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Roberto, many congratulations on your appointment.
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Have you enjoyed your first week at Tottenham Hotspur?
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Yes.
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First of all, I’m proud and happy to be here.
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I have to say thank to Vinay and Johan.
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because they showed me a big, big confidence.
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And now I have to work.
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Now we have to make points.
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I’m sure about the level of the players,
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because many players in the past,
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I was very,
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very close to bring them in my former teams.
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They are working very well.
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I think I’m not better than Thomas Frank or Igor Tudor because I consider them very
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good coaches.
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I try to bring my style,
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myself,
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my character,
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my personality,
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my passion to help the players first of all to show their qualities because they
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have a lot of qualities and then to reach to achieve our target because
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is the most important part now is our target.
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Sounds like they’ve enjoyed your training too.
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Now you’ve worked with them for a week.
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Are you even more confident that you can keep this huge club in the Premier League?
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Yes, yes.
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I knew before to work with them.
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I understood that they are good guys.
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The fans, they have to be
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happy because all players are good guys they are suffering for this this difficult
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situation I want to see on the game because during the week is easier but I think
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the voice inside of the the pitch is changed I’m
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I observed them at the beginning of my time last week and now I’m more positive for sure.
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Many, many Spurs fans are very happy with your appointment.
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If there are some that are still having concerns, what is your message to them?
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I have no message because also in the last game against Nottingham Forest they were
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fantastic before the game.
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The message is for my staff,
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for my players,
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we have to deserve their support because the fans are suffering like us,
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like the players,
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but for the fans
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There is just one club, just one team.
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The players can change team, club, but for the fans it’s unique their club.
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So we have to make happy our fans playing well,
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with the right spirit,
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with the right attitude,
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with the right behaviour on the pitch.
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and then I think it’s easier to make points.
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Roberto, welcome to Tottenham.
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I suppose the big question on a lot of people’s minds is why do you take on this
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job at this particular time?
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Because of course the club are locked in a relegation battle, so why now?
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Why now?
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Because you can consider, it depends
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on your angle you look at the situation from my perspective was a big opportunity
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because tottenham is one of the most important club in premier league premier
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league is the best league in the world i love the qualities of the players they are
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we have a lot a lot of specific
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specific player for my style and then there was a crucial part there was 12 days
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before the first game and and for me it was important to have not too much time but
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10 days more than one week i i thought it could be important to understand the
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problems
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I don’t want to give too many principles,
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too many instructions on the pitch if we are speaking about just football,
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but organisation with the ball,
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without the ball.
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I hope in one week, ten days, to reach this target for me.
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Obviously,
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you and the club have been hit with a big blow knowing that Mohamed Koudous has
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suffered an injury.
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Can I just confirm, what’s the nature of the injury?
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Does it rule him out for the rest of the season and maybe even the World Cup?
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Yes,
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I started not to be lucky,
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but Kudu was in my head a crucial player,
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especially for the position
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But we have to look forward anyway.
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I think we have a lot of very good attackers and we have to help them,
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to put them in the best condition to show their qualities.
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Because Colomoni, I know, is not playing a great season, but he’s a good player.
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I know him like Matisse Tell.
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I wanted him in Marseille when I was in Marseille.
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Xavi Simons is a big talent,
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Richarlison Solanke you know maybe better than me and so we have to put them in the
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best condition we can.
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And how is Guglielmo Vacario doing after his hernia surgery?
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Can any other players come back for this game against Sunderland?
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No, Vicario is not ready for this game.
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I hope he can back earlier next week, but I don’t know yet.
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Betancourt is working with us, but not completely.
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But we are enough to fight, to play and to make points.
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Hi Roberto, welcome back to England.
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Good to see you.
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Good to see you as well.
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Very good to see you.
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You must be very confident about keeping Spurs up because we understood there is no
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break clause in your contract if they were to go down,
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is that correct?
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Listen, I...
