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Jan Paul van Hecke used to constantly argue with Roberto De Zerbi but now he's working with the Italian to take Tottenham to the top. The Dutchman enjoyed a £52million reunion with De Zerbi this summer after the Spurs boss pushed for the north London side to sign the 26-year-old he refers to as 'my son' from Brighton. The Tottenham boss poured plenty of effort into Van Hecke's development, clashing with the outspoken defender in their early days together on the south coast as his coach challenged him to become a Premier League and now World Cup star. "I think the most important quality of JP is the balance between the arrogance and the confidence in himself. He is not arrogant but his confidence in himself is high, high, high," De Zerbi once said. "We fought... but we fought in a good way. We spoke a lot together. I am very proud of JP." Van Hecke admits that now the pair joke about those days. "At the beginning we argued, it was because he had such a way of playing, and I needed to get used to it," the Dutchman told football.london. "Sometimes you're arguing over things, but I think that's a nice thing in football, because in the end, the manager wants the best and the player wants the best, and you push each other to the next level. "We still speak about it sometimes now. He's joking about it, like, 'do you remember our first few months?' And then you see what happens." FOLLOW OUR TOTTENHAM FB PAGE! Latest Spurs news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page The two men remained close after De Zerbi left Brighton in 2024 and the Italian always made it clear that they would work together again one day. "We have a really good bond. We kept in contact. We text each other, we call each other sometimes," said Van Hecke. "He always said 'I hope you will play in my team again', and now I am, so that's really nice." That doesn't mean De Zerbi is always happy with Van Hecke, admitting that after the Netherlands international set up Georginio Rutter for a last-gasp Brighton equaliser at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April he sent him a rather sweary message. "After the [final day] Everton game, I sent the message 'F*** off, you wanted to send down Tottenham for Brighton when you made the assist, now you have to come to me, yes or yes, you have no choice!'" admitted the Italian. "It was straight after the game, right in my office in the stadium, I sent a message to my daughter, and then JP." Van Hecke laughs at the memory, even if he remembers it as a conversation after the 2-2 draw between the sides. "I saw him after the game. Tottenham needed their points, but so did we," he recounted. "At the time I was really happy that we scored to make it 2-2. Of course for Tottenham and for De Zerbi, he was not really happy about it! It's a funny story. We spoke afterwards and we had a laugh about it." De Zerbi's arrival was followed by another £185million spent on Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, while Spurs also agreed free transfers for Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka. Tottenham are set to continue their big spending in the weeks ahead with De Zerbi wanting to bolster his attack. Van Hecke said Spurs sold him on a summer of big stars arriving in the window. "That's what the club said to me. 'You're one of them', and of course it's also nice that you're the first one or one of the first ones. And they say there will be more signings, more good players, then you see other players coming as well. So that's a really good thing," he said. "They're top-quality players, Premier League-proven players, talented players. And on top of that, we already have some good players, a lot of good players here. That could be a real combination, but now we need to show that." He added: "The last two seasons, apart from winning the Europa League, have not been good, but you can see now there's a change in direction. Everyone's really excited. New players coming in and already strong players here. "And then a good combination with a really good coach. Tottenham need to be back at the top, and that's what we're trying to do." Van Hecke admitted that De Zerbi was an obvious pull to join Spurs this summer but that the club itself was a huge draw. "Of course [he is there], but also Tottenham is such a big club, so if Tottenham comes, and then you speak with the manager, speak with the club, you get a really good feeling from everybody and also the people inside the club," he said. "Also the project that's coming up, then we got really excited. That really got me over the line. And of course the manager, I'm really good with him, we can't ignore that, but I thought it was a good combination." Another familiar face at the club for the centre-back was his international team-mate Micky van de Ven and the two would often speak about life at Spurs. "I'm really good friends with Micky. Even before the transfer was made, you speak always about football, you speak always about your club," he said. "He'd already told me that it's an amazing club. When I came here, I could see straight away from the first day that this is a really big club." While Van de Ven plays as a left-back for his country, with Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk slotting in between the two Spurs men at the World Cup, it will be rekindling an old partnership when they line-up alongside each other for Tottenham this season. "That's what we did in the U21s years ago, we played together as a couple [of centre-backs]. Now I hope to play as many games with him, and hopefully it can be a really good partnership," said the new arrival. De Zerbi is expecting Van Hecke to be a leading voice on the pitch and in the dressing room at Spurs. Both the Italian and his successor Fabian Hurzeler would rave about how the defender's leadership abilities at Brighton. "We spoke about that [when I signed]. I've played four or five seasons here, so I know what the Premier League asks. It's a really tough league, and there's no easy game," he said. "I grew into that at Brighton. Of course I had leadership qualities, but not straight away from the first year, but in the last few years, if you play every game and you're at a high level, you try to help your team-mates. "You try to be loud, you try to be positive. That's what I always try to do, and that's what I've got to do here as well." So what can the Tottenham fans expect from full-on De Zerbi football after only tasting a light version of it in the final weeks of last season? "It's attacking-style football," explained Van Hecke. "Try to dominate teams, play out from the back and try to score a lot of goals. You saw in his teams that they scored a lot of goals. "It's exciting to watch. There's a lot to do because to play that kind of football you need a lot of work on the training pitch. That's what we're doing now. "So far so good. Obviously we've improved and we have a really strong team and a really good manager. That could be a really good combination this season."