De Zerbi's Tottenham side were widely seen as the ultimate dark horse for the upcoming Premier League season. For the first time ever, at least in the modern era, Spurs appeared to be behaving like a genuinely huge club in the transfer market, putting together a record-breaking window and spending enormous amounts of money on quality players.
Tottenham brought in the likes of Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Van Hecke, Senesi, Marmoush and Savinho for significant fees, seemingly giving Roberto De Zerbi the squad required to compete at the highest level. The expectation was clear: Spurs had finally built a team capable of challenging the established Premier League giants.
Fast forward to the present, however, and the start to the season has been nothing short of disastrous. Tottenham suffered a huge 3-0 loss from Brentford and then fell 2-0 to Newcastle. Three games, three defeats and no points have immediately turned optimism into concern.
With Nottingham Forest away next, another defeat could put enormous pressure on De Zerbi. It may even lead to premature calls for the Italian to be sacked.
But beneath Tottenham's disappointing start is a fascinating problem that has a surprising connection to Cristiano Ronaldo's time at Juventus.
When Cristiano Ronaldo Was Simply Unstoppable
The Messi versus Ronaldo debate will probably continue forever, and many would ultimately give Lionel Messi the edge when looking at their careers as a whole. But there was a period when Cristiano Ronaldo was arguably the best footballer on the planet and perhaps even ahead of Messi.
That was during his extraordinary Real Madrid years.
Ronaldo became the ultimate Champions League player, earning the nickname "Mr Champions League" because of his incredible ability to produce when the stakes were highest. Night after night in Europe, he seemed capable of dragging Real Madrid over the line almost single-handedly.
So when he made his shock move to Juventus in 2018, the expectation was enormous.
Many believed Ronaldo's arrival would finally give Juventus the missing ingredient required to win the Champions League. After all, this was a player who had dominated Europe's biggest competition for years. If anybody could take Juventus to the promised land, surely it was Ronaldo.
Yet it never happened.
Ronaldo Wasn't the Problem at Juventus
Ronaldo's Juventus spell can reasonably be considered a failure because the club never won the Champions League during his time there. But anyone who watched him closely would know that the Portuguese superstar himself had not suddenly become a different player.
Give Ronaldo the service, and he would still score.
Give him an important Champions League night, and he would still raise his level.
There were numerous occasions when Ronaldo produced decisive performances for Juventus in Europe, just as he had done at Real Madrid. His motivation was never really the issue.
The bigger problem was that Juventus didn't always have the same collective mentality as Real Madrid.
During the later stages of Champions League campaigns, Ronaldo could often be seen demanding more from his teammates, trying desperately to push the team forward. Yet there were moments when the players around him simply did not appear to possess the same urgency or hunger.
This was a completely different environment from Real Madrid, where Ronaldo was surrounded by players who had experienced winning at the highest level and understood exactly what was required on Champions League nights.
The quality of Juventus' squad was also inferior to the Real Madrid team Ronaldo had left behind.
Ultimately, Juventus didn't just need Ronaldo. They needed to build a team around Ronaldo that shared his obsession with winning.
And that brings us directly to Tottenham.
Tottenham Have Quality, But Do They Have a Winning Mentality?
Bringing in quality players is only one part of building a successful football team.
The second, and perhaps more difficult, part is creating a winning culture.
Tottenham have undoubtedly added plenty of talent. But talent and winning mentality are not necessarily the same thing.
Look at the players Spurs have signed. Many are excellent footballers, but how many have actually been central figures in winning Premier League titles or Champions League trophies?
Andy Robertson is perhaps the clearest exception.
The Scottish left-back has won virtually everything with Liverpool and has experienced the pressure of title races, Champions League finals and the expectation that comes with playing for a club where anything less than winning can be considered a disappointment.
Others, despite possessing enormous potential, don't necessarily have that same experience.
Marmoush and Savinho have been associated with a Manchester City side that has won major trophies, but being part of a successful squad is different from being one of the primary driving forces behind those victories. Matheus Fernandes and several of Tottenham's other arrivals have also not experienced winning trophies at club level.
That matters.
De Zerbi's Biggest Challenge Isn't Tactics
De Zerbi's immediate challenge is obviously to fix Tottenham's performances. But his biggest long-term job could be something much deeper than tactics or formations.
He needs to create a winner's mentality.
Tottenham can have excellent players, sophisticated tactics and expensive signings, but none of those things automatically create the mentality required to become a truly elite club.
The players need to develop a mentality of "We have to win this game at all costs."
More importantly, they need to genuinely care about taking Tottenham to the top.
That cannot simply be ordered by a manager.
Players need to fall in love with the club, understand its culture and eventually feel personally responsible for changing the perception surrounding Spurs.
For years, Tottenham have been the subject of the "Spursy" label and endless jokes about whether they can actually be considered a top club. The only way to permanently eliminate that banter is for the players themselves to develop an unshakeable belief that Tottenham belong among Europe's elite.
Can De Zerbi Change Tottenham's Culture?
This is where the comparison with Ronaldo's Juventus becomes particularly interesting.
Ronaldo possessed an almost obsessive desire to win. But one player, regardless of how good he is, cannot manufacture an entire team's mentality.
Tottenham now have something Juventus often lacked during Ronaldo's Champions League campaigns: the opportunity to build that mentality from the beginning of a new project.
De Zerbi has the quality.
He has the financial backing.
He has the squad.
Now he needs to create the belief.
And that may be the hardest task of all.
Throughout football history, very few managers have genuinely transformed the culture of a club and created a sustainable winning mentality. In the modern era, Jurgen Klopp is perhaps the clearest example, doing it at both Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.
De Zerbi now faces a similar challenge at Tottenham.
If he succeeds, we could eventually see a completely different Spurs, a team that no longer simply talks about becoming a big club but genuinely behaves like one.
If he fails, however, the enormous investment in the squad could ultimately become irrelevant.
Because Tottenham's biggest problem may not be a lack of quality.
It may be that they still don't want it badly enough.