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I believe to keep the Premier League first of all has to be clear for everyone
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because I want to work in Premier League and I think I deserve to work in Premier
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League but the main sense of my work is more than League and anyway
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if I sign my contract in April, I have to be ready to stay no matter what in the next season.
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So I want to stay focused on Sunderland and the other six games again.
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But my idea is very clear.
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There’s been talk
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for much of this season about some of the players maybe wanting to leave in the summer.
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Is that part of your job as well?
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Because you’ve said, I’m staying here.
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I want to convince them to stay as well.
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No, no, no.
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It’s not important for me now.
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Now we have to push all together,
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all players,
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all staff,
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all people inside of training ground,
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all fans inside of the stadium.
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to achieve our goal and then we will see.
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For sure I don’t want players if they don’t want to stay.
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My contract is for five years.
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For sure I want to say my opinion in transfer market session because I am a coach.
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But I want to see the player happy to work in this club.
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My final question.
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You mentioned your style quite a few times.
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It was good to watch at Brighton, I have to say.
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And Spurs fans like a certain style,
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going back to the 70s with Glenn Hoddle and Osiyar Diles and right through.
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Your style of Spurs, are they the ideal marriage, the ideal fit?
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Listen,
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my style is one part about the style of play and one part about the character,
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the personality.
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I have no time enough to work in the principle or in build-up so much or in the last 20 meters.
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I want to give organization with the ball and without the ball two, three principles
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without the ball,
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three principles,
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four more,
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something more in ball possession in offensive phase.
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And that’s it.
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What I want to do,
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what I want to achieve immediately is the character,
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is the right spirit,
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the right courage to play.
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to attack because the DNA of this club, of this squad, is to find the goal, to score.
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And in this part I can be able to transfer not in too much time my principles.
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Thank you.
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Roberto, you obviously know a lot of these players from the outside.
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Are there any in this last week of training that surprised you when you’ve seen
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them really up close and personal,
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maybe younger players like Archie Gray,
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Lukas Berg-Vell?
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In the last period I watched a lot of games, especially of Tottenham.
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Yes, one thing is to watch the game on
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at home and the different things is to work with them on the pitch.
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We have very big players,
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young players,
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Bergvall,
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Archie Gray,
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Matisse Stel,
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Xavi Simons,
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but anyway we have
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All their players were very important.
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Van der Wijn is a crucial player for me.
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Like Romero, like Porro, like Solanke.
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I want to see again the same Gallagher I loved in Chelsea time.
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And I think I’m lucky because
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I have a big confidence in my players, in their qualities.
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And for me,
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my target is to help them to play well,
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to enjoy with the ball,
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because their characteristics are very clear for me.
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You’ve only brought in two coaches with you that you’ve worked with in the past.
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I think you normally bring at least six, seven people that you know with you.
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Does that make it any more difficult to get your ideas across when you don’t have
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people you know around you?
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It’s totally different this situation because we have no time
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to work like in Brighton time, in Marseille or in another place I’ve been.
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And I don’t want to put confusion inside of the players.
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They have to be with a clear plan of the game and not too much instruction,
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not too much to think.
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They have to run.
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What is the ball?
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They have to play with courage, with personality, and they have to fight.
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For me, my demand is to show the right spirit I want to see.
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You signed a long contract.
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You’ve spent a certain amount of time at different clubs, maybe not long, long term.
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What makes you think that Tottenham is the one that maybe you settle down for longer?
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I don’t know,
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I stayed three years in Sassuolo and then I left from Ukraine when the war started.
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In Brighton I left for different problems and in Marcel maybe the same.
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I would like to stay for a long time.
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I don’t know how many years, but in Marseille like this.
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Because in Marseille my idea was to stay for a long time and then you have to speak
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with the club and when you have different views of the football or the other
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things,
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you have to leave money and you have to leave.
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and uh but in my plan for sure there is the the the the idea to stay for a long
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time to to try to to put tottenham i’m not speaking about the the the titles but
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because it is not a right moment now but to put tottenham to to stay in the first
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position in premier league because there
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all there are all all parts to to to reach that level okay we’ll end the end the
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