Maddison credits De Zerbi with saving Spurs from the drop

James Maddison's not holding back. The Tottenham midfielder reckons the club would've gone down without Roberto De Zerbi showing up when he did. Yeah, it was that close.

Spurs were absolutely tanking under Igor Tudor. One point from six games. Genuinely looking at Championship football. Then De Zerbi arrived with seven matches left on the clock, and suddenly the whole thing shifted. Players started believing again. The system clicked. West Ham couldn't keep up.

That 1-0 win over Everton on Sunday did the job — confirmed Spurs would finish above the drop zone. De Zerbi's since racked up three wins, two draws, and two losses in that run. Not flashy numbers, but they were exactly what was needed when it mattered most.

Conor Gallagher's singing the same tune. Both lads are openly saying the manager swap prevented absolute disaster. You don't often hear players go that hard for a boss, which tells you something about how bad it was getting before the change happened.

Meanwhile, Tottenham's also looking to bolster the squad on the cheap. Senesi and Robertson are expected to arrive on free transfers, which makes sense — they've got budget constraints to work with after nearly going down.

De Zerbi's basically become the club's savior in the space of a month. Not many managers walk into that kind of situation and actually pull it off.