How Conte is conditioning the ‘overweight’ Spurs ketchup addicts

Antonio Conte reportedly told his Tottenham players they were ‘overweight’ following their Europa Conference League victory over Vitesse Arnhem and has implemented a number of changes to improve their condition.

Conte – who has won the Premier League title with Chelsea and Serie A with Inter Milan last season – replaced Nuno Espirito Santo as manager of Spurs at the start of November.

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He’s renowned for his tough, no-nonsense attitude and The Athletic report some of the changes he has already made at Tottenham.

After his first game in charge – the 3-2 win over Vitesse – the Italian is said to have told his players he was proud of the way they had “suffered”, but insisted they needed to get in shape as they were ‘overweight’.

Conte warned them it was the last time he wanted to see overweight players and said that their mentality also needed to change.

He’s alterred the club’s approach to nutrition, cutting out heavy food and sandwiches after training and banning ketchup and mayonnaise.

Fruit juice has also been cut down, as has cooking with oil and butter.

Meanwhile, Sergio Reguilon says he and his teammates will have to learn quickly under Conte.

“The gaffer is special. He loves training hard but now we don’t have a lot of time to work on the things he wants on the pitch. So we did a lot of meetings with videos this week.

“I’ve never played five at the back before. I have to learn quickly. The gaffer has told me he wants me to be solid in defence but at the same moment, I have to arrive in the box, help the strikers, score goals, give assists. Now I have more of a chance to score goals and give assists. So let’s work.

“I have to see many videos with the staff to do what they want on the pitch. I’m enjoying the position a lot because I can attack more but I have to run double!

“I’ve watched a lot of videos of Chelsea and Inter Milan, and I have a friend at Inter, Achraf Hakimi who I spoke to about the gaffer. He told me I will improve a lot under him and I want to do that as soon as possible. He said I will have to work really, really hard but I will improve a lot. In one week, I can already see that.

On the draw versus Everton, Reguilon added: “The team was really strong. We’re going in a good way. This draw, I think in another moment of the season, was a game we would have lost. But the team was really good and competitive. This is the way forward. I think you can see on the pitch the team is more aggressive and more competitive [than before].

“We believe in the things we’re working on in training. That’s the way. We have to learn too much under him. For me, it’s unbelievable.”