Spurs defender Emerson Royal reveals the “main thing” he hasn’t liked about Antonio Conte’s reign so far is the confiscation of butter.
Tottenham are now finding their feet under the Italian – who replaced Nuno Espirito Santo earlier this season – and are now unbeaten in their last five Premier League matches.
Victory over West Ham in the Carabao Cup last time out saw them reach the semi-finals of the competition, where they will face Chelsea over two legs in January.
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On Conte’s approach at Spurs, Emerson told Camisa 21 (via Sport Witness): “Every day he’s like that. The same way you see him on camera he is in training. He points, shows circles, but does not point to burn the player. He points because he’s very detail oriented.
“And he says to me ‘Emerson, if you do it like this it’ll be better for you, it’ll be better for the team’. And he showed me the same thing 10 times in game or in training. ‘When the ball is here you have to take a step back, better position your body’. And when it arrived, I took that step back that he said and it was what I needed to get out of the play. He’s explosive, he really screams, demands, you gotta be eating well if because if you’re not, you can’t stand it.”
Conte confirmed that ketchup and fizzy drinks had been banned at the Tottenham training ground since arriving but Emerson admits it’s the removal of butter which he’s struggling with.
Emerson added: “He cut some things. For example: butter. Butter is the main thing, which for me is the most important, because I like butter a lot. Bread and butter for me, it can’t be missing. There’s a jam there, we eat it with jam.”
When asked to compare Conte and Nuno, Emerson continued: “Each coach has their own way of working. Nuno was more relaxed, he was a more relaxed coach. It was another kind of work. With Conte, it’s a faster job, it’s a more physical job, it’s a more agitated job. With Nuno I had little time to work with him. But he’s a coach who has my respect too, and he’s a great person.”
In November, Emerson claimed that former Spurs boss Nuno wouldn’t give him instructions in Portuguese – but the defender has now claimed he was misunderstood in that interview.
“Let me explain this rubbish. When I gave an interview talking about it, it wasn’t that he didn’t translate to annoy me. He used to say this to me: you have to learn English. I’ll go through the training and you’ll get by to understand the training, because that way you’ll learn.
“So he did it for good. And I spoke in the interview, I spoke relaxed, and people understood that he was messing with me. I wasn’t complaining. That was good. The things I know in English, that’s why. Because I had to learn.”
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