Dejan Kulusevski talks how Antonio Conte played a role in his decision to sign with Spurs

During the January transfer window deadline day, Tottenham Hotspur made a double swoop of Juventus duo Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski. 

Following his debut this past weekend against Brighton & Hove Albion, the Daily Mail relayed the remarks made by Kulusevski, who stated that one of the reasons he chose to come to north London was due to manager Antonio Conte’s intense training sessions. 

Kulusevski stated that he’s aware of the vigorous training sessions the Italian tactician puts his players through to prepare them for upcoming matchdays. 

“I love suffering! That’s one thing about me, from when I was born. I love to work hard, and I’ve already seen how they work [at Spurs]. It’s incredible,” Kulusevski said.

“Even after the game, we had a crazy session. The training here is much more different from Italy — in a very good way. People are running faster; everything is faster to try to get us stronger.”

The Sweden international played 22 minutes in the FA Cup match against Brighton. Despite the short amount of time, Kulusevski had two key passes on 18 touches while winning two of his six ground duels. 

“He was everything, firstly, it’s a fantastic club and he has very good training, very good tactics, his staff are fantastic,” Kulusevski said.

“This week has been really amazing and I’m very, very honored to be here. Conte is a winner and I want to be a winner.”

Conte is hopeful that the 21-year-old can help the forward group that has leaned on Harry Kane and Son Heung-min heavily provide some offense for their attack. 

Kulusevski hopes to carry the ability to create scoring chances for himself and his teammates carries over to the remaining games in the season.