Nuno Espirito Santo
Can you give us an update on Harry Kane’s whereabouts and when you expect him back at the club?
I will not speak with you about that. I’m sorry. I was expecting a different question from you. Did you watch the game?
I did watch the game, what did you make of the game?
It was a tough game but a very good game for us. Some things for us to work on and improve.
Is Tanguy Ndombele not fit or are you keeping him out for another reason?
There are a lot of players who are out. At this moment of pre-season it’s all about trying to balance all the players in terms of preparation and fitness. We have to manage a lot of aspects. There are a lot of players out.
Do you feel you can’t comment when your star player has gone on strike?
It is not that I don’t want to comment. What I believe is all that all this issue related to Harry I believe we should discuss internally among us and try to avoid any kind of public argument or discussion about it. So, us, we have to focus on what is important. We have to solve the situation but first between us.
How do you solve the situation?
We solve the situation internally with the club, speaking and trying to reach a better solution and a conclusion to this situation.
How hard is it for you prepare in pre-season without one of your players?
All pre-season for all clubs has been very hard, I know this is a different aspect. The absence of a lot of players due to internationals has made it very hard, a very hard time for all the managers to try to have all the players. I know it is different circumstances but it has been very hard for everybody.
It looked improbable coming back to 2-2 when you were 2-0 down?
If you look at the moment when we conceded the second goal, at the beginning of the second half, we were really well in the game. We had a couple of chances to score and in that moment I felt that it was settling down. Then the boys showed a lot of courage and determination to change the game and in 90 minutes, many of them, so I’m very pleased that more of our players in 90 minutes have made more today in this moment of pre-season than in all the circumstances and it’s very pleasing.
Should Spurs be signing players?
Spurs are always, as you can imagine, working very hard on that aspect, because we need, but I truly believe it’s very hard to improve on our squad. We have very talented players, very good players and we need to be balanced of course but Steve [Hitchen] and Fabio [Paratici] don’t have an easy work in terms of improving our squad so we need to be accurate and choose the right players.
So if you didn’t bring in another player before the end of the window you’d be happy?
No, no, no. I told you our squad needs to be balanced but it has to be with quality and with something we don’t have, with players we don’t have. We need to be very careful to make the right decisions because there are a lot of talented players here in our squad.
Have you spoken to Harry this week and have you written him out of your plans for Man City and possibly Wolves?
The answer I will give you is I expect, I really expect, to speak with Harry soon and I haven’t had the chance yet.
How disappointed are you with this situation?
Anything in relation to Harry is internal so first of all we have to first of all solve the problems ourselves and then I will speak with you.
You gave Steven Bergwijn a big hug, how important is that goal for his confidence?
I believe Steven is a very talented player. I think he got 84 minutes. It’s very good for him to get 84 minutes that he was doing. He scored a goal and a goal can only give him confidence. Aside from that he put in hard work and he positioned himself much better in the second half, but in the first half not too much and allowed the ball to go to the areas we didn’t want. He should do better in the first half and lost too many balls trying to combine, but it’s the moment to make mistakes, find solutions and correct ourselves. I’m really pleased with all the boys because in this moment to already be getting 90 minutes is very good for us. Today we played a fantastic team and it was a very good game for us.
Does Hugo Lloris have a little injury at the moment?
Yeah, he had a problem during the Euros but I think we have good news and tomorrow he can start. It’s been very hard for all of the players from the Euros and all these situations. It’s been very hard for all the teams in terms of preparation and it’s been very difficult but the players are all working very hard trying to integrate themselves and try to build a team.
