According to the Daily Mail, Antonio Conte ordered his Tottenham players to report for training at 11 a.m. on Wednesday as a possible punishment for their poor performance against Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday night.
Tottenham looked sluggish and leggy despite not playing over the weekend as they conceded twice in the final few minutes in what was their first defeat of the season.
The Spurs manager watched his team lose 2-0 in the Portuguese capital. Conte is also said to have ‘tore into his players’ in the dressing room after the game.
And according to the report, Conte ‘ordered’ his players to report to Hotspur Way for training at 11 a.m. ‘Conte had not informed the players of their training schedule’, but revealed that they would begin earlier than expected after the game.
Conte’s decision will serve as a reminder to Spurs players of his expectations of the team and the standard he expects. And the standards are pretty high considering Spurs have picked up 14 points from a possible 18 in the league, and beaten Marseille in their first Champions League game. The fact that Conte has taken their first defeat so seriously only goes on to show the serial winner that he is and expects his team to be.
Conte will now be expecting a response when Spurs host a struggling Leicester side on Saturday evening.