Last week, the whole world saw Tottenham's players collapse on the pitch in exhaustion during a routine team training session in South Korea.
Harry Kane was caught getting down on his knees and vomiting, in a picture that stood out among the harsh scenes.
The credit for the arduous training goes to coach Antonio Conte, as the one at the top of the pyramid, but the main person responsible for the "tear" the Roosters went through at the start of their match campaign is another Italian, fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, who will arrive with the team in Israel at the end of the week.
Tottenham will meet Roma this coming Saturday night for an intriguing friendly match at the Sami Ofer Stadium.
This will be the Spurs' last test before the start of the season.
A week later, in the opening round, they will host Southampton and in the second round they will stay in London for a heated derby against Chelsea, Conte's ex, the title contractor (four championships in Italy and one in England with Chelsea) who will celebrate his 53rd birthday on Saturday.
Conte.
No compromises, photo: Reuters
His teams almost always play with three defenders, a method he advocated a decade ago as Juventus coach, before it was as popular as it is today.
For him, in order to be successful in the 3-5-2 formation, all the players must have extremely high fitness, which is why he has been working for ten years with Ventrone (62), whom he knew back in his days as a Juve player.
So even if the Roosters will not be the best in the Premier League, it is quite certain that they will have the best physical fitness.
This is also understood by the team's defender Matt Doherty, who smiled at the end of a grueling training session and said: "It was nothing special. Even in training in London, before we flew to Seoul, it was the same. I don't think there will be teams in better shape than ours. What is certain is that we have never I went through such difficult pre-season training."
By the way, Ventrona usually conducts his fitness training sessions with Wagner's opera "Rally of the Valkyries" playing over the loudspeakers.
In Juventus he installed the "bell of shame" - the player who arrived last in training was obliged to ring it.
The Tottenham players got to know Conte's and Ventrona's methods already last season.
The two arrived immediately after the dismissal of coach Nuno Espirito Santo and improved the fitness and the results.
Conte met the main task and qualified with the Roosters for the Champions League.
Ventrona.
"The Bell of Shame", photo: Reuters
The rotation will win
Ahead of the new season, Tottenham acted quickly in the transfer market.
Conte, along with chairman Daniel Levy and professional manager Fabio Praticci, added three notable players to the squad: Brazilian striker Richarlison was purchased from Everton for 50 million pounds, midfielder Yves Bissomma arrived from Brighton for 25 million, and Jed Spence, a player The 21-year-old winger of the young England national team was purchased from Middlesbrough for 12.5 million pounds. Three other purchase players were signed: the French defender Calman Langella, who was loaned from Barcelona, the goalkeeper Fraser Foster, who arrived from Southampton, and the Croatian star Ivan Perisic arrived from Inter. , who played under Conte in Italy.
After a warm-up match on Saturday, in which Tottenham beat Glasgow Rangers 1:2, Conte said: "It wasn't a friendly match. There were 50,000 Rangers fans in the stands. I'm happy with the team. I liked the intensity, the pressure game. We did things which we work on in training and we reached many scoring situations. It is true, at the end we were a little tired, but that is because we work hard."
The coach is preparing for a grueling season.
The team is expected to play 22 games (16 in the league and 6 in the Champions League) within three months and a week, until the league goes into the World Cup break.
That is why he is building a wide staff.
"I want to have 16-17 players, all of whom deserve to play regularly in the first team. We will have to rotate," he explained.
The outstanding lineup: Hugo Lloris in goal;
Eric Dyer, Christian Romero and Calman Langella (Davinson Sanchez) brakes;
Jed Spence (Ryan Sessegnon) on the right wing and Ivan Perisic (Emerson) on the left wing;
Yves Bissomma (Pierre Hoiberg) and Rodrigo Bentacur in the center of the link, and Kane Wesson in the attacking positions, when there is a fight for the third position between Diane Kolosevski and Richarlison.
This is a quality squad, but it is hard to believe that Tottenham will face Manchester City and Liverpool for the championship.
Third place and qualifying for the advanced stages of the Champions League will be considered a great success.
Nadav Jacobi, also on Twitter - nimidana@
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