Roberto De Zerbi confirmed what Tottenham fans suspected about Jan Paul van Hecke

Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi has dug his heels in and signed some belters for the club this summer as he pursues returning Spurs to the top five of the Premier League table and the resumption of Champions League football for one of the 10 biggest clubs in the world today.

De Zerbi's additions of Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali in the midfield will help the team the most, but Spurs supporters are not sleeping on Jan Paul van Hecke, whom De Zerbi insisted on signing as a replacement in the starting lineup for captain Cristian Romero, who is 100 percent leaving this summer transfer window.

Van Hecke and De Zerbi had a close relationship together at Brighton when Van Hecke played the best football of his career, and it seems like he was quite energized by his move to Spurs, playing at an elite level this summer at the World Cup for the Netherlands after his whopping 60 million euro transfer (despite only having a year left on his contract) was announced.

Spurs fans are rooting for Van Hecke

There were rumors that Roberto De Zerbi and Jan Paul van Hecke are so close that the Italian manager thinks of the player as a son to him, and the Italian manager actually corroborated that information himself while speaking to the press during Tottenham's preseason festivities.

De Zerbi said, via Hostpur Lane, that Van Hecke "is like my son," sealing the fact that the 26 year old center back will be playing a massive role for Tottenham Hotspur in the 2026/27 Premier League season alongside his fellow Dutch national team starter Micky van de Ven.

Van Hecke is not a world class center back, but he has shown flashes of that ability for Brighton and was honestly on a trajectory close to that before De Zerbi ended up leaving Brighton in another one of his infamous blow ups.

Tottenham are hoping that De Zerbi can get the most out of Van Hecke, who certainly looked like a top center back during the World Cup with record breaking passing quality on the ball and some hard nosed, aggressive defense that may mean there is little drop off between himself and Argentina's serial winner Cristian Romero (well, serial winner until this year).

Spurs have signed players De Zerbi believes in, and they have not backed a manager like this before. So hearing De Zerbi confirm and wax poetic about his new star additions is wonderful and music to the ears of Spurs supporters.

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This article was originally published on hotspurhq.com as Roberto De Zerbi confirmed what Tottenham fans suspected about Jan Paul van Hecke.