Antonio Conte's final words to the media in Tel Aviv on Friday were the ones that left the biggest mark.
There was a change in the way the Italian spoke about Tottenham last season - towards the end of the campaign - when 'they' and 'the club' began to turn to 'we' and 'us'. Within the confines of the air-conditioned beachside team hotel, away from the sweltering Israeli sun outside, Conte turned the heat up on Spurs' rivals a notch further.
"We have to continue with the club to build with the players, to continue to improve them. They have a lot of space for improvement. This is a young team and we can work for many years together to improve and fight with the best teams in England and in Europe," said Conte.
It might just have been the biggest use of 'we' for Conte so far, particularly when used in unison with 'many years together'. There were times last season when the frustrated former Inter and Chelsea boss seemed on the verge of chucking it all in, now here he was pledging his foreseeable future to the club.
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on staying at Spurs for 'many years', Ndombele, Rodon and Mourinho
Conte, who turns 53 on Sunday, has got what he wants this summer, with six players through the door before the third pre-season friendly had even been played and those players he does not want told that they can head off.
"We spoke with the club and the players are informed about the plans for the next season." he told football.london of Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Harry Winks and Sergio Reguilon. "We are talking about really good players and the club and I, we think they deserve to play games regularly. For this reason these players are not here."
There has been a relaxed feel about Spurs' summer so far, one very different from the farcical scenes of the previous year. The lack of drama has resulted in a lack of UK media attention and journalists following the club on their travels this month.
In South Korea, four English journalists made the trip for the pre-season tour, in Glasgow only football.london was present for the Rangers match and in Tel Aviv just two of the English media have travelled over for the game against Jose Mourinho's Roma and the build-up.
Less media often means more relaxed interviews with the subject more at ease and often better access to seeing what's going on behind the scenes.
Even in the press conference in the team hotel, with the only questions for Dejan Kulusevski coming from the two English reporters who were sat nearest to him, he seemed to open up nicely.
football.london asked the 22-year-old what he feels his best position is on the pitch and many players, while sat alongside their manager, might have simply stated the old cliché "I'll play anywhere I'm needed". Not Deki, as he's known by Conte and his team-mates.
"It’s a very good question, I’ve been thinking about this all my whole life," said the Swede. "I always thought of me being a number 10, I still think I am, but my best results as a football player have always come being a right winger, so I don’t know!
"In the future, we will see where I’ll be. Yeah I can probably play wing-back too. It’s football, you want to help a good team, you want to play, enjoy, work hard and have fun."
Kulusevski declared when he joined Spurs that "I like to suffer" so it seemed natural to ask him whether he loved Tottenham's fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone's gruelling training sessions if that was the case.
Without a shred of sarcasm, he told football.london: "It’s amazing, it's really amazing to have pain everywhere. I think it’s a fantastic thing to have you know? I love to work hard because everything in life comes from working hard.
"It’s a little bit difficult, of course, nothing is easy, but this is what you have to do to become a champion."
From anyone else that first sentence might have sounded like a joke, but the 22-year-old said it with utter conviction and that's why Conte loves him and wanted to sign him back when he was Inter boss.
Ventrone, who could be spotted walking around the hotel with his shock of white hair, is loved by the players despite what he puts them through. The affable fitness coach is one of the most popular members of the club, which runs contrary to the scenes seen during the training sessions.
"Maybe for you it is intensive training, for me it's normal training," said Conte of those sessions. "I used to have these type of training sessions in the past when I was a player and when I was a coach.
"Maybe it was strange for you or for the people that think that the players go out to the pitch to have fun. The fun is a consequence of when you work very well and during the pre-season it's important for us to reach a peak of fitness and to start the season in the best possible way and also to avoid injury.
"To avoid injury, particularly muscular injury, you have to train your muscles with intensity during the training sessions, but I repeat for me it is very normal and it's the same in other countries."
Even training has been slightly more relaxed in Tel Aviv though, with the double sessions each day reduced to just one. The squad trained on Thursday morning before flying from Stansted Airport, where the Brazilian players bumped into Ronaldinho in the private airplane hangars, much to many of the club staff's surprise.
Then on Friday the players trained in the still considerable evening heat of Israel and on Saturday they were due to have a light session, going over Conte's tactics for the match against Roma and set pieces with new coach Gianni Vio, who linked up with the side in Korea.
The former Italy set piece coach has designed 4,830 different routines which he tailors to specific players when he enters a club. In the morning at the hotel he could be seen taking part in a virtual presentation from some Israeli guests.
Then, very much in keeping with the relaxed atmosphere, he took a short power nap in the hotel lounge ahead of the evening training session, no doubt dreaming about some of those thousands of set piece routines and which Tottenham players would be on the end of them.
The relaxed air was also present among the club's hierarchy. Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, managing director of football Fabio Paratici and new performance director Gretar Steinsson could be seen having a meeting in the same lounge, both Levy and Paratici stopping for the odd selfie with hotel guests while Steinsson escaped with his anonymity at this point.
There's a contented air at Tottenham, albeit with the realisation that the job is not done. The immediate focus after all of the incomings is outgoings and Joe Rodon is on the verge of a loan move to Rennes, with his medical expected this weekend, in a deal that will include an option to buy.
Rodon had interest from the Premier League and Serie A, so a move to Ligue 1 and Rennes might seem an unusual destination for the Welshman.
However, along with Ajax, the French club are one of the most scouted sides in the European game because of their recruitment and development success. In recent seasons alone, Ousmane Dembele, Eduardo Camavinga, Mathys Tel, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Raphinha, Nayef Aguerd, Edouard Mendy and Ismaila Sarr have all been snapped up for bigger moves and Rodon will be looking to get regular game time ahead of the World Cup while turning plenty of heads.
After Rodon, Spurs will continue their attempts to get Ndombele, Lo Celso, Winks and Reguilon to new clubs, with some looking more difficult than others to find new homes for. Japhet Tanganga also has interest from Italy, with AC Milan among those looking at the young centre-back.
With the large number of senior players now in a far bigger squad so the youngsters are being allowed to leave for more game time with Dane Scarlett joining Troy Parrott in departing on loan for the Football League, with more to follow.
As the outgoing picture becomes clearer, so Paratici and Conte can then decide exactly what new arrivals are still required before the transfer window closes on September 1. Conte wants two players in every position and another centre-back is likely as Rodon's departure leaves Eric Dier without a competitor in the centre of the back three if Clement Lenglet is seen as competing with Ben Davies on the left, particularly if Tanganga also departs.
Opportunities for attacking midfielders and strikers will continue to be monitored but the main thing is that Conte is relaxed and happy. He was even translating his own answers to a couple of questions from the Italian media for the UK journalists with a big grin during the press conference and he came over afterwards to shake the hands of those who had travelled over from England.
Conte is happy because he is pulling the strings at a club with plenty of potential but also a growing sense of the present. It's no wonder he's talking about being at Tottenham for many years to come.
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