Just when you're starting to enjoy Tottenham Hotspur again so an international break comes along to spoil everything.
Spurs had finally broken the win-loss-win-loss pattern that had seeped through much of 2022 when international football decided 'nah, you're alright lads, I'll stop that momentum right there thank you very much'. Antonio Conte did not want the pause in the Premier League to arrive at all.
"Honestly it’s a pity to have the international break because in this moment we are in good form, in a good moment about the results, the performance, but I know very well there is an international break and with the players that have to go with the national team we will see them after nine days, ten days but with the others we prepared two different situations of rest," he said. "Before two days to rest and then to work and then another two days to rest and start work again, but for sure we want to try to exploit this period for those not going with their international teams to try to continue to improve on the technical and tactical aspects."
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Conte did at least head off himself to Italy for some much-needed family time with his wife Elisabetta and daughter Vittoria.
The pair still live in Italy because 14-year-old Vittoria is in her final years of secondary school and her parents did not want to uproot her at that stage, meaning Conte has been spending lots of time away from his loved ones, relying on visits between the two countries whenever they can.
Back at Hotspur Way, Conte has only five first team outfield players to work with - Sergio Reguilon, Harry Winks, Emerson Royal, Eric Dier and Lucas Moura while Oliver Skipp, Ryan Sessegnon and Japhet Tanganga continue their recoveries from injury.
Any group training sessions will have to be heavily supplemented by those young development squad players who have not been called up by various international age groups.
On the whole, Spurs' coaches will put on plenty of small-sided games and undertake some tactical and fitness work, "exploiting" the time to the maximum as Conte likes to say before giving the players another couple of days off midway through the break.
For Spurs fans and for Conte, this period is mostly one spent praying that the players return to Hotspur Way next week in the condition they left it in.
You need only look at Cristian Romero as the poster boy for international football gone wrong this season.
The Argentine arrived at Spurs with a knee injury suffered with his country in the Copa America final.
In his next international break, he made the decision to travel despite the government regulations on quarantining after heading to red-listed South America. It ended up descending into further farce as Brazil had similar rules for arrivals from the UK and resulted in the match being abandoned as Brazilian officials stormed the pitch.
Romero was later banned for two matches by FIFA, fined by his club for going in the first place and also had to quarantine in Croatia for 10 days.
Then to top off his international year, Romero's next international call-up - before his ban was decided - saw him suffer a serious hamstring injury that kept him out for three months.
Even this week there has been confusion as Spurs did not expect Argentina to call the defender up because he is banned. Yet they still did because there is a hope that his suspension will be halved to just one match. It's also worth noting that Argentina have already qualified for the World Cup so his inclusion is really not crucial.
So yes, the international break isn't the greatest but we're almost halfway through this latest one and then Tottenham Hotspur will return. Conte will be hoping it's the one that was there before it began.
