"I would like that he stays with us. I think he's potentially a top top top player." Roberto De Zerbi doesn't hand out that kind of praise lightly — and yet Lucas Bergvall's future at Tottenham is still completely open.
The 20-year-old Swedish midfielder entered the summer wanting out. His camp told Spurs he was after regular minutes and a proper role, frustrations boiling over from a season where he was rarely used as a number eight and barely used at all as the campaign wore on. Nottingham Forest and Newcastle came knocking. Spurs turned both away.
A midfield that doesn't easily have room for Bergvall
Here's the tension De Zerbi can't quite talk his way around: Tottenham have just spent £185 million on Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali to be their central midfield spine. Add Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Matar Sarr, Conor Gallagher, and Archie Gray to the mix, and you're looking at six established options ahead of a player who won the supporters' Player of the Year vote in his debut season. Bergvall is good enough. The queue is just very, very long.
De Zerbi has made a point of playing him throughout the preseason tour of New Zealand and Australia. He's backed his words with minutes. But Bergvall's camp has privately acknowledged what the manager won't say out loud — that preseason opportunities don't automatically survive contact with a 38-game season.
Reports linking Bergvall to Barcelona, the club he snubbed to join Spurs in 2024, have been dismissed by those close to him. He's apparently not looking backwards. He signed a six-year deal last summer and has come back from the World Cup with Sweden in a positive headspace, committed to pushing for his place rather than forcing a move.
The transfer window still has three weeks left
That professionalism is admirable. Whether it's enough to change the arithmetic is another matter.
Spurs have no intention of letting him go cheap — valuations in his circle put a fee north of £60 million on the table. That price keeps him safe from opportunistic bids and probably rules out most clubs willing to hand him the starring role he's after. The window closes in three weeks and nothing has moved.
De Zerbi confirmed Bergvall has never personally told him he wants to leave. "We are speaking better, face to face," he said, suggesting last season's disconnect — under the previous coaching setup — has thawed. That matters. A player who trusts his manager is easier to retain than one who feels invisible.
But trust doesn't manufacture minutes. Bergvall is going to need De Zerbi to actually rotate him into meaningful matches once the season starts — not just talk about his potential. If Tonali and Fernandes hit the ground running as the first-choice pairing, Bergvall's spot in the XI becomes theoretical. And for any club tracking him with a view to a January move, Spurs' midfield depth chart is worth watching closely. A frustrated Bergvall in December is a very different proposition to a confident one in July.
For now, De Zerbi's message is clear enough: "He can find the space if he stays with us. Tottenham is already, without me, a top club and we are not to convince anyone to stay."
That's a coach who wants him — but isn't about to beg.
