"Savio is 'bomba'. All players we brought, I think are 'bomba'!"

Tottenham have gone big in this summer transfer window, spending around £380m on eight first-team signings to transform a squad which only narrowly escaped relegation from the Premier League last season.

Head coach Roberto De Zerbi has been key to Spurs' summer spending, some of which he has described this summer as "bombas" - social media parlance for big or unexpected transfer news.

Clearly De Zerbi, who called for top additions after saving Spurs' top-flight status, is understandably delighted with the business done.

"In my vocabulary 'bomba' is a great player," he told Sky Sports News' Michael Bridge with a smile ahead of the Saturday Night Football clash with Newcastle, which is live on Sky Sports.

"I'm very happy. We brought all very good players. Especially because they wanted to come. I want players proud and happy to stay here. To play football now you need big motivation, big ambitions. Without that part it's impossible to make results.

"At the moment we have a great squad, a great team. Maybe we have to close with another player but we have to sell a couple of players. But we can consider us very, very happy."

De Zerbi has been praised by some of those signings for his inspirational phone calls, convincing them to join the Spurs project. So what does he say in those key conversations?

"Nothing special," he shrugs. "I live off passion. I live for football. I explain our project - not my project - and we were lucky because they accepted and we're very happy and proud."

De Zerbi is perhaps underplaying the impact he can have on players. His task to rescue Spurs at the end of last season was far from a guaranteed success. But he delivered a priceless run of results for the club. And a priceless memory for himself.

"Big emotion, big memories," he says about the post-match celebrations after a final-day win over Everton ensured Spurs would not be relegated.

"I think it was maybe the best day in my career.

"Not because of the target. We stayed up with Tottenham. But because they were seven weeks very tough, many emotions. The players deserved to stay up."

But regardless of what is deserved, De Zerbi knows every point in the Premier League needs to be fought for.

That was in evidence on the opening weekend of this season, when his Spurs side, featuring some of those new additions, were overwhelmed, outplayed and outfought by Brentford at the Gtech.

Spurs will need to be sharper against Newcastle.

"The name of the players are not crucial," says De Zerbi. "To make results you have to fight, run, play well. But as a start, I think it's very important [to have signed such quality]."

It will take time for the new players to gel, he admits.

"The patience is to find the connection, the balance between the players," he explains. "To give organisation you have to know the characteristics of your team-mates and the connection is not so fast to reach.

"But anyway, in Brentford we had the quality and have to compete better. They deserved to win the game, we deserved to lose the game, we didn't play well but we could play much better anyway."

The aim will be for his new-look Spurs to start showing that potential in their first Premier League home game of the campaign on Saturday night.