Jan Paul van Hecke was among those given an unwanted name-check by Roberto De Zerbi after Tottenham’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford on Saturday. Not at the right level physically, was the gist of the manager’s comments. De Zerbi also mentioned Marcos Senesi and Sandro Tonali, two more of the club’s new signings.
Their condition had to come as no surprise. It certainly did not to De Zerbi. Take the case of Van Hecke, for whom the summer months have been a whirlwind.
A few bullet-points from his timeline are worth noting. 18 June: joins Spurs from Brighton for £52m; 30 June: knocked out of World Cup with the Netherlands after last-32 penalty shootout defeat to Morocco; 23 July: boards team flight with Spurs for pre-season tour to New Zealand and Australia. My first days [as a Spurs player] were in New Zealand and Australia.” The centre-half had never been to New Zealand and Australia and he enjoyed the experience, getting a good feeling from the welcome there. Van Hecke was struck by the fans’ passion as well.
The fallout from the downside continues to be felt. Normally you don’t go there and now you see that they also love football. That’s something good.” Whose idea was such a far-flung tour in a World Cup summer?
Definitely not De Zerbi’s. He inherited the schedule when he came to the club in late March and has done a fair bit of grumbling about it. The day after [matches] we couldn’t work in the right condition.” There appears to have been something of a quid pro quo arrangement with De Zerbi, who wanted to use the summer to close ranks and train.
Just hard graft and tactical work. Spurs’ final game of the three on tour was against Chelsea in Sydney on 1 August. The club then arranged three further friendlies – against Getafe at the training ground in Enfield on 8 August before a double-header against Hoffenheim.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
