Italian legend Giorgio Chiellini has revealed that he contacted Fabio Paratici during the summer when he saw the type of rigorous pre-season training the Tottenham players were being put through.
Antonio Conte and his coaching staff worked the players extremely hard during pre-season, with the Spurs squad reportedly being made to run 42 pitch lengths after two hours of training in the 30-degree heat of Seoul back in July (Daily Mail).
The likes of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min were seen collapsing before picking themselves back up to continue with their runs.
Chiellini knows only too well what the Spurs players went through, with the centre-back having worked with Conte as well as the recently deceased Spurs fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone at Juventus.
The defender, who left Turin to join Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC in the summer, admitted that seeing the Tottenham players struggling reminded him of what he went through almost a decade ago.
When asked if he would be happy to play under Conte once more at Tottenham, Chiellini told Sky Italia (13/10/22 as relayed by Il Bianconero): “Not as a player, at 36, I couldn’t do it. When I saw the exhausted players in South Korea during pre-season, I wrote to Paratici. It reminded me that we went through the same thing.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Some people questioned at the time if Tottenham’s gruelling pre-season was going to have an adverse effect on the players’ fitness, given the nature of the schedule this season (Sky Sports).
So far, Conte’s and Ventrone’s methods have proven to be effective, with Spurs finishing games very strongly. However, the proof will perhaps be in the pudding with respect to the number of injuries we pick up, particularly in the second half of the season.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
