Rio Ferdinand has warned “thinking manager” Roberto De Zerbi off Tottenham as they don’t act like a “big club” and used five struggling stars to evidence the problem.

De Zerbi initially told Tottenham he wouldn’t consider becoming their new manager in a relegation battle but is now reportedly close to agreeing terms with the club after being offered a lucrative five-year deal including a signing-on fee and survival bonus.

He will have quite the task on his hands not just this season with Spurs now just one point above the relegation zone, but in the seasons to come as quite the rebuild is required with what reports suggest will be ‘major investment to reshape the squad to his vision’.

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Ferdinand understands why Tottenham have gone after De Zerbi but can’t see why the Italian looks set to accept the job.

“Imagine going into a club like Spurs with the stadium, the training ground… imagine the walk-around of the facilities, it’s like the best in class,” Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel.

“But obviously on the pitch in looks very different.

“Listen, at the moment I’d be more worried about the hierarchy, I’d be looking into that. Why has it gone so wrong for so many? Big names, new ones… why has this place not been able to kick on?

“I don’t understand it because they’ve got it all sitting there… are they [the hierarchy] going to be a hinderance to me [Tottenham’s next manager] behind the scenes? Are they going to ruin my reputation even more now? What’s the situation here?

“I’ve always championed De Zerbi, I think he’s a great manager. He’s a thinking manager, he’s always looking for new, innovative ways to build his teams.

“This might be the perfect time to get him but are Spurs in the right situation for him?”

“I’ve got to be honest, I wouldn’t go to Spurs right now.

“I just think it is a club that’s in such a bad way and there have been far too many managers that have failed there.

“That’s not the only thing because we can look at lots of clubs like that. But they call themselves a big club or wanting to be a big club, they’re bemused when they’re not mentioned in the big club bracket.

“But they don’t spend like a big club to attract the biggest players and then they wonder why they’re not in the top echelon of football clubs in that sense, when you look at them on the pitch and their output.”

Asked which members of Tottenham’s current squad could thrive under De Zerbi’s management, Ferdinand replied: “I actually couldn’t tell you, I couldn’t tell you.

“I thought [Micky] van de Ven was going to be a top centre-half. Is it him or is it the lack of stability at the football club or the tactics, the way the team is being set up that’s making him look bad? I don’t know.

“I can go through so many players… I spoke to Carlo Ancelotti when he was the Everton manager and he had Richarlison there and he said this kid would play for a Real Madrid or a team like that, a category A club in Europe at some point.

“He couldn’t be further away from it if he tried right now. Is that down to him [Richarlison] or is that down to the environment that he’s in at Spurs?

“There are far too many players that are underachieving with their quality from what we’ve seen before.

“Look at Xavi Simons at the Euros, he was brilliant for the Netherlands and his club football, he was flying.

“He’s gone to Spurs and he looks a shadow of himself, confidence has dropped, the environment is sucking the life out of these players.

“James Maddison has obviously had a lot of injuries but he wasn’t the Maddison of Leicester, pulling up trees and getting them out of situations consistently all the time.”

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