Antonio Conte has been constantly calling his Tottenham coaches ahead of his return from Italy after finding managing from afar a stressful and enjoyable experience, reckons his assistant head coach Cristian Stellini.
Stellini and the rest of the coaching staff have stepped up at the club with their head coach currently situated 778 miles away in Italy, recovering in his Turin home after initially coming back too quickly from emergency surgery to remove his gallbladder. While Conte has been heavily involved remotely, watching videos of training every day and in constant contact while making decisions during matches, Spurs have won three of their four Premier League games this month.
That has brought the unusual situation of Conte being set to be nominated for the Manager of the Month award despite having only been present in the dugout for the 4-1 defeat at Leicester City.
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"Antonio was still with us so if this happens, I am happy for him," said Stellini. "I think this could be a great opportunity to be proud of all of the staff, not only me. We work like a team very close and very excited to work together. I think it would be a good result for all the staff."
It was put to the Tottenham assistant boss jokingly that it is often said that you should not change a winning formula so perhaps the transition back might be easier with him in the dugout and Conte returning to the stands.
"No, that is impossible because we know very well Antonio but it is also the right thing to do because I don't want to forget that our manager was still involved during this period so nothing will change," said the 48-year-old.
On how Conte has found the whole experience of watching from afar, Stellini added: "Sometimes stressful, sometimes enjoyable. If we win you can enjoy all together. He has recovered well but in this period he has to think about his health and feeling better."
Stellini expects Conte to return to England later this week. During this period in Italy, the Spurs boss has been constantly calling his coaching staff around training and during games, with Stellini previously admitting that he also speak to his compatriot at night. During matches you can see coaches relaying Conte's instructions from his phone calls and Stellini was asked how many calls Conte makes, not only to him, during a day.
"A lot, as normal with Ryan [Mason] and Gianluca [Conte - his brother] as well, to organise everything and have everything under control," he said.
Stellini also admitted that not all of Conte's video calls with the players have worked perfectly, most notably after Sunday's victory against Chelsea, but the positive results are having a good effect on Conte.
"My feeling, we didn’t speak about this, but my feeling is that our results have created positive energy in Antonio and so when you have positive energy, you recover better. For sure, he will come back with a good energy and positive vibes," he explained.
"Absolutely [you can feel he has missed being there]. It happened after the last game that we had a call with the team but the connection was not perfect and Antonio was really disappointed for that. The day after we tried to do it again and it was good, and his energy was much more so you can feel it."
Stellini thought for a moment when asked how his time in the spotlight, making it seven wins from the seven occasions he has stood in for Conte at Spurs and Inter, has changed him as a coach and a person.
"I don't know what changes in the future, I hope nothing changes in the future. I want to be the same, maybe with a bit more experience and positivity with me because we did a great job," he said.
"In the future what we have to bring with us is the team working in this period like a staff. Altogether try to do something better every day and stay together. Speak a lot and share our ideas. We have to continue this. Probably we have to bring this type of situation in the future as a staff to help Antonio do his best."
On his role with the players, he added: "It’s about the relationship and the way we trust in the players and the way we want the players trusting us in what we ask of them. It’s a really important communication and relation in between us and the players. They trust in us, we trust in them, we create positive energy and into the pitch you can feel this."
Spurs travel to Championship high-flyers Sheffield United on Wednesday in the FA Cup fifth round, hoping to progress and finally lift a first trophy since 2008's League Cup. Stellini believes success is more about actions more than words.
"We repeat many times, we don’t have to speak about winning trophies. We have to show the desire to do facts. It is important to win games if you want to win something, but it’s about what we have to do tomorrow," he said. "Tomorrow we have to try to win. We have to do our best to win. If someone is better than us, we accept this. We have to play a game without regrets. When the game finishes, we don’t have regrets. We have to push in the game at the best.
"But we don’t have to speak a lot about winning a trophy. If you speak too much, you leave behind you only words. We have to do something in reality, if we want to win."
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