Inside Conte's gruelling Tottenham training sessions with motto "die but finish"
Sergio Reguilon says no-one is spared under the Italian's demanding regime - and reveals the trick he's learned for avoiding exhaustion in matches - with Tottenham storming into Champions League fight
Inside Antonio Conte's gruelling Tottenham training sessions with motto "die but finish"
Sergio Reguilon says no-one is spared under the Italian's demanding regime - and reveals the trick he's learned for avoiding exhaustion in matches - with Tottenham storming into Champions League fight.Antonio Conte praised Harry Kane's work ethic after their win over Newcastle but it isn't just the England captain putting a shift in for Tottenham lately.
For the Italian got Spurs ready for their Champions League push by making them do gruelling double training sessions during the international break. Some Tottenham stars famously complained about that when Mauricio Pochettino tried it, but it seems that Conte has convinced his players to shape up.
The Spurs boss has THREE conditioning specialists on his coaching staff, including Gian Piero "The Marine" Ventrone, whose motto is "Die but finish." And while Kane and co were away playing for their countries, everyone else at Tottenham was being put through their paces in challenging double sessions.
Full back Sergio Reguilon said: "They are tough. Really tough. For the manager, you can rest after the end of the season, not during it! Our work in them depends on the day, but it is tactical, technical and in the gym - that's the worst for me. And it's also run, run, run, run. I think it is necessary for us though.
"We know that in the international break the players that remained here in London needed to work hard, stay fit, and for that we did double sessions. Not only one either. We did a lot. Our team-mates were playing games, working hard for their national teams, but we had to be ready for when they came back so we could be at the same level of fitness."
Pochettino used to do the same thing, turning Tottenham into the Premier League's hardest working side and taking them to a Champions League final. "Even in international breaks," former Spurs and England full back Danny Rose once revealed, "He’d see the ones who would go away as having a holiday because training isn’t as hard with your national team. So if you weren’t in the national team you were getting beasted in training."
Spurs players were complaining that training was becoming too tough towards the end of Pochettino's reign. But some felt that things slipped too far the other way under Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo, and Tottenham now look fitter and stronger for the run-in.
And they have piled the pressure right back on Woolwich ahead of their clash with Crystal Palace tonight by climbing above the Gunners into fourth. Even Reguilon, who is still recovering from Covid, did not escape Conte's double sessions, and though he missed the Newcastle game he is sure he will feel the benefits later this season.
He said: "After Covid still it is a little bit difficult. My feeling is I didn't recover 100 per cent. But this is football, this is life. You have to be ready for everything." Pochettino used to joke that players in rehab used to be desperate to come back quickly "because we kill them when they are injured. They have double sessions every day!"
And Conte is certainly following the same path. But Reguilon admits that when it comes to matches, it is just as important to conserve your energy. He said: "Sometimes I have to control my efforts because when we have a counter-attack I want to arrive in the other box as much as possible.
"But you also have to factor in that I begin in my own box and have to sprint 80 metres - and I then have to get back as well. After a game I would see I'd run run 11km and one of those would be at full speed. From there I understood what I needed to do.
"If I was doing those sort of runs constantly, I would arrive at the 80-minute mark exhausted. If I did it every game, maybe I would have to stop playing each season in February!"
:contepray:
