Antonio Conte was not in the best of moods as he undertook his media duties ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League match at Eintracht Frankfurt on Monday evening.
The 53-year-old's press conference inside the Deutsche Bank Park began an hour late, as it did in Lisbon last month, as once again Spurs' flight only touched down on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport just as the pre-match media event was originally meant to start.
Tottenham's proximity to Stansted Airport and having their own chartered plane means they have the flexibility that when Conte's training session ends they can adjust the loosely agreed time of their flight. So while Spurs were meant to take off at 3.30pm, by the time they got off the training pitches of Hotspur Way, that take-off time had shifted to 4.30pm.
READ MORE: Every word Conte said on why he's not playing Djed Spence, injury news and 'defensive' tactics
When Conte eventually walked through the doors of the press conference room within the bowels of the stadium, alongside Ivan Perisic, he did not show a flicker of emotion. Normally the affable Italian will greet the regular travelling UK media with a 'hello' and a smile as they place their phones, Dictaphones and recording devices in front of him, but not even a glance this time.
That's not entirely unusual in the wake of a big defeat. Conte often vents in some way in the days after a painful loss, but often by the time of the next pre-match press conference he's usually come out the other side of his frustration with a more clinical tone.
Not this time, he was almost robotic in appearance as Perisic took his turn first in answering the questions. Some of the questions were about Conte and his methods, which with previous managers in joint press conferences would have provoked a bit of laughter or amusing unease between them and the player involved.
Perisic is a straight-faced guy as it is. He's described behind the scenes at Spurs as 'intense', similar in style to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in being so tuned in and focused on his job at hand that it's an experience chatting with him. That's not say he's not a friendly character - the younger players have all benefited from his mentorship - but just that his winning mentality and drive to succeed is apparent in every little thing he says and does.
Conte turned Perisic into one of the world's best left wing-backs after years as a winger. With the experienced Croatian initially having struggled with the adaption, he seemed the perfect person to ask how he managed it eventually - following his Champions League-winning loan season at Bayern Munich - and what advice he had given to Tottenham's other new signings about adapting to the Italian's demands.
"It was tough in the beginning. I changed my position after many years and at the beginning it was a little bit tough, but it was O," he remembered. "I was working hard and now for two and a half years I have played in this position. I think it's not bad but every day we can do better and we have to improve every day."
He added: "I spoke with all the new players and they have to know that they came to a big club and they have to be patient and work every day, and they have wait for their chance. When the chance comes they have to accept it and play well. Only like this, they can help the team to win the games."
Conte, with Perisic at left wing-back, led Inter to their first Serie A title in 11 years in 2021 and the Croatian said that the process and rewards of trusting in the experienced head coach was there for all to see.
"Everyone knows that our coach won the trophies at all the clubs in the past and he likes to work, he likes to win. This is most important and this is the reason I came in England," he explained. "I also want to win and I also want to show that we can do a lot of good things at Tottenham. I think we are in a good way and just we have to continue every day hard and to listen to our coach."
It was positive stuff from Perisic and there was nothing really that should have irked Conte. Perisic was chosen for the press conference because of his time in Germany with Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg - winning the Bundesliga with the first two and the domestic cup with all three clubs.
However, unusually for a Champions League press conference abroad, there were no questions from the local media, in fact there were very few there. The seven travelling UK journalists pretty much doubled the numbers in the room, which were made up mostly of German television camera operators.
Perhaps the lack of an audience also played its part - press conferences abroad are normally packed affairs for Conte - and when it was his turn to face the questions he began in autopilot somewhat. There was an underlying frustration though with the injuries to Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Moura and not knowing their return dates, a common theme for the Italian during his tenure so far as Spurs boss.
He did admit that despite their past of big European away nights, Spurs clearly now have had a problem in recent seasons under him as well as before him in dealing with noisy away stadiums both in England and abroad.
"For sure, this is the story. Also last season in Europe, we lost many games away. We lost to Pacos de Ferreira, we lost against Vitesse and we lost against Mura with me. We drew only with Rennes," he said. "This season the same story, we lost against Sporting and now Arsenal away, and then we drew with West Ham and Chelsea.
"We have to do much better when we play away. We have to improve. It's part of the process, it means the team has to improve in personality, in the game when you go to play away - to be strong. I repeat: it's part of the process. We need to have patience. At the same time, we need to try to change the situation."
There was a swerving at first - perhaps purely unintentional - of a question within another question about young unused Spanish winger Bryan Gil and whether he could see any game time.
The question was asked again to ensure the answer came, which it did as the head coach said: "Still in the squad, Bryan Gil. Tomorrow he is the first option for our attack. Kulusevski is out. Moura is out. Moura will be out for a long time. It was the same for Kulusevski. We are talking about a young player a good prospect. We wanted to send him on loan to Valencia but the situation has changed. I trust in him, he is working very well. If we need the possibility to give him time, I trust him. He could play."
Harry Winks will remember those words "I trust him" with a shudder, said not too long before he was told that he was not in Conte's plans for this season.
Speaking about another young unused player in Gil was as good a cue as one could need for football.london to ask Conte about Djed Spence. The 22-year-old has become a big conversation topic among disgruntled Spurs fans as he has played just a couple of competitive minutes for the club since his protracted move from Middlesbrough this summer for an initial £12.5m and another £7.5m in potential add-ons.
The right wing-back had an electrifying season on loan at Nottingham Forest last time around, helping sweep them into the Premier League with his thrilling forays down the right and impressive defending. Yet Conte infamously labelled the England U21 international as a "club signing" to football.london in Korea during the summer and in the weeks after said he was inexperienced and needed lots of time to develop before being ready.
However, in the wake of Emerson Royal's upcoming three-game suspension in the Premier League for that red card at Arsenal and the Brazilian full-back's clear struggles with becoming an attacking wing-back - a crucial role in making Conte's system work - as well as Matt Doherty's own problems in returning to form and full fitness, it seemed the perfect time for football.london to undertake its role in giving the fans their voice and asking whether the current situation opened the door for some minutes for Spence as the supporters hoped.
Conte was not prepared for the question and his answer was laced with irritation. He kept stroking and pulling at his throat as he spoke, this reporter just waiting for him to draw his finger across it and point at him.
"The fans have to be fans. The fans is the fans, I understand they can think everything but I see every day what happens during the training session," said the Spurs head coach. "I try to do the best for the team. If they trust me, then they trust me, but the choices are mine. If I didn't decide to pick one player it's maybe because he's not ready. We are talking about a young player with a good prospect, but I repeat I try to pick the best team."
It's always a valid point that the fans and media do not see what goes on behind closed doors and Conte certainly knows his wing-backs, but the supporters will grow more and more agitated the longer it takes for the summer signing to at least get a chance to show what he can do in Conte's system while Emerson struggles with the attacking demands of it.
Spare a thought though for Doherty. In trying to show he was not solely picking on Spence, Conte dragged the Republic of Ireland international into the discussion but in doing so ran a couple of sentences together that really did not help the Irishman.
"Also Doherty last season played every game," he said. "Now I’m not seeing him in the right way to start the game. I'm not stupid, I don't want to lose. I try to put the best team, to pick the best team. If they trust me it's ok, if they don't trust me then I'm the coach and I need to take the best decision for Tottenham."
In essence it sounded like Conte was saying that picking Doherty would be stupid because he does not want to lose, although to give him the benefit of the doubt you can only assume he was running two separate thoughts together without thinking how they sounded alongside each other.
That was the penultimate question of the press conference and the final poser put to the Tottenham boss provided another vessel for the bristling Conte to get more and more annoyed as he answered it. He was asked about the discussion in the media since Sunday about the contrasting styles of Spurs and Arsenal and whether it frustrated him when people label his Tottenham a defensive team.
"No, I think that for the characteristics of the players we have to defend situations, and if we were able to exploit the situation, especially last passes, we would have been able to score many goals against Arsenal," he explained. "Instead, we made really bad mistakes for the last passes because we had the opportunity to go one-to-one but every team has to think and understand the way to play different games.
"Then I repeat last season we won 3-0 and in the same way then when you lose you have to explain and when you win the opponent has to explain, but for me it's important to try to have a plan, to put my players in the best possible situation to exploit their characteristics.
"Otherwise, it can happen that you can concede six, seven or eight goals, in England that happens a lot of times. In my career never, never happened and I don't like to play open and concede a lot of space and conceded six, seven or eight goals. In England happened a lot of times. I won in England and then I won in my past and I think I can teach football to many people."
It was not lost that the first number he plucked out of the air was six - the amount of goals Manchester United had conceded to their rivals Manchester City to plenty of criticism the previous day.
This was Conte's 'you can all go and do one' final answer. Saying that he has never conceded so many goals and delivering the classic 'I've won titles galore as a manager yet people are criticising me? Who are you?' response.
Those final words "I won in England and then I won in my past and I think I can teach football to many people" were delivered as a matter of fact phrase, without a hint of a smile. One never formed on his lips during the entire time he was in the room.
And then it was all over. Normally when he leaves these press conferences, the Italian will put a hand up and say goodbye to those in the room with the regular as clockwork phrase "thank you very much".
Not this time, just a determination to get out of the room and what seemed like a quick glare in the direction of football.london before he stood up to do so. The price of annoying Antonio Conte.
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