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Tottenham Hotspur simply have no margin for error when it comes to the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi.
Spurs are set to hire the former Brighton & Hove Albion boss after parting ways with Igor Tudor on Sunday, with the club one point above the Premier League relegation zone and just seven games of the season remaining.
Article continues below'Baffling': Roberto De Zerbi's start to life at former club is a warning to Tottenham Hotspur
Tudor lasted just seven games as Tottenham manager and De Zerbi has the same number of matches to turn around the fortunes of a side that remain without a league victory in 2026.
Between now and the end of the campaign, Spurs face trips to Sunderland, Wolves, Aston Villa and Chelsea, as well as home fixtures against Brighton, Leeds United and Everton.
It is still almost a fortnight until the clash with Sunderland on Sunday, April 12, giving De Zerbi plenty of time to work with his new squad at the training ground - and his first few weeks at Brighton suggests that could be crucial.
The Italian took time to get his message across after arriving at the Amex Stadium in September 2022, with the Seagulls taking just two points from his first five games in charge as the players struggled to adapt to his demanding tactical methods.
"If I am being honest, the first couple of weeks were horrendous," Brighton captain Lewis Dunk told the Telegraph in 2023.
"I wouldn't say horrendous; they were baffling. The first meeting when he went in, I was so confused – who to look at, what to listen to, and you slowly pick up. Basically, don't listen to the manager, wait for the translator to speak, and you get there in the end.
"Training changed dramatically. We worked on a lot of different stuff and the first couple of weeks were a really hard transition. We were fourth in the league when Graham [Potter] left and we were flying with him and it was a strange time for him to go and then Roberto came in and it was a carnage two weeks."
De Zerbi finally tasted victory in his sixth game in charge of Brighton, a 4-1 win over Chelsea - managed by Graham Potter, who left the Seagulls to pave the way for his successor's arrival - and they followed that with a 3-2 victory at Wolves before going on to finish sixth in the Premier League in 2022/23, qualifying for the Europa League.
He will have to improve on that tally of eight points from his opening seven matches if he is to steer Spurs away from relegation danger, but the manner in which the 46-year-old started his other recent jobs is more encouraging.
De Zerbi left Brighton in May 2024 and took over at Marseille that summer, kicking off his tenure with a 5-1 thrashing of Brest as he claimed 14 points from his first seven games in charge of the Ligue 1 giants.
That set the club on course for a second-place finish last term, a big improvement on their lowly position of eighth in 2023/24. De Zerbi had a similarly positive impact at Shakhtar Donetsk, arriving in July 2021 and winning six of his opening seven matches across all competitions, with his side top of the Ukrainian Premier League when the season was abandoned the following February due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He also made an impressive start at Italian club Sassuolo, claiming five victories and a draw in the first seven games of the 2018/19 season, including a 1-0 triumph over Inter Milan on the opening day of the Serie A campaign.
The less said the better about his first two jobs at Serie A strugglers Palermo and Benevento, though. De Zerbi picked up five points from his opening seven fixtures in charge of the Sicilian outfit in 2016, before managing only a single point in the same period at the latter club one year later.
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