“It’s crazy,” says Dejan Kulusevski, talking about Matt Doherty’s sudden departure from Tottenham to Atlético Madrid last Tuesday.
But Kulusevski could equally be referring to what happened 24 hours later when his manager, Antonio Conte, was booked in for an emergency gallbladder removal, the players told before training, the preparations for Sunday’s visit of Manchester City turned upside down.
Or to the events at Juventus two weeks ago – the club Kulusevski swapped for Spurs in January last year; the Serie A giants brought to their knees with a 15-point deduction from the Italian Football Federation for false accounting.
Life moves quickly and dramatically in Kulusevski’s professional space, a ripple here leading to an explosion there, which is precisely what the 22-year-old wants to harness against City.
Kulusevski knows what Spurs have missed this season – a statement win in the Premier League against a rival from the so-called big six. Or even the big seven if Eddie Howe’s fast-rising Newcastle are factored in. So far in these games, Tottenham’s record is: P7 D1 L6.
Kulusevski also knows what such a result can bring. Around this time last season, on his first start for the club, he was one of the stars in a 3-2 victory at City, scoring one and setting up another. Spurs had located an ignition point. They would win 10 of their remaining 15 league matches to qualify for the Champions League.
“In all the big games this season, we haven’t been good enough,” Kulusevski says. “We were close a couple of weeks ago at City [leading 2-0 at half-time before losing 4-2]. These are the best games but we have to start winning them because it shows in the table. And if you do, you also get a lot of momentum, which is what we need. These are the most important months of the season. So if there’s a time to go on a push, it’s now.”
Kulusevski is close to Doherty and admits he was “shocked when I saw on TV” he had gone to Atlético. “I messaged him straight away and we spoke,” Kulusevski says. “It’s sad that he’s not here with us and with me but I’m still happy for him. It’s a fantastic club that he went to.”
The previous Saturday, Kulusevski had started the FA Cup win at Preston on the right with Doherty in the wing-back role behind him. Now, he must develop a relationship with the new signing, Pedro Porro, who has joined from Sporting after impressing for the Portuguese club against Spurs in the Champions League group stage.
“Pedro had two fantastic games against us, he’s one of the players that really excited all of us,” Kulusevski says. “There’s a lot of energy in the room with him because you know that a quality player has come in. We just have to get this momentum going now.”
Kulusevski has barely missed a beat at Spurs, his performance in the win at City the spark. “When you come into a room, you want to change the energy, you want to bring something to the table,” he says. A part of the motivation lay in how badly it had finished for him at Juventus. After Max Allegri replaced Andrea Pirlo as the club’s manager in the summer of 2021, Kulusevski found that his playing time decreased.
“I had a lot of revenge in my head,” he says. “A lot of anger. In the last months at Juventus, I didn’t play so much. I didn’t like where my football was going. All I wanted was to show people what I could do so I came here.”
Conte has been hugely influential, having first tried to sign Kulusevski in 2019-20 when he was manager at Internazionale and the Sweden winger was on loan at Parma from Atalanta. The player preferred Juventus. “I didn’t speak with him but I know that he wanted me at Inter,” Kulusevski says. “I had a decision to make and I just went with my gut feeling.”
It was Conte who gave Kulusevski the nickname of “Deki”, which is what he would call Dejan Stankovic, his one-time playing rival in Italy. Stankovic was also an Inter academy coach when Conte was there. “I spoke to the manager after his surgery,” Kulusevski says. “He said he was OK.
“We have a lot of responsibilities to play for him. He’s had a really tough year [having also suffered bereavements]. He doesn’t show it, he doesn’t complain. But it affects you. You can say it doesn’t but it does – 100%. I think people should be aware of that.”
It has been quite a year for Kulusevski, too – so much packed in – although he does not hesitate to name the highlight. It was City away last season, of course. “Then it was the 3-0 home win over Arsenal and I also liked the Norwich game, when I scored two and we qualified for the Champions League.” he adds.
It probably says a lot that all three were from the previous campaign. Kulusevski and Spurs need something now.
