated as secondary. We are not asking for perfection. We are asking for accountability, transparency, and leadership that reflects the values this club claims to stand for. All together, always. That has to mean something. No to De Zerbi.”
‘Women of the Lane’, the fans’ association for women, and ‘Spurs REACH’, their race, ethnicity and cultural heritage supporters’ association, echoed similar sentiments with that one clear message – ‘no to De Zerbi’. It shouldn’t be seen as weak or contrarian to not want your football club to have a manager who has acted in this way.
