Antonio Conte has been speaking to the press ahead of the Champions League tie with AC Milan, and has been reflecting on his time away from the club and the experience of watching his team from home instead of in the dugout.
After being diagnosed with cholecystitis at the start of February, Conte underwent surgery to remove his gallbladder.
He returned to the club soon after, overseeing the defeats against Leicester City and AC Milan.
He was then advised to further his recovery and went back to Italy, where he spent the past three weeks with his family.
Conte is now back with the club, after returning to London on Sunday and is preparing for the big game against Milan today.
In his absence, assistant manager Cristian Stellini has been taking charge of the first team. Conte has been watching from home as Spurs beat West Ham and Chelsea, but also had to watch his side lose to Sheffield United in the FA Cup, and to Wolves in the league on Saturday.
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On his experience of watching from afar, Conte told Football.London: “For sure it wasn’t a good result [in the cup].
“We had the possibility to go to the next round and try to fight for a trophy this season in the FA Cup. You know very well the importance of this trophy.”
“I had two finals, one won and one lost. The game was not a good game for us but Sonny was very clear. Now it’s important to not look too much back.
“We have a very important game tomorrow. We have to be positive. We needed to learn from the negatives.
“I hope that if we have another negative game the players learn because you can learn a lot from defeats. After wins you are happy but after defeats you can learn.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Conte is absolutely right, in that the whole club now needs to draw a line in the sand and move on from a couple of very disappointing results and ensure the season ends up being a success.
That starts tomorrow against AC Milan, and I’ve every faith we can get the result we need, especially at home.
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