Why this break has come at the worst time for De Zerbi & Spurs

Big spending always means big ambitions, but shelling out so much money on so many players the way Tottenham did this summer produces problems for any manager, and there is no quick fix.

If I was given a bundle of cash and asked to buy an outfit for a wedding, and I spent every penny of it on pink shoes, brown trousers, yellow shirt and orange tie, then I am sure you would all say that just doesn't work.

That is similar to what has happened at Spurs, where the board backed Roberto de Zerbi to the hilt with an outlay on new players of around £400m.

It was an almost unprecedented occurrence from a club that has always been renowned for being careful with investment in their team, and it sent expectations from many Spurs supporters through the roof.

The club had just avoided relegation two seasons running, finishing 17th twice in a row, but suddenly some fans were looking forward to a season competing for trophies and a top-four finish.

Their early results and performances have been disappointing, of course, but fans have to understand all the different factors that affect you when you are building a team - and it is ridiculous to suggest De Zerbi should be under pressure already, especially after he kept them up last season.

Let's give De Zerbi a chance

Finding a way for your club to win takes a manager in lots of different directions but they all involve time - on the grass or with social interaction with the players.

Not only has De Zerbi not been given that early time and opportunity, the majority of his players have now been taken away from him for another three weeks on international duty.

De Zerbi has many other issues to deal with, from Tottenham's poor home form to their inability to recover from conceding the first goal in games.

But his biggest challenge right now will be to fit those players who have just arrived in with the ones already at the club, into a unit that plays as a team and produces results so that the money the club has spent is justified.

All of this will take time, and patience, and all the kinds of little detail that supporters never see.

In my day, we were given time to create a team, and a family. For today's managers, time seems more limited than ever.

We are only five games into the season but there are already some Spurs fans who seem to think De Zerbi is the worst manager in the world, even though he has proved elsewhere how good he is.

I like De Zerbi's passion, and his approach. That will count for nothing if Spurs don't eventually produce, but let's give him a proper chance.

Combinations can take time to click

De Zerbi is a very passionate, straight-talking and ambitious manager who demands total commitment and backing from his board.

He has definitely had that at Spurs, which has left people wondering why he has made such a slow start.

But, before the season started, I thought his biggest challenge with so many different types of players arriving would be to put players together that fit as a team, not as a group of individuals.

I've been in that situation myself, for example in my early days at Stoke, when I signed Gerry Taggart and Michael Duberry to play together, two centre-halves who were complete opposites in relation to how they dealt with space on the pitch.

Gerry always wanted to drop off deeper because he wasn't overly quick, whereas Michael was fast and didn't ever worry about leaving space behind him.

I couldn't make Gerry any quicker, so common sense locked in and I had to convince Michael that he would have to take a step away from his main strengths of pace and power and work along Gerry's lines instead.

We spent a great deal of time on the grass in training until we finally got both working in unison. Both were different, but they understood the importance of working together as a pair for the benefit of the team. Even so, it still took time for it to click.

For any manager trying to build a successful team by developing combinations like that, the main thing you need is time with your players.

It can happen where a lot of new players settle in quickly at the same time and the team starts well - like Sunderland last season, or Brighton pretty much every year when they have lost several key players - but the difference is that while those clubs might also have changed their manager, they have not changed their identity.

Whether it is Sunderland and Brighton, or Brentford and Bournemouth, they all have a set identity so that when they look for a player to fit in a certain position, he has to have certain strengths.