Tottenham's Vuskovic Dilemma: De Zerbi's Rebuild Challenges

Tottenham are backing Roberto De Zerbi with hard cash and hard choices. The clearest sign? A £52m deal for Jan Paul van Hecke – and a full-blown dilemma over Luka Vuskovic.

A £35m talent who doesn’t want to wait

Vuskovic is 19, highly rated across Europe and fresh from an eye-catching loan at Hamburg, where he looked every inch one of the continent’s standout young centre-backs. He wants the next step now: a starting role, a proper career, not another suitcase season.

He has made that stance clear. No more loans.

Brighton tested Tottenham’s resolve twice, the latest offer hitting £35m. Spurs said no. For now, that shuts the door on a permanent exit to a club ready to hand him the minutes he craves.

The twist? Brighton are about to send Van Hecke the other way for £52m and, for the moment, have stepped back from the Vuskovic chase. They will not immediately return with a higher bid.

So Vuskovic waits. And watches his path at Spurs narrow.

Fifth in line and no appetite for a loan

On paper, next season looks unforgiving for the Croatian. Van Hecke is coming. Marcos Senesi is already through the door. If Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero stay, Vuskovic drops to fifth choice in the centre-back queue.

Inside the club, there is genuine belief that he can grow into one of the best defenders in the world. That’s the level they see in him. But they also see the gap between potential and Premier League readiness.

The comparison with William Saliba is unavoidable. Arsenal parked Saliba on three separate loans in Ligue 1 before finally unleashing him in north London. The payoff is obvious now: one of the league’s elite defenders, honed away from the spotlight.

Tottenham would love to follow a similar path with Vuskovic. They agree with Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic on one crucial point: he must play regularly. Their solution is simple – another loan. His is simpler still – no.

That stand-off sits right at the heart of this story.

Brighton can offer minutes, not a blank cheque

Brighton, typically shrewd in the market, are the one club in this saga that can actually give Vuskovic what he wants: a starting role in a system that suits young, progressive defenders.

But there is a line they will not cross. They do not want to overpay.

From their side, the logic is clear. They are already about to bank a huge profit on Van Hecke, who cost £1.8m from NAC Breda in 2020 and now goes for around £52m, with a 20 per cent sell-on clause stitched into the deal. That is classic Brighton business: buy smart, develop, sell big, protect the upside.

To then plough an inflated fee straight back into Vuskovic would cut against that model. So they pause. Spurs hold. The teenager sits in the middle, with a career-defining decision hovering over him and no obvious compromise in sight.

This one could drag.

Van Hecke: De Zerbi gets “his” defender

While the Vuskovic situation stalls, the Van Hecke deal surges ahead – and it says everything about Tottenham’s new direction.

The Netherlands international, with one year left on his Brighton contract, only wanted to join Spurs. He has already flourished under De Zerbi once, playing 50 times for him on the south coast between 2023 and 2024, and now gets the reunion he pushed for.

Inside Tottenham, this is being viewed as a statement of trust in De Zerbi. He kept the club in the Premier League. Now he is being handed control and, crucially, the final say on signings.

Van Hecke fits the brief perfectly: calm on the ball, aggressive in stepping out, and adept at taking opponents out of the game with one pass. Much like Senesi, he is a defender built for a coach who wants to start attacks from the penalty area, not the halfway line.

Yes, the price is big. But this is the defender De Zerbi asked for. Tottenham have paid to get him.

The Romero question

All of this inevitably drags Cristian Romero into the spotlight.

On his day, Romero looks like one of the best centre-backs in the world. The problem is how rarely that day seems to come. Injuries, suspensions, and the lingering sense of volatility have limited his availability to something closer to half a season.

Even the end of the last campaign carried a hint of drama, with speculation over whether he would watch the final game from the stands.

Within the club, there is no rush to push him out, but the equation is simple. If a big offer lands, they will have to think about it. The key is size, not sentiment.

And if Van Hecke and Senesi are now viewed as the primary ball-players at the back, the pressure on Romero and Van de Ven grows. They suddenly look more replaceable in terms of what De Zerbi wants with the ball.

De Zerbi’s blueprint: build from the back

You do not need a tactics manual to see where this is going.

De Zerbi wants centre-backs who can play. Not just competent passers – elite progressors. Players who can break lines, bypass presses, and drag a team up the pitch with one decisive ball.

Senesi and Van Hecke are two of the very best in the Premier League at exactly that. Last season, they sat at the top of the charts for bypassing defenders with their passing. Under Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth, Senesi drilled vertical balls through the thirds. At Brighton, Van Hecke absorbed De Zerbi’s high-risk, high-reward demands, building from deep under pressure.

Fabian Hurzeler, another disciple of this style, even highlighted how De Zerbi’s earlier work at Brighton laid the foundations for defenders to take those risks on the ball.

Spurs’ recruitment tells its own story. They have identified a weakness in their first phase of play and moved aggressively to fix it. The numbers support that call: Senesi and Van Hecke operate on a different level to Romero and Van de Ven when it comes to passing.

All of which brings the focus right back to Vuskovic.

A big summer, a bigger call

Tottenham are gearing up for a major window. De Zerbi wants more than just defenders. The club hold a strong interest in Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali and remain keen on Manchester City forward Savinho. The rebuild is wide-ranging and ambitious.

Yet the most delicate decision might involve a 19-year-old who does not want another year on loan.

Spurs believe Vuskovic can be special. They also believe he is not ready to anchor a Premier League defence. Brighton can offer him the role he craves but will not meet Tottenham’s valuation. The player wants to play, the club want to protect an asset, and the manager wants centre-backs who can deliver now.

Something has to give.

Does Vuskovic bend and accept a loan, trusting that the Saliba route will eventually pay off? Do Spurs cash in on a huge offer and risk watching a future world-class defender blossom somewhere else? Or does another club step into the gap and change the landscape entirely?

For De Zerbi, the back line is being rebuilt in his image. For Vuskovic, the question is more brutal: will that rebuild include him, or pass him by?