It is late in the evening of November 30, 2023, and Roberto De Zerbi is the only man sitting on the Brighton & Hove Albion team coach as it idles in the car park beneath the Agia Sophia Stadium, where his team have just beaten AEK Athens 1-0 in a group stage game in the Europa League.De Zerbi has completed all his post-match duties. He has spoken to the media and he has addressed his players in the aftermath of the game. Now he has moved on. The rest of the Brighton party is still to board but De Zerbi is already on the bus with his laptop open and the glare of the screen lighting up his face in the darkness.All who know him know that De Zerbi is a football obsessive and the game against AEK is gone for him now. He has started to prepare for the Premier League match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a few days later. Only when he feels he has done the work he needs to do does he pull his hoodie low down over his face and fall into a cocoon of sleep.Much is made of the Tottenham Hotspur manager’s irascibility and combustibility but the boss whose presence at the helm of the team has led to predictions that Spurs will leave the travails of the last couple of seasons behind them has other defining characteristics that mark him out as a stellar talent.Hard work is far from the least of those. He is also relentlessly demanding and intolerant of those who are reluctant to meet those demands. Sometimes, that can manifest itself in a stream of complaints about faults he feels must be rectified. And that does not just apply to faults on the pitch. ‘A failure to meet expectation elicits a response,’ one former colleague remembers. Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi is relentlessly demanding and intolerant of those who are reluctant to meet those demands But the Italian also has a softer side. ‘He takes time to check in on staff and their families,’ a source tells Daily Mail SportAnother former colleague at a club abroad remembers a time when De Zerbi grew irate because a coffee machine at the training ground had stopped working. ‘He wanted it fixed and he wanted it fixed now,’ the colleague says. ‘Not tomorrow. Now. He wants things to be right. He is a perfectionist in everything he does.’Some felt, when he arrived at Spurs, that his impatience might create even more divisions at the club and that the egos of the players were already too fragile and too damaged to cope with his abrasive style. They pointed to the widely-shared footage of De Zerbi clashing with Marseille player Ismael Kone when he was coach of the French club.De Zerbi was furious that Kone had held on to the ball for too long in a drill that was aimed at taking fewer touches and screamed at him. Kone began to walk off the training pitch. ‘Call your agent,’ De Zerbi yelled at him. The two men had to be separated before they came to blows.That was not the only controversy De Zerbi courted at Marseille. He was resolute in his defence of Mason Greenwood, the former Manchester United forward, who was arrested in January 2022 and later charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.The charges were later dropped but it is unlikely that Greenwood, who now plays for Turkish side Fenerbahce, will ever play in England again. De Zerbi inherited him as a player at Marseille and said: ‘I regret what happened in his life because I know someone different from what’s being described, especially in England.’When he arrived at Spurs, aware of the backlash, he qualified his comments. ‘I have never wanted to downplay the issue of violence against women, or violence against anyone more broadly,’ De Zerbi said. ‘In my life, I’ve always stood up for those who are more vulnerable, more fragile.’De Zerbi has already made a hugely positive impact at Spurs, starting with saving them from the approaching catastrophe of relegation from the Premier League last season and beginning to rebuild a sense of togetherness at the club that had been eroded by bad decisions and bad attitudes. When he was Marseille manager De Zerbi was resolute in his defence of Mason Greenwood, the former Manchester United forward De Zerbi’s charm helped Spurs seal the £100m capture of Sandro Tonali from NewcastleHe refused to indulge the negativity that had consumed the club and which redoubled when Spurs lost their first game under his charge against Sunderland in April. ‘I saw the players after Sunderland in the dressing room,’ De Zerbi recalled. ‘I didn’t tell you in the press conference, but it was like this: all people crying, lying down on the floor in the dressing room. I said, “We pass away?” and I tried to transfer positivity.’He spoke on the club’s pre-season tour to Australia of an evening at a Mayfair restaurant, Bacchanalia, he organised for players and staff near the end of last season when the prospect of the Championship was still beckoning. He spoke of the restorative benefits of a few glasses of wine on team morale.His reputation and his charm undoubtedly helped Spurs seal the £100million close-season capture of Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United. Tonali was one of the most coveted midfielders in the Premier League. There was no real reason why he should choose a club that finished 17th above other suitors. No real reason except the presence of De Zerbi.Spurs have made other eye-catching purchases, too. Finally, there is a feeling of optimism about the team and a feeling that they have a manager who has the ability and the standing in the game to lead them back towards a place among the elite that their magnificent stadium deserves.That sense of togetherness at a club renowned for factionalism was also underlined earlier this month when De Zerbi hosted a lunch at the club training ground for Spurs greats that included Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Hughton, Clive Allen and Graham Roberts. De Zerbi hosted a lunch at Tottenham’s training ground for club greats that included Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle and Les Ferdinand ‘He is intense but he is intense in a good way,’ says a source. ‘He sets high standards. He wants people to be the best they can be’It was a good thing to do and it was the right thing to do but it was also a smart thing to do. When things are not going well, ex-players are often used as litmus paper by the media to reflect the mood. If their comments are not favourable, it can increase pressure on a club. It is much better to have them inside the tent.De Zerbi made his reputation with Sassuolo and achieved two eighth-place finishes in Serie A with them before moving on to Shakhtar Donetsk and cementing his attacking, possession-based style that made a virtue of baiting the opponents’ press and drawing them out of position.By the time he left Shakhtar in the summer of 2022 because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was regarded as one of the brightest of young coaches. When news came through that Brighton had appointed him their manager, I was with Craig Bellamy, the now Wales boss. ‘Clever ba*****s,’ Bellamy said.Like a lot of managers, De Zerbi likes to moan. He works hard to get everything he wants for his players. He works best when there is a buffer between him and the owner and if there is a worry about his tenure at Spurs, it is that there may be no one with the emotional intelligence to act as that go-between.‘He is intense but he is intense in a good way,’ an executive who has worked with De Zerbi says. ‘He sets high standards. He wants people to be the best they can be and who are prepared to invest energy in the project.‘He is intolerant of players who will not conform to what he wants. If you do not show the talent and the attitude he requires, he will cut you off. ‘Maybe there is a popular perception that he bangs tables and shouts but he is a lot more subtle than that. He is a top coach: innovative, clever, highly-respected, ruthless.‘He takes time to check in on staff and their families. When he was here, there was a member of staff whose son had just had an operation and Roberto often checked on his progress. He is surrounded by a coterie of Italians but they are all incredibly nice people. At Spurs, they will speak English when they are together, not Italian. They are inclusive.’ ‘This guy,’ Pep Guardiola once announced about De Zerbi, ‘this guy is the No 1’If there is optimism at Spurs this season after consecutive 17th-place finishes, it is because of the new boss and the signings he has made and the impact he has had, not just on the playing staff, but in the wider club. Spurs have secured the services of one of the best coaches in the world, a man supporters can put their faith in.There is a story about the penultimate league game of the 2022-23 season after De Zerbi’s Brighton side had scored a late equaliser to draw 1-1 with Manchester City, who had already been crowned champions. For some time after the match, De Zerbi and Pep Guardiola sat alone in the home dressing room at the Amex, chatting.It was an exchange that stressed their mutual admiration. ‘This guy,’ Guardiola announced to someone who walked in, ‘this guy is the No 1.’ If things had worked out differently, it might be De Zerbi in the hot seat at City now. Instead, Spurs got lucky.