Tottenham Hotspur forward Richarlison has revealed that Antonio Conte told him off for two hours during a team meeting.
Richarlison joined Spurs during last summer's transfer window, signing from Everton for a fee in the region of £60million. However, his debut campaign in north London didn't exactly go to plan, suffering a number of injury concerns whilst also struggling for form.
In fact, the Brazilian international netted just one Premier League goal all season, infamously criticising Conte for not playing him enough after the north Londoners were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by AC Milan back in March. The veteran coach then came out and labelled the 26-year-old selfish - something the player has now admitted he regrets.
Speaking about the incident with Conte to the Que Papinho podcast, the former Watford frontman said: "Of course I made a fool of myself by saying in the interview that I needed time and everything else, it was after the elimination in the Champions League, but then I apologised to him. I even told him that if he wanted to punish me, he could.
"We worked it out there, then I tried to have a run again, and another injury came up. Like it or not, it ends up affecting the head as well.
"He has to show his firmness also to the group, to say that he is there, that he is still in charge. It is his way of dealing with people, with the group, and he spent almost two hours just telling me off in the meeting, in front of everyone [laughs].
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"Then the players even said: 'Richy, don't do this anymore. Stay two hours waiting' [laughs]. Everyone wanted to go, and we were there. Solved, fine."
Conte was relieved of his duties in N17 shortly after but Richarlison holds no ill feelings towards the Italian, revealing that he reached out to the experienced manager to clear the air. "After they sent him away, I sent him a message," the Tottenham attacker added.
"I apologised because he was the guy who asked for me to be hired, and I couldn't help him as much as he thought I could. The least I could do is apologise for what happened there."
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