Alasdair Gold revealed on his YouTube channel that some Tottenham Hotspur players were scared following their Champions League defeat.
Spurs suffered a slightly embarrassing and disappointing loss away to Sporting Lisbon midweek, conceding twice in second half added time and losing control of their Champions League group.
Despite a late flight back, Conte had his players back in training the next day as they prepared for their Premier League game this weekend.
According to Gold, on the way back from Portugal, several Spurs players feared that they’d be called in for training very early on Wednesday morning.
He said (30:55):
“That flight from my understanding was near silent, they’re not going to be standing up doing the conga up and down the plane, of course they’re not they lost the game, but there was a real feeling of we messed up kind of thing and no one had barely even like a hushed wisp in the background it was just all on there.
“Some of them may well have been asleep, they obviously went off straight after the game and they went back and I know I think there was a bit of a fear among some of the players that he would drag them into very early training the next day because they were staying over at the lodge when they flew back presumably into Stansted and staying at the lodge overnight, and he didn’t.
“He started training at 11 am the next day on the Wednesday, there are suggestions that normally after European games he does afternoon training lets them have the morning off, so perhaps that was the punishment, no, you’re starting at 11 kind of thing.”
Given that Conte was said to be enraged after the game on Tuesday night, it’s no surprise that players were expecting a harsh punishment for being in training early on Wednesday.
Spurs play Leicester City next who are at the bottom of the league table with just 1 point and Conte will be expecting a pretty solid response from his team.