Antonio Conte mourns another friend with the death of Gianluca Vialli

Antonio Conte wears a black armband and joins in a minute’s applause for Gian Piero Ventrone, his fitness coach who died in October. Photograph: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Getty Images

For the third time in three months, Antonio Conte felt a numbness, an emptiness and there were plenty of other emotions swirling, too. First Gian Piero Ventrone in early October, then Sinisa Mihajlovic in the middle of December, now Gianluca Vialli – three men that Conte has called colleagues but moreover holds dear as friends; each one taken far too soon.

The Tottenham manager heard the news about Vialli as he travelled into work on Friday morning, how his former Juventus teammate had died at 58 after living with pancreatic cancer. Conte’s thoughts about the FA Cup tie at home to Portsmouth on Saturday and the club’s broader situation were suddenly overtaken and he knew one thing.