Spurs Are Bottom, Broke and Already Losing Players: What Does This Mean for Their Season?

Tottenham are a mess. Two games in, no goals scored, bottom of the Premier League, and now three players publicly asking to leave. For a club that just spent over £300m in a single summer, that is a genuinely alarming start.

Roberto de Zerbi confirmed after the 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle that Richarlison, Kevin Danso and Pape Matar Sarr have all asked to go. And while exits were always likely given the scale of incomings, the timing and the public nature of these requests tells a story.

Three Gone Before August Is Out

Let's be clear about what this actually means. Tottenham's top scorer from last season wants out. Their Austrian international centre-back wants out. And the Senegal midfielder they were reportedly reluctant to sell earlier in the window wants out too.

None of the three were even in the matchday squad against Newcastle. De Zerbi was blunt about it: if they want to leave, they need to bring the economic solution to the club. That's fair enough from a manager's perspective, but it does nothing to paper over the obvious cracks forming in the dressing room.

Richarlison scored 11 goals last season and was arguably the only Spurs player who showed any real fight during their survival scrap. Losing him while the new striker on loan, Omar Marmoush, is still finding his feet at a new club is a genuine risk. Marmoush is talented, but loans come with uncertainty baked in.

The Squad Looks Top-Heavy in Some Areas and Thin in Others

Spurs broke their club transfer record twice in one week. That is a bold statement of intent on paper. Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes arriving in midfield directly pushed Sarr down the pecking order. Marcos Senesi and Jan Paul van Hecke coming in did the same to Danso. Meanwhile Micky van de Ven signed a new deal and got the captaincy.

The rebuild logic is clear enough. De Zerbi wanted his own players and he's got them. The problem is the collateral damage is now very visible and it's happening in public during a run of two straight defeats with zero goals scored.

For football bettors, this kind of squad instability at the start of a season is a major red flag. Tottenham's odds to finish in the top four were already drifting before this week. These exit requests will push them further out. Any accumulator that leans on Spurs performing consistently this autumn deserves a rethink.

Where the Three End Up Matters

Sarr looks likely to join Juventus on a loan with a conditional obligation to buy. Juve are confident of getting the deal done, and that makes sense. English clubs are only offering loans with no purchase clause, and while Besiktas are offering a permanent deal, the appeal of Serie A football and Champions League qualification as a target is hard to beat for a 23-year-old at his stage.

Danso's situation is less clear. Sunderland made a loan offer that Spurs knocked back, which suggests the club still want a fee or better terms than the Championship can offer. He'll move before the window closes, but to where is still open.

Richarlison is the most interesting one. He's been half-out the door for a while now, and De Zerbi's comment that he's said 'too many times' he wants to leave suggests patience has run thin on both sides. A Premier League club or a well-funded European side could still come in for him before the window shuts.

Our Read on Tottenham's Season

This doesn't feel like a club finding its feet under a new manager. It feels like a club in transition that is lurching rather than striding forward.

Spending £300m should buy you stability and direction. Right now Spurs have neither. Zero goals, zero points, three public exit requests and a home defeat to Newcastle in front of their own fans. De Zerbi is the right appointment long-term, we believe that, but the short-term picture is genuinely concerning.

In football terms, Tottenham are worth backing against in the early weeks of the season. Their next fixtures will tell us a lot about whether the squad is actually gelling or whether this summer of spending has just created a crowded, unhappy dressing room with a few very expensive passengers.

Bottom of the table is where Spurs sit right now. Give us a reason to believe it gets better fast, because the evidence so far points the other way.