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Football London
Football London
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Alasdair Gold

Every word Antonio Conte said on staying at Spurs for 'many years', Ndombele, Rodon and Mourinho

What's it like to be out here?

It's a pleasure for me, the players and everybody at the club to stay here and to have the opportunity to play a game against an important team like Roma. We are looking forward to playing the game and I hope the game will be good.

You have left Ndombele, Lo Celso, Winks and Reguilon at home again, have you spoken to them about their future?

I think that we spoke with the club and the players are informed about the plans for the next season. We are talking about really good players and the club and I, we think they deserve to play games regularly. For this reason these players are not here.

READ MORE: Antonio Conte handed injury boost as one Tottenham player returns to squad for Roma friendly

Joe Rodon isn't here as well, is he moving on?

Yeah Joe Rodon is another good player and don't forget that in November there is the World Cup and many players want to play and play regularly. Also to prepare themselves for this important competition. I think that when the thoughts from the club and the players are the same we try to find the best solution for both.

Your training sessions look so intensive, can you talk us through why you do that?

Maybe for you it is intensive training, for me it's normal training. I used to have these type of training sessions in the past when I was a player and when I was a coach. Maybe it was strange for you or for the people that think that the players go out to the pitch to have fun. The fun is a consequence of when you work very well and during the pre-season it's important for us to reach a peak of fitness and to start the season in the best possible way and also to avoid injury.

To avoid injury, particularly muscular injury, you have to train your muscles with intensity during the training sessions. But I repeat for me it is very normal and it's the same in other countries.

What is your relationship like with Jose Mourinho because you've had confrontations in the past?

We have a mutual respect and our histories in football speak for us. Now everything is good and tomorrow for sure there will be a hug between us.

What do you think about Roma?

I think I'm seeing a similar situation between Roma and Tottenham because both clubs want to build, to go step by step to fight against a team that in the past dominated in Italy, Juventus and also one season Inter Milan. For us City, Liverpool, Chelsea, United. It's a good comparison because we have the same target.

How will the World Cup affect this season?

I can answer this question when we start after we finish the World Cup. For now we are preparing the season in the way that we know. We are not thinking about the World Cup.

For now we have August, September, October and half of November in which we have to push very strongly. Then we have this break, for every league. After this break we have to see what happens because players can come back very tired after this competition and after the World Cup we need to see what happens and it will be good to manage this situation because for every club it won't easy.

What was it like to see the fans waiting for you yesterday?

It was amazing for us to receive such a warm welcome yesterday at the hotel from all of our fans. Also to sing happy birthday to Harry Kane because yesterday was his birthday. A lot of positive things and we like to find this enthusiasm. Now we are looking forward to playing on Saturday.

In recent years the club has struggled to reach the Champions League, but your arrival seems to have changed the DNA of the club?

As I've said before, our project, our plan is to try to become competitive, more than the past, but you know very well that in football you build something important in one day, one month, one year you have go step by step and try to increase the quality, increase the number of players in your squad. Don't forget that when a team stay in the top four and play European games you need to face four competitions in the best possible way.

To do this you need a good squad with good quality. We are trying to do this but we have just started this process. Last season I think we worked very well to reach a place in the Champions League. At the same time I think we exploited problems, United's problems and in the last three games Arsenal were four points up on us and for this reason we have to continue with the club to build with the players, to continue to improve them. They have a lot of space for improvement. This is a young team and we can work for many years together to improve and fight with the best teams in England and in Europe.

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