The Tottenham Hotspur head coach has been able to bring in one of his long-time colleagues to help him at the Premier League club
Roberto De Zerbi has been able to bring one of his trusted staff members to Tottenham after Enrico Venturelli was handed a work permit, football.london understands.
The new Spurs boss normally brings in a large number of staff with him when he joins clubs but had so far only brought two to north London with him in Marcattilio Marcattilii and Marcello Quinto, who joined the Premier League side as fitness coach and senior professional development phase coach respectively.
Now football.london understands that a work permit has finally been granted for Venturelli, who has worked with De Zerbi at his three previous clubs, Marseille, Brighton and Shakhtar Donetsk, as one of his assistant first team coaches. However, the 45-year-old is understood to have joined Spurs in a role that at this point is purely as a translator with no coaching responsibilities, which he will start immediately.
Venturelli speaks Italian, English, Russian and Spanish and has a broad experience base beyond football coaching as he was previously involved with FIFA and UEFA and was a project manager at three different Olympic Games.
The newcomer will ensure De Zerbi can get everything he wants across to his players and the other club staff while also providing support when the Spurs head coach speaks to the media. In press conferences De Zerbi has been using different translators most weeks. The 46-year-old speaks good English but occasionally leans on a translator to fully grasp longer questions.
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De Zerbi kept on previous Tottenham assistant coaches Bruno Saltor and Andreas Georgson when he arrived in N17 as well as individual development coach Cameron Campbell and goalkeeping coach Fabian Otte on his staff, supported by first team academy transition coaches Stuart Lewis and Dean Brill.
Marcattilii has been a constant at De Zerbi’s side throughout his coaching career all the way back to his time at Foggia. The 52-year-old fitness coach then followed him to Palermo, Benevento, Sassuolo, Shakhtar, Brighton and Marseille.
Quinto is a more recent addition to De Zerbi’s staff, having worked with him at Brighton and Marseille as a technical coach. That’s because the 40-year-old only retired in 2020 and coached within Fiorentina’s academy after hanging up his boots. The link comes because Quinto played under the new Spurs boss while at Foggia as a defensive midfielder.